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This paper explores the association between the gender rules operating within schools, harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) between pupils and the ways safety is created in these spaces. The ability and responsibility of school institutions to inform gender rules within schools is of particular focus. The paper draws on data from a mixed-methods study exploring HSB in seven secondary schools in England. Findings indicate that gendered rules not only play a role in explaining HSB in schools, they also inform discourses of safety and influence pupils' attempts to subvert gendered harm. Drawing on research on local space, it is suggested that school institutions can work to maintain or challenge the gendered rules between pupils, and subsequently, limit or provide effective options to create pupil safety. The paper argues that schools have a responsibility to construct safe spaces for pupils by challenging harmful gender norms and behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the learning experiences of lower attaining boys attending Stone Acre, a non-selective state Secondary school in England, and how these were shaped by teachers' gendered beliefs and practices. It argues that despite changes in our theoretical understandings of gender, those found in the context of everyday practice in schools may continue to be rooted in biological understandings of masculinity that tend to reinforce rather than challenge assumptions of deficit. It argues that these interactions form part of a gender regime that also includes the lower-status learning spaces disproportionately occupied by lower attaining boys, with selective grouping practices and the curriculum both contributing to the limiting understandings of boys' educational potential that are ultimately reflected in persistently gendered patterns of attainment. The small number of boys who took part in this study clearly recognised the less favourable positioning of boys as a group. Despite this, they went on to achieve beyond expectations, suggesting that they maintained some agency as learners. Teachers at Stone Acre were also under pressure to ensure achievement against performance threshold levels, suggesting that there may have been some mitigating, trickle down effects. The paper concludes that there is a continuing need for teachers to develop more inclusive understandings of masculinities and of the effects of these on everyday practices in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One proposed strategy to overcome labour shortages in male-dominated jobs is to attract female workers. This has been the case for lorry driving in the UK. These efforts, however, often work to reproduce binary gendered stereotypes, or seek to include women without questioning how working conditions and everyday embodied work itself constructs gender roles and difference and is differentially experienced. In this paper, we highlight differentiated lorry driving bodies at work, centring lorries as an essential part of global logistical systems. Empirically drawing from interviews and mobile ethnographies with freight drivers in England, we tell a series of composite stories which uncover gendered ideals of worker-bodies, and embodied experiences of mobilities. With the gendered, embodied life's work of lorry driving remaining largely invisible and poorly understood, we illustrate the complex intersections between places, people, materialities and forms of work. Through this paper, we show how (gendered) narratives and bodily difference are both reproduced and disrupted through lorry driving work. We argue that only through recognising – and destabilising - the gendered re/production of mobile work will other logistical futures be made possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores and theorises education-based workshops delivered in secondary schools in support of a relationships and sex education curriculum that aims to bring forth more positive understandings and experiences of gender and sexuality. We cast this work as a form of sexual health activism, with our paper deepening understanding of how the motivations of those engaged in this form of activism interface with the decision to invest time in this work. Based on interviews with 40 workshop facilitators in England and Wales we argue that this form of sexual health activism is motivated by facilitators' life experiences as well as the desire to make the world a better place. As such, this form of work can function as a means of 'caring for' both past selves and future generations, thus functioning simultaneously as a form of self-care and a form of 'societal care work'. Ultimately, these activities may be understood as a form of 'extra-clinical' healthcare practice, with leading gender and sexual health workshops serving as an important means of solidifying health students' identities as both healthcare providers and activists for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under-representation of women in policing is a global phenomenon, with considerable commonality in barriers to career success and differential career experiences compared to men. Through a comparative analysis utilising unique survey and interview data with female and male senior police leaders in England and Wales, this paper considers whether cultural and structural barriers persist and how they are experienced by gender; examines the challenges encountered en route to senior rank; and considers how similarities or differences by gender impact upon careers. The findings are considered to have world-wide relevance, demonstrating that those officers achieving seniority tend to share similar career experiences whatever their gender, particularly at the highest ranks. Leadership styles emerge as homogenous with agentic traits and traditional styles persisting. Costs to achieving higher rank appear to differ by gender however, and access to senior rank is revealed as dependent upon engaging in traditional behaviours including a long-hours culture and ensuring family does not reduce work capacity, effectively promoting a 'child-tax' upon female policing leaders. It thus appears that a widespread and global tacit acceptance of policing as a male-dominated profession endures, impacting on female advancement compared to men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kilns used for drying grain and for malting are common features of archaeological excavations in medieval towns and in the countryside. They occur in a variety of situations, including within urban tenement plots, open spaces within the urban landscape, manorial enclosures and field systems. This paper examines what the situation of drying kilns can reveal about the ways in which household and community labour were organised and the role of infrastructure in cultivating and maintaining variegated forms of rural and urban sociality. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to ongoing debates about the legacy of 'binary' logics relating to urban and rural life and to the gendered use of space and forms of labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most OECD countries, more women than men enrol in undergraduate degrees. I analyse this gap in enrolment using the elicited subjective beliefs of a sample of 240 17–18-year-olds living in England. I use these beliefs to estimate a discrete choice model. The results from this model can explain the majority of the gender gap in enrolment. Gender differences in preferences over future outcomes rather than differences in subjective beliefs account for most of the gap. An important difference between men and women is women value feeling independent whereas men do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female correctional staff face multiple challenges when working in a male prison environment. Perceptions of competence and gendered divisions of labor are prevalent in the negotiated order of a prison. Sexuality is a dynamic that is irrelevant to the demands of a correctional officer yet a significant identity to be managed and negotiated in interactions with both colleagues and prisoners. This study adopts an auto ethnographic approach to highlight discrimination in prison officer occupational culture. Drawing upon personal narratives whilst working in an adult male prison in England, lived experiences of homophobia and sexism are presented to identify the challenges faced as a gay female prison officer. Themes of sexual objectification, homophobia and workplace incivility identify failings within the English prison service in supporting workplace diversity and inclusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the hidden gendered curriculum concealed in the texts, exhibitions and other structural devices of museums and what they teach visitors to see and think. Grounded in conceptualisations of culture, representation, and language, past feminist studies of museums and applying feminist visual discourse analysis (FVDA) we found hiding in plain sight in public museums in Canada and England a diversity of 'languages' that subversively aggrandised masculine power and privilege and (re)inscribed negative or limited understandings to women which we argue as feminist adult educators have epistemic, identity and agency consequences. We also argue that whilst museums are trying to address often centuries old exclusionary gendered practices progress is slow because these practices are so embedded and unconscious and reflect pervasive social notions of 'common sense'. Our study makes an important contribution to feminist museum studies by rendering visible a web of complex structural and textual gendered biases and to adult education. By adding museums to our curricula we can provide our students with a visual and immersive way to hone the critical visual literacy skills needed to understand more fully how both seen and unseen languages operate not just in the museum, but across society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research into children's perceptions of science shows that children like science but often hold stereotypical views of scientists and commonly do not see themselves with a career as a scientist. The aim of this study is to examine if a carefully designed medium-term, teacher-led STEM intervention, 'Scientist of the Week' which showcased a diverse range of working scientists and the skills they need, can lead to a positive change in the perception of scientists among young people. Using a case-control approach, this research used a tracked sample of 118 young people from aged 7 to 11 in a primary school in the North East of England. Words associated with scientists were collected before and after (directly, one month, one year) the intervention from the tracked sample and analysed to assess changes in stereotypical perceptions and any difference in responses between male and female participants. Before the intervention, young children held many of the common stereotypes associated with scientists. Shortly afterwards, and one year following the intervention, the use of common stereotypes had fallen significantly across all children, with particular improvements in counter-stereotypical word usage for males. It also found that stereotypical images of scientists as highly intelligent were more difficult to counteract and that many of the positive changes in this view seen in the short term (weeks and months) diminished in the long term (one year later). This research has shown that with minimal expense and effort from teachers, negative stereotypes of scientists can be reduced through an intervention that does not require bringing scientists into the classroom. Some of the observed changes persisted in the longer-term, suggesting a lasting alteration in children's perceptions of scientists following the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 has revealed surprising and unexpected findings, particularly surrounding the accessibility of the Divorce Courts, and the relatively slow uptake of English and Welsh couples who sought to legally dissolve their unions. The aftermath of this process – when the dust of the court room had settled and the litigation was (one way or another) complete – has received significantly less attention, with our knowledge of post-divorce life limited predominately to brief discussion of remarriage statistics. This article uses divorce petitions, census returns, probate records, newspaper reports, and parish records, to reconstruct five case studies to explore what happened to couples after their divorce petitions had been heard and a judgment made. Although in some cases divorce could represent a distinct end point in a relationship and the start of a new stage of the lifecycle, for others an appearance before the Divorce Court was a further step in a longer series of litigation, as well as an event that continued to exert influence on their socio-economic opportunities and prospects. These case studies reveal important new information about how individual understanding of the law influenced the decision-making processes of the men and women whose marriages had ended and indicate the wealth of research waiting to be carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we considered women's experiences of undertaking Higher Education (HE) study (Foundation Degree in Early Years (EY)) drawing on research based in the North of England, UK. The study, informed by a social constructionist approach, explored 10 women's experiences of work–life balance (WLB) and well-being alongside HE study through semi-structured interviews. A focus group explored women's personal perceptions of WLB and well-being. The findings were analysed thematically and we argue that the formation of a third sphere of commitment (HE study) disrupted WLB and created some disequilibrium, which impacted upon the women's well-being. The women underwent a transformative process as initial academic inexperience and lack of belonging in University was replaced by confidence and student identity. This transformation was made possible through personal adaptations, diverse strategies and motivation that indicated individual and collective resilience. One noticeable strategy involved the overlapping of commitment spheres, including HE study taking place at home. While being challenging to manage, this contributed to an important cultural shift as study became normal for households, creating the 'learning family'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how lifestyle factors and gender affect kidney allocation to transplant patients by 99 British and Singaporean participants. Thirty hypothetical patients were generated from a combination of six factors (alcohol intake, smoking frequency, weight, exercise frequency, diet, and gender) and randomly paired four times. Participants saw 60 patient pairings and, in each pair, chose which patient would receive treatment priority. A Bradley-Terry model was used to derive coefficients for each factor per participant. A mean factor score (MFS) was then calculated across all participants for each factor. Participants gave lower priority to patients who drank more, were overweight, smoked more and exercised less. A patient's diet and gender had no significant effect on allocation. There were no significant cross-cultural differences. There were moderate correlations between participants' self-reported pre- and post-experiment ordering of decision criteria, and these measures and factor coefficients, suggesting a modest level of decision-making consistency. Between participants, moderate levels of concordance with respect to factor importance were observed for self-reported orderings of factors, and weaker agreement for model-derived coefficients. Very similar results were obtained for both British and Singaporean participants, and the implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]