The interim conference, ‘Gender and Democracy: Gender and Research in Times of Change’, was hosted by the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Education and Special Education. Continue reading “GEA Interim Conference, 11th – 13th April 2012”
Gaby Weiner and Carolyn Jackson leave the Executive
Gaby Weiner, Chair of the Association since 2009, formally stepped down from her position on Thursday evening along with former Chair and Executive Member Carolyn Jackson. Both were presented with gifts and lifetime memberships by Gaby’s successor, Gabrielle Ivinson at a reception hosted by the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at this year’s interim conference.
We wish Carolyn, Gaby and Alexandra Allan (who has also left the Executive) the best of luck.
Book Review: Cordelia Fine’s ‘Delusions of Gender’
This extremely well researched book, ‘Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences’ dispels many long held and newly emerging myths about sex group difference. The book is divided into three parts: ‘Half changed world, half-changed minds’, ‘Neurosexism’ and ‘Recycling gender’. If you know the field of sex group difference well, you will be most interested in part II where Fine provides an excellent up-to-date review of the field of neuroscience which is extremely helpful in counteracting claims such as, boys and girls need separate pedagogies because they are hard-wired differently. The research reviewed in parts I and III, although also up-to-date, spans a broad range of literatures which feminist scholars will be fairly familiar with. Continue reading “Book Review: Cordelia Fine’s ‘Delusions of Gender’”
Is feminism in the UK experiencing a double dip? Call for Action
‘Clinton is proving that feminist foreign policy is possible – and works’ so headlines an article in the Guardian in which Madeleine Bunting argues that Hilary Clinton is building her political foreign policy on a solid 1970s feminist mantra that ‘Transformation in the role of women is that last great impediment to universal progress.’ Clinton has proclaimed that ‘the rights of women and girls are now core to US foreign policy’ and Bunting draws attention to the 450 mentions of this ‘signature issue’ in the first five months of Clinton’s office. Clinton argues that ‘the empowerment, protect and protection of women and girls is vital to the long-term security of the US’. In a telling remark Bunting asks, imagine any politician saying something similar in the UK now. It is, indeed, unimaginable! Continue reading “Is feminism in the UK experiencing a double dip? Call for Action”