Search

Employment in the transport sector has historically proven to be male-dominated, even in countries like Tunisia which have evidenced public policy narratives and legal employment frameworks promoting gender equality. This paper presented the findings from a grounded research study examining women's employment experiences in blue-collar roles in the transport sector of Greater Tunis. Drawing on extensive interviews with both female and male transport employees, as well as field observations, it demonstrates that familiar sectoral narratives of transport work as 'too rough, too hard and too dirty for women' can be understood through the broader political economy of the country and the transport sector within it. The research evidences the sustained and mutually-constitutive relationship between patriarchal cultural norms and capital's development through successive periods of populist welfarism and neo-liberal governance, indicating that progressive advances in women's employment rights are not socio-economically embedded and suggesting that future research would be usefully informed by feminist social reproduction theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platform labour, especially when it comes to its flexible schedules, may represent a job insertion possibility and a source of income for many women. However, such opportunities are not exempted from gender bias. This article inspects how the expansion of the platform economy affects gender inequalities by focusing on two platform occupations: ride-hailing and delivery services. First, it investigates gender gaps in terms of working hours and earnings via linear regression as well as their determinants. Second, qualitative data further deepen the analysis of female riders' and drivers' experience in male-dominated territories, exploring how it is perceived and endured by workers. This paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires between 2019 and 2021. The analysis suggests that the gender-differentiated economic performance of riders and drivers is associated with demographic and on-the-job characteristics, implying restrictions for women workers in terms of how long, where, and when they can work. Algorithmic management further reinforces these initial female disadvantages, through tools such as scoring systems, dynamic pricing, and selective work allocation. The article concludes by providing some insights into a gender-transformative approach to the future regulation of these activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how European gender equality law communicates in the contemporary democratic public sphere. It will analyse several gender discrimination cases of the European Court of Human Rights as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union and how judgements of these courts communicated and defined the concept of gender equality, and redefined and broadened this concept from early cases such as Abdulaziz, Cabales and Balkandali v The United Kingdom to more recent cases such as Land Brandenburg v Ursula Sass and Leyla Sahin v Turkey. Trying to answer how the law communicates, this paper will show that the law is not a static and immutable system, independent of historical, political, social and cultural contexts. On the contrary, the legal system represents a dynamic structure, which is continuously revised, and which is socially, historically and politically constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing international interest in addressing the relationship between gender inequalities and food insecurity – as well as the valuable feminist contributions of family studies – development and humanitarian actors still use gender-insensitive household food security measurements in developing countries. Such measurements rest on unrealistic assumptions about gender relations within the household; thus, their use in development projects risks masking gender disparities and rendering invisible serious intra-household food access inequalities. To demonstrate the problems resulting from these presumed gender-neutral measurements, this paper examines a set of metrics that influence food security policy and reveals gender biases in their methodological design and use. The paper concludes by offering simple methodological guidelines for mainstreaming gender analysis in household food security measurement processes and calls for a deeper analysis based on a feminist application of the capabilities approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the special issue on gender in impact assessment and management. We discuss the absence of gender-responsive approaches in conventional impact assessment practice and management, and associated implications for meaningfully addressing gender relations and the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people. We also introduce the special issue, which sheds light on gaps in impact assessment but also demonstrates that practical approaches exist to further embed gender-responsive approaches. Collectively, a central argument emanating from the contributions is that gender-neutral approaches to impact assessment and management can perpetuate or even create new forms of gender discrimination. This runs counter to the expectations set by international human rights law and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which rest on the central principles of non-discrimination, substantive gender equality, and 'leaving no one behind'. Four themes for more gender-responsive impact assessment and management are highlighted: (1) gender-responsive context analysis; (2) gender-responsive engagement and increased participation of women and LGBTQI+ people; (3) adaptation of tools, methods, and skills for enhanced gender responsiveness; and (4) embedding gender-responsive approaches from the project level to the governance sphere. Without presuming transferability across contexts, the contributions show that such strategies are necessary and possible in diverse global settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite having higher average education levels, Nicaraguan women still earn much less than men. Furthermore, the country has one of the highest levels of occupational gender segregation in Latin America. This paper aims to explain the gender income gap in Nicaragua, taking into account individual characteristics, engagement in specific occupations and sectors, and geographical location. Using a multilevel framework, the study finds that while a considerable part of the income gap can be explained by women's employment in occupations and sectors with low remuneration, another substantial part of this gap is attributable to the prevalence of patriarchal gender norms – and thus cannot be explained by human capital factors. These results show that understanding labor market segregation is vital for comprehending the perseverance of the gender income gap, and they further imply that women's progress in breaching the gender stereotypes in Nicaragua is still limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question raised in this paper is how gender equality may affect sexual health. We suggest that this is dependent on the extent of gender equality. Our conclusion is a call for knowledge which consider a range of factors in future empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue examines the politics of gender in relation to higher education, creative practices and historical processes in electronic music, computer music and sound art. The starting point is a summary of research findings on the student demographics associated with the burgeoning of music technology (MT) undergraduate degrees in Britain since the mid-1990s. The findings show a clear bifurcation: the demographics of students taking British MT degrees, in comparison to traditional music degrees and the national average, are overwhelmingly male, from less advantaged social backgrounds, and slightly more ethnically diverse. At issue is the emergence of a highly (male) gendered digital music field. The special issue sets these findings into dialogue with papers by practitioners and scholars concerned with gender in relation to educational, creative and historical processes. Questions addressed include: What steps might be taken to redress gender inequalities in education, and in creative, compositional and curatorial practices? How can we combat the tendency to focus exclusively on the ‘problem of women’ while at the same time ignoring the challenges posed by the marked styles of masculinity evident in these fields? Is the gendering of electronic and digital musics and sound art evident in certain aesthetic directions? And what musical futures are augured by such imbalances? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equality in academia has been monitored in Australia for the past three decades so it is timely to reflect on what progress has been made, what works, and what challenges remain. When data were first published on the gender composition of staff in Australian universities in the mid-1980s women comprised 20 per cent of academic staff and held 6 per cent of senior positions. Since the early 1990s many Australian universities have had policies in place to remove sex discrimination and initiatives to increase women’s representation in academia. Two decades on, women comprise 44 per cent of academic staff and hold 31 per cent of senior positions. How did this happen? What worked? Are there still challenges to be addressed? This paper provides a critical reflection on what has worked, the practical impacts on gender in academia in Australia and what challenges remain for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The achievement of greater gender equity within Australian universities is a significant issue for both the quality and the strength of Australian higher education. This paper contributes to our knowledge of academic workloads, observing individual workloads in business faculties. A multiple case study method was employed to observe individual academic workloads. Two regional universities were selected for this research on the basis of their senior staff profiles. Multiple sources of evidence were used to gather teaching and research workload data for all faculty members. Differences in workloads were not always evident between genders. Our results suggest that universities that are over-represented with females in senior academic positions when compared to the national average achieve equity in workload. Universities that are underrepresented with females in senior academic positions do not achieve workload equity with male academics producing more research and coordinating more teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite calls for a more nuanced approach to issues of gender and equity that recognizes how broader relations of gender and power continue to produce injustices for many females, essentialized accounts expressing concern about boys’ poor educational performance remain the most common refrain in dominant equity discourses across Western contexts. This common refrain characteristic of current large scale gender reforms, such as Australia's parliamentary inquiry into the education of boys, Boys: Getting it right, is driven by a standards rather than social justice focus and thus creates silences around issues of gender injustice, power, and constructions of hegemonic masculinity. In this paper, I present “Sally's” story as a disruption of these silences. Sally is a young English teacher at “Penfolds College”, an all boys Catholic school in a large urban centre in Queensland (Australia). Her story, in illustrating how particular boys draw on broader discourses of masculinity to sexually harass and intimidate her, highlights the inadequacies of dominant public and policy discourse in terms of its failure to locate boys’ educational issues within broader contexts of inequitable gender relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]