As a researcher, there are situations when some discussions with interviewees or colleagues start to tickle our brains and cry out for getting analysed and reanalysed. Continue reading “Female Paths to Adulthood in a Country of ‘Genderless Gender’”
Marriage at the heart of sex education for Free Schools and Academies?
Sex & Relationship education (SRE) in the UK remains a highly politicized arena. In the wake of the recent PSHE review, media sources are now reporting that new funding agreements for new free schools and academies places ‘marriage’ centre stage. As the Telegraph notes: Continue reading “Marriage at the heart of sex education for Free Schools and Academies?”
Gender representation and social justice: Ideology, methodology and smoke-screens
This article in Gender and Education 27.3 was born out of a commitment to contribute to the United Nations Millennium Goals related to gender equality. The commitment was not only mine as author, but also that of the organisations which sponsored and supported the research. The South African President of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance in Johannesburg, the international network, Women Leading Education, and the University of Southampton all offered support. The number and range of organisations that helped evidences a fund of willingness to try to improve gender equality. I led the team from South Africa and the UK which undertook research in South Africa into how women became headteachers and how they lead their schools when appointed. The aim was to pilot a method of comparative research into women headteachers’ experience that could be used in other locations across the world. Continue reading “Gender representation and social justice: Ideology, methodology and smoke-screens”
Gender in Education: Launch of New Resources for Use in Schools
A number of new initiatives have recently been launched by the government’s equality group. These campaigns have also resulted in the development of a number of new resources that can be used in schools to generate discussion surrounding issues of gender and education. The two campaigns that have been publicised most widely in the Equality Group’s newsletter relate to teenage relationship abuse and body image. Continue reading “Gender in Education: Launch of New Resources for Use in Schools”
Similarities and differences in collegiality / managerialism in Irish and Australian universities
This article developed from collaboration between the authors in late 2008 when Kate was a visiting researcher at the University of Limerick, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. At the same time the authors were collaborating in an eight-country study of the Women in Higher Education Management (WHEM) Network that was published in the UK and US in 2011 as Gender, Power and Management: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Higher Education (eds. Barbara Bagilhole and Kate White). Building on those collaborations, we have continued to analyse the Irish and Australian data and presented papers at conferences in Gothenburg (2010) and at Amsterdam, Ottawa and Melbourne (2011). The Irish/Australian comparison is particularly apposite in view of the use of Australian higher educational policy and practice as an exemplar by the Irish government. Continue reading “Similarities and differences in collegiality / managerialism in Irish and Australian universities”
Girls, Graduate Jobs and the Gender Chasm
Reports from across the world last week were claiming that we are no longer facing a gender gap but rather a gender chasm. Drawing on a new ‘gender gap’report these articles claim that even though a number of countries see more young women going to university than young men, it is men who tend to end up faring better in employment (rising to higher levels of seniority and earning more than their female counterparts). Continue reading “Girls, Graduate Jobs and the Gender Chasm”
Don’t Turn Back Time On Women’s Equality: Fawcett Society Day of Action, Saturday 19th November 2011
‘Women’s rights tend to be at best on the margins, and actually we are over 50% of the population. It’s not just gender blind. I’d say it’s actually gender regressive’ (Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society)
Decision on taking account of maternity leave in the REF
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) has announced that following the consultation on draft panel criteria for the REF, the four UK funding bodies have taken an early decision on the arrangements for taking account of maternity leave in the REF.
An overwhelming majority of respondents to the consultation supported the proposal that researchers may reduce the number of outputs in a submission by one, for each period of maternity leave taken during the REF period. In light of the response, the funding bodies have decided that this approach will be implemented across all panels.
Further details of these arrangements, including arrangements for paternity and adoption leave, will be published as part of the final REF panel criteria and working methods, in January 2012.
Feminism: Much More Than Women’s Rights
Growing up as a young woman in today’s society, I have always been aware of the issues that women, teenage girls, and even young girls face. When I learned about the feminism course offered by Ileana Jiménez, who teaches in the English department at my high school, I realized that I would have the chance to discuss topics to which I could relate. But little did I know how much of an impact the class would have on me. Continue reading “Feminism: Much More Than Women’s Rights”
Slippage and/or symbolism: gender, policy and educational governance in Scotland and Sweden
The co-authors of this article have been working together in Sweden (Elisabet Öhrn & Gaby Weiner) and in Scotland (Gaby Weiner & Joan Forbes) for a number of years. The idea for this policy study piece grew from involvement in a project on social and other capitals in independent schooling in Scotland. Gender was found to be significant in/through which capitals resources worked. One school exhibited a ‘traditional’ gender regime, exemplified in its privileging of boys’ sport, boys’ overall confidence and apparent lack of gender awareness among staff; another had an explicit discourse of girls’ high academic achievement and aspiration; a third school encouraged newer, more urbane and ‘sensitive’ forms of middle class masculinities alongside traditional forms of masculinity. We were interested in knowing more about the Scottish gender policy context for that study and how it compared to that of Sweden – another relatively small country on the periphery of Europe. Continue reading “Slippage and/or symbolism: gender, policy and educational governance in Scotland and Sweden”