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Higher education is a key factor in a nation’s effort to develop a highly skilled workforce for competing in the global economy. In this paper, current trends in accessibility, equity, participation and financing of higher education in Kenya are examined. The paper explores the challenges which need to be confronted and discusses the way forward for reforming higher education policies in Kenya to widen access and advance equity by suggesting a number of strategies. It highlights the need for programmes and policies focusing on improving access to quality secondary education experiences; increasing aspirations and application to higher education; and the improvement of policies on financial support to disadvantaged students through the already existing Higher Education Loans Board. It concludes with a number of recommendations including a new revenue allocation particularly to the rising numbers of higher education aspirants from low income, rural, ethnic minorities and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Canadian federal and cross-provincial higher education policy from 1960 to 1990, a critical time when provisions for vocational and adult training came under the auspices of governmental concern, justified under both an economic rationale and as a way to address persistent forms of inequality. The problematisation of skill during this period had particular gendered implications, as addressing inequality through education subsidies intersected with the perceived training needs of employers and the market. Employing Nancy Fraser's theory of a ‘triple movement’, the following paper ‘takes stock’ of how the three political forces of social movements, marketisation, and social protection have shaped gendered discourses of education and training, the implications for which are of continued relevance to those trying to understand the education and training within the contemporary neo-liberal state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In mid-nineteenth-century Britain, a new institution emerged: the modern prison. Some prisons invested in scales. Upon entry, prisoners were measured and personal details documented. These meticulously compiled records afford a new vantage point from which we can peer into the dynamics of the household. Body measurements – height, weight, and body mass (weight adjusted for height) – connect to both patterns of consumption and health risk. Prison data thus speak to both gender and health inequality in the past. The paper juxtaposes a service economy (Wandsworth near London) with a modern manufacturing sector (Paisley near Glasgow) in order to contrast how economic form and opportunities in the market sector shaped relations and outcomes in the household sector. We find that families bargained over the allocation of resources; that bargaining position was influenced by economic value, mediated by maternal sacrifice; that this was an earner bias rather than gender bias; and that new industrial work for women and children supported a more egalitarian distribution that improved everyone's health status via superior heights and heavier weights. We examine Irish immigrants to assess cultural differences in family behaviour. Finally, the paper offers, for the first time, a detailed interpolation of Waaler's health risk for women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While studies have investigated inequalities in child nutrition along single axes of social power such as, gender, caste and class, there has not been any study that has examined the intersection of the different axes in determining nutritional outcomes of children. This paper examines the intersection of gender, class and caste in determining children's nutritional outcomes for rural north, rural south and rural India as a whole. The paper investigates the intersectionality of the three axes in rural India and focuses on regional differences. The results show that children with particular disadvantageous group affiliations often find significant compensatory benefits from other beneficial identities. Class inequality dominates caste inequality and caste inequality dominates gender inequality in rural North India for all levels of stunting. In contrast, caste inequality dominates class inequality which in turn dominates gender inequality for severe stunting in rural South India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher religiosity of women is a longstanding feature of the religious landscape in the Western World. With the recent vibrancy of secular movements, the greater religiosity of women is reflected in a gender imbalance within the secular groups. For instance, more than three quarters of American atheists are male. Given the effects of both religiosity and secularity on worldview and lifestyle, this gender imbalance is likely consequential for marital behavior and outcomes. Using the latest cycle of the Canadian General Social Survey focused on family, this paper examines how marital behavior of individuals without any tie with religion or spirituality compares with others. Secular males are found appreciably more likely to experience marital dissolution, whereas their female counterparts are shown no different from others. This result lends support to the theories that posit religiosity as a complementary marital trait, requiring the mating of the like. The analysis also indicates that union formation behavior of secular females manifests a larger shift away from the traditional conceptions of marriage compared with secular males. Various explanations are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examine how women high in social dominance orientation reconcile supporting a social system that seemingly disadvantages them. We propose that women high in social dominance orientation are more likely to adopt a benevolently sexist worldview. Method: This paper contains data from two survey studies. Study 1 used data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Survey (N = 10,485) which is a study of social attitudes, personality, and health outcomes among New Zealanders. Measures of Social Dominance Orientation, as well as Hostile and Benevolent Sexism were included in Study 1. Study 2 consisted of data from a smaller sample of American females (N = 269). In addition to the variables described above, we also measured the extent to which participants perceived the gender hierarchy to be legitimate and their perceived personal need for protection from men. Control variables included hostile sexism and demographic variables (participants' age, race, and socioeconomic status). Results: Results revealed that social dominance orientation was a stronger predictor of benevolent sexism among women compared to men. Serial mediation analysis was then conducted in Study 2. Study 2 confirmed the hypothesised mechanism: Higher social dominance orientation was associated with perceptions that women's low status is legitimate which, in turn, was associated with higher perceived personal need for protection from men. This was then associated with the endorsement of a benevolently sexist worldview. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that social dominance orientation might help to explain why some women endorse benevolent sexism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse and discuss conditions for gender equality in police leadership. This is done by interviewing 28 sworn police leaders in Sweden, and using a doing gender perspective for analyses. The results show that women and, to a greater extent, men in police leadership do gender traditionally. Explanations for the lack of female leaders and strategies for increasing the number of female leaders are shown to either focus on women as individuals (mostly men) or organisational structure and culture (mostly women). Further, strategies to reach gender equality goals are critically examined. These could be used to create concrete diversity and equality work within police and other organisations. Whether or not quantitative gender equality work (raising the number of females in leadership positions) can create changes in qualitative gender equality (the learning of new norms to change experiences of inclusion and exclusion in relation to gender) is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to investigate whether the Japanese government’s attempt to promote a ‘gender-equal’ society in recent decades and the improved status of women are reflected in patterns of gender representation in Japanese English as a foreign language textbooks. The study made an analysis of four popular series of English language textbooks published in 2011 for local Japanese students with corpus linguistic tools (e.g. concordancing, keyword in context) to investigate the ratio of female-to-male appearances, the extent of use of gender-neutral and gender-marked constructions, the common adjectives associated with women and men, the common address titles for reference to women, and the order of appearance of women and men. The findings revealed some evidence of gender equity, including common use of gender-inclusive vocabulary (e.g. salesclerk, waitperson) and the neutral address title Ms for women. The ‘male-first’ phenomenon, however, is still prevalent in contemporary Japanese textbooks, suggesting the secondary status of women. Variations were found in different series of textbooks pertaining to the representation of women and men in the domains of quantitative balance and gender stereotyping. It is suggested that specific guidelines be compiled by the education authorities to help textbook authors write educational materials that help promote a gender-fair society in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedagogy should be understood as transformative practice, and yet in many cases the neoliberalization and patriarchal structure of higher education institutions can stifle teachers and students. Tourism has been promoted as a vehicle for female empowerment, yet here it is suggested that in order for this to happen, gender must not only be taught in tourism classrooms, but it must be taught adopting a feminist approach. The motivation for this paper is to explore how power dynamics intersect and relate to teaching gender in the tourism classroom in order to highlight potential barriers to gendering the curriculum. Reflexively engaging with my own practice I highlight potential future strategies for academicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender inequalities in schools have implications for life chances, emotional well-being and educational policies and practices, but are apparently resistant to change. This paper employs Judith Butler’s conceptualisation of performativity in a study of young people and consumption to provide insights into gendered inequities. It argues that how the young people ‘do’ gender in focus groups frequently involves the discussion of young women’s bodies and clothes in ways that are ‘culturally intelligible’. The focus on young women’s bodies produced joking relationships and a taken-for-granted understanding of gender in some same-sex interactions, but sometimes created tension and divisions in mixed-gender groups. Discussions of sexualisation in single-sex and mixed-sex groups were similarly emotionally loaded. The paper argues that attention to gender inequalities requires detailed attention to the differential power relations in which boys express desires to control feminine bodies and girls police their own and other girls’ bodies. Methodologically, the paper suggests that focus group discussions constitute an ethnographic site for analysis and that researchers co-construct young people’s narratives of embodied gender practices in ways that mediate young people’s gendered performances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The way women’s issues have been conceptualised and acted on in the context of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) has changed over the past four decades. The discourses and trends in development studies – from the Women in Development approach of the 1970s to Gender and Development in the 1980s – were mirrored in the WASH sector. The WASH sector has contributed to, and been shaped by, debates on women’s needs and, latterly, on gender perspectives based on a combined argument for equity and efficiency. In addition, in the last decade, the WASH sector has developed its own distinctive initiatives, such as menstrual hygiene management and, recently, specific WASH considerations relating to gender-based violence. This paper assesses whether the result of this sector-specific response has been a dilution or distillation of gender issues. It concludes that the WASH sector has not disregarded the goals of women’s empowerment and gender equality; rather, it has contributed to understandings of how resources – such as infrastructure and services – underpin that empowerment. This allows an important recognition of the value and impact of WASH-sector priorities and actions for the wider well-being of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South African cities, millions of men and women living informally are being rehoused through the state-directed provision of formal houses to poor beneficiaries. This intervention is reshaping their lives, and innovatively targets beneficiaries with dependents, where over half are women. Aiming to redress the historical context of gendered inequality in housing ownership and house the very poor, these policy and implementation changes necessarily impact on men in terms of their power, resources and employment but in complex ways including positive and negative. The home remains significant for many men’s desires for authority and identity. Using the lens of masculinity, this paper considers the ways in which men are experiencing this housing intervention, revealing a complex mix of outcomes in terms of their sense of identity, their relationships and their financial pressures and income generation. It draws on empirical work in South Africa to illuminate the importance of focusing on men in relation to housing and offers key questions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores perceptions regarding family and paid employment expressed by university students in Chile, based on the analysis of quantitative data from the Maule region (southern Chile). We argue that the increasing unpredictability of labor markets has eroded the role paid employment historically has had as the lynchpin of individual’s – particularly men’s – life project, altering the expectations about both work and family life. Likewise, changes in gender roles have shaped youngsters’ ideals about family life. This seems to be the case especially for women, who strongly affirm their economic independence and personal projects, departing from traditional family views. We conclude that young people are demanding a new balance between life (understood mainly as personal and family time) and work. There is also a strong affirmation of the individual project, including a demand for greater gender equality. Although still at the level of projected visions of the future, these findings signal changes in the way the relation work–family is traditionally organized, bringing new challenges for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study of social network analysis in Indonesia and the Philippines reveals that after a certain period in a new community and living among involuntarily resettled strangers, household heads and community leaders will eventually replace their disrupted previous networks with new network ties. The paper likewise demonstrates how gender moulds social network features at the levels of the Indonesian household heads and Philippine community organization after involuntary resettlement. Existing gendered context in two settings like the Indonesian woman’s role as primary caretaker of the household and the absence of a consolidated patriarchal system in the Philippines is shown to have reinforced gender (dis)advantages. As reflected in the two settings, those who have the biggest networks are also the brokers or the influential actors who can control and have an advantage in accessing social capital. Further, basing on the two cases, we identify the gender norm of the centrality of women’s role as homemaker and caregiver in addition to other roles as a similar explanation for the bigger proportions of friends in the networks of women as compared to men. Unless outside interventions reconfigure the natural trajectory of the social networks, gender equality in terms of leadership, decision-making and access to suitable programs and projects as well as to the relevant authorities, remains problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper undertakes a critique of the gendered nature of leadership in modern universities in Kenya. The paper argues that the inclusive nature of African feminism makes it easier for both men and women to join in this discussion since African feminism demands a more holistic perspective that does not pit men against women but encourages them to work together to address gender inequalities. The review shows that there is a need to develop policies and strategies both at national and local level geared towards increasing women's participation in decision making and leadership in higher education in Kenya. The paper provides an opportunity for reflection on problems related to the participation of academic women in leadership in higher education in Kenya and comparable systems through the changing times and settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether women and men publish journal articles at a level comparable with their representation within the social sciences. The paper also explores sex differences in patterns of single authorship and co-authorship. To do so, demographic data of the UK social sciences is compared with a sample of UK-authored journal articles. The findings of the study show that, overall, female academics contribute to a lower proportion of journal articles than the proportion of academic staff that they constitute. However, within certain disciplines (social policy and psychology) women publish articles at a level comparable with the proportion of the discipline that they constitute. These findings, it is argued, can be helpfully understood as both cause and consequence of the gendered academy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the explanations and justifications offered by dual-career heterosexual couples in defence of an unequal division of housework within their relationships. The article draws on individual semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 couples aged between 20 and 35, identified as a sample of the population that has the resources to capitalise on modern opportunities for gender equality in heterosexual relationships. Although all of the couples claim to aspire to equality, this translates into practice for only one of the couples interviewed. The research findings indicate that a number of the couples employ similar justifications, with both male and female respondents arguing that women have higher standards and are more competent performers of household chores, and that the division of labour is practical, based on the hours worked by both partners. The paper concludes that while couples continue to expend their time and effort in defending and justifying inequality, rather than in working to challenge it, heterosexual relationships will continue to be overwhelmed by traditional gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the public assertion of gendered ethno-religious identities on the websites of Hindu student groups (HSGs) in the South Asian Diaspora in the USA and UK. HSGs are a part of a larger phenomenon of individuals and organizations engaged in creating and promoting ethnicities in virtual spaces. In this paper we focus particularly on the HSGs deployment of 'strong woman' imagery to assert their 'superior cultures'. We find that while the HSGs appear to challenge the gendered/racialized construction of minorities in Western societies as traditional, and non-modern, their construction of 'strong Hindu women' is replete with gendered inequalities. In addition, such constructions also implicate 'their women' into the process of drawing racialized boundaries against other groups. This paper explores how the processes involving the construction, representation and reproduction of Hinduism and Hindu identity on the web, from locations in the USA and the UK create contemporary gender hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper examines male and female teachers' language practices in relation to 'censuring' talk in the primary classroom, in the context of the debate around boys' 'underachievement' and the 'feminisation' of primary school culture. Through an analysis of classroom observations with 51 men and women teachers, it looks to see whether gender differences could be found in the ways individual men and women teachers communicated in terms of their 'censuring' comments of pupils' work or behaviour. Secondly, the paper takes issue with the notion that teachers operate within a 'feminised' educational culture, by looking at the ways in which teachers' classroom talk can be seen to be constrained by two contrasting discourses relating to the power relation between teacher and pupil: a 'traditional' disciplinarian discourse, and a more 'progressive' liberal discourse. Both discourses have complex gendered and class dimensions, challenging the conception of a 'feminised' primary school culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the main ongoing employment changes taking place in Portugal and particular emphasis is given to the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. However, due to its heterogeneous composition, both intensive and low-knowledge services are addressed in this sector, ranging from ICT companies in general to call centres in particular. Starting with a brief revision of both optimistic and critical approaches to the new service-based economy, the paper seeks to contribute to this theoretical debate through the analysis of a very singular context, the Portuguese one, based on the results of a research project. The main argument points out that employment changes in the ICT sector are associated with labour segmentation and growing differences in work and employment conditions, including gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accountability refers to the processes by which those with power in the health sector engage with, and are answerable to, those who make demands on it, and enforce disciplinary action on those in the health sector who do not perform effectively. This paper reviews the practice of accountability to citizens on gender and health, assesses gaps, and recommends strategies. Four kinds of accountability mechanisms have been used by citizens to press for accountability on gender and health. These include international human rights instruments, legislation, governance structures, and other tools, some of which are relevant to all public sector services, some to the health sector alone, some to gender issues alone, and some to gender-specific health concerns of women. However, there are few instances wherein private health sector and donors have been held accountable. Rarely have accountability processes reduced gender inequalities in health, or addressed 'low priority' gender-specific health needs of women. Accountability with respect to implementation and to marginalized groups has remained weak. This paper recommends that: (1) the four kinds of accountability mechanisms be extended to the private health sector and donors; (2) health accountability mechanisms be engendered, and gender accountability mechanisms be made health-specific; (3) resources be earmarked to enable government to respond to gender-specific health demands; (4) mechanisms for enforcement of such policies be improved; and (5) democratic spaces and participation of marginalized groups be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews published literature on experiences in mainstreaming gender within the health sector since the 1990s. Although much has been written about the need for mainstreaming gender, and on how to go about it, the gap between intention and practice is palpable. National health policies and programmes that have gender integrally woven into their objectives and activities are rare. Health research to generate gender and sex-specific data, and integrating gender in health provider training, have received scarce attention. Mainstreaming gender within institutions has remained superficial, investing more on form than on content. The apparent lack of progress in mainstreaming gender in health may be attributed to: depoliticization and delinking of gender mainstreaming from social transformation and social justice agendas; adoption of top-down approaches to mainstreaming; growing hostility within the global policy environment to justice and equity concerns; and increasing privatization and retraction of the state's role in health. This paper suggests that the way forward would be to frame gender concerns in the language of equity, rights, and justice; to set agendas which consider gender inequity within the context of inequities by caste, class, ethnicity, and other sources of health inequalities; and to work alongside other movements for social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on employment narratives recounted in life history interviews with women workers in Nanjing, China. Drawing on feminist perspectives on gender and global economic changes, it examines the micro-processes that underpinned China's economic restructuring and, through a gender-based analysis, shows how working women lost out in this process. After an overview of the institutional context in which China's economic restructuring occurred, this paper examines women's experiences in the workplace and identifies factors that contributed to their disadvantageous position in the work unit and that increased their vulnerability in the changing labor market. The evidence of gender inequality, assumptions about women's labor capacities, and the gendered consequences of economic restructuring suggest that older, less educated women workers, mostly from the Cultural Revolution generation, are unlikely to gain any benefit from whatever advantages accrue from China's economic integration into the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the gendered impact of Chinese healthcare reforms, drawing attention to the complex and changing nature of gender inequities in China's current economic and social transformations. Using official and academic sources, it examines the reforms' impact on access to reproductive healthcare, the gendered effects of changes in health sector financing - particularly the collapse of insurance systems and rising costs of healthcare, and the implications of China's demographic transition on women's informal healthcare roles. This paper suggests areas that policy-makers, researchers, and activists should prioritize to address inequity, including developing public health policy based on the systematic monitoring of health impacts and trends from a gender perspective, strengthening rural medical facilities to meet the basic healthcare needs of rural populations (including sexual and reproductive health needs), and reforming the healthcare system together with social security systems to equitably cover the poor and the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews conceptual and empirical problems issues with the United Nations Development Programme's two gender‐related indicators: the Gender‐related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure. While supporting the need for gender‐related development measures, the paper argues that there are serious conceptual and empirical problems with both measures that limit the usefulness of these composite indicators. Where appropriate and feasible, the paper suggests modifications to the measures that address some of the identified problems. [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 paper addresses the question of totalising gender-power relations that have led to and shaped the wars of the 1990s in Yugoslavia and the emerging ethno-national states on the 'periphery' of Europe. I argue that the same type of gender-power relations continue to dominate the region, notably Serbia, and to perpetuate gender inequalities and gender-based violence (GBV) in its many everyday and structural forms, causing profound levels of human insecurity. This analysis aims to set in motion a debate around how to tackle these continuing gender inequalities and GBV in post-war societies. In so doing, I propose a shift from focusing on the hierarchy of victimisation that has characterised much of the feminist analyses, activism, and scholarly work in relation to these (and other) conflicts, to a relational understanding of the gendered processes of victimisation in war and peace, that is – of both women and men. Such an approach holds a potential to undermine the power systems that engender these varied types of victimisation by ultimately reshaping the notions of masculinity and femininity, which are central to the gender-power systems that generate gender-unjust peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased academic attention on the gendering of leisure pastimes in recent years has highlighted the centrality of the gendered body in influencing how leisure is accessed, experienced and transformed. To date, however, little attention has been paid to how women experience aquatic leisure activity, the second most popular form of leisure activity in the UK, and where female participation predominates. This paper presents results from research investigating the aquatic leisure experiences of 22 women, with children aged under 3, in the North-East of England. A number of key themes emerged from the data, which highlighted the centrality of the gendered, lived body as a key social construct contouring participant perceptions in the swimming pool environment. Women reflected upon their self-perceived physical deficiencies when wearing revealing swimming costumes, particularly under the critical gaze of ‘other’ bodies, whether present or imagined. The co-presence of other bodies was also central in shaping lived experiences, and the presence of ‘dependent’ children’s bodies shifted bodily intentionality away from the self towards perceived maternal responsibilities and the management of perceived risks, including ‘dirt’ and ‘germs’ and the negotiation of the tacit rules of the swimming pool. Results also suggest that the emphasis on maternal responsibility in aquatic leisure activity and timing of parent-toddler sessions could lead to reproduction of gender inequalities and the exclusion of some fathers from participation. [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]

The year 2015 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, with a goal to contribute to gender equality globally. As scholars continue in their quest to ‘take stock’ of the ways in which gender and education work in tandem to achieve greater gender equality, we observe a revival in interest regarding conversations on gender and education. These conversations cover a gamut of related issues, including teaching and achievement as well as a number of intersecting issues such as gender-based violence. Within the conversation has been a continued focus on the role of equity primarily defined as access and opportunity. This paper explores the context of quality as it relates to equity in education and addresses the problems that are still left on the margins. Our goal is to take stock and assess the strength of evidence and to provide directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Emotions have received increasing attention in educational circles in the last decade. Drawing on Bourdieu, feminist scholars use emotional capital to illustrate the ways gendered inequalities can compound the disadvantages of social class. This paper examines relationships within childcare services in Australia, showing how emotional capital functions as a resource for staff. Data from interviews with childcare staff illustrate key aspects of emotional capital, such as reflexivity, resilience and embodiment. Findings show that investing in emotional capital is the key to a long-lasting commitment to childcare work, and should be valued accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

In this paper, Axel Honneth replies to the five critical accounts of Freedom's Right contained in this issue of Critical Horizons. He first discusses the methodological and systematic objections raised by Schaub and Freyenhagen, and then defends his approach vis-à-vis the other three critical accounts with reference to two social spheres - the sphere of personal relationships in the case of McNeill and McNay, and the market sphere in the case of Jütten. Among the significant clarifications of his account, Honneth accepts that he should allow for the possibility of institutional revolutions (while accepting a version of Hegel's end of history thesis in respect with normative revolutions) and that there could be social pathologies (not just misdevelopments) in the spheres of social freedom. He also distinguishes more explicitly between capitalism and market societies, suggesting that market socialism might be more institutionally suited to realize social freedom in the social spheres of production and consumption than capitalism is. He insists on the distinctiveness of modern friendships; the moral superiority of modern societies based on social freedom; and the need for a teleological orientation in our critical engagement with social phenomena such as gender inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most young people in the UK now stay on in education or training when they finish school. Numbers will continue to increase following the implementation of raising the participation age. Despite an upward trend in further education participation, young people's pathways continue to be shaped by class and gender. This paper explores the choices and decisions made by young people in their final year of compulsory schooling and describes how these class and gender inequalities are reproduced. We also spoke to parents about their own trajectories and their involvement in guiding their children's next steps. Our concern is with young people in ‘the middle’: not most at risk of social exclusion, but certainly not the most privileged. The decisions at this key transitional point are socially embedded. Processes of class reproduction and class mobility are dependent upon both structural context and access to advantageous resources. The opportunity structures for our participants were very different for the two generations. We note the wider role that social resources play at this moment, and the classed differences between the children of parents who had experienced some upward mobility and those who had remained in working-class positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse centring on reforms in Morocco has been largely shaped by the sources of power, namely the palace and its allies. Since Mohammed VI's accession to the throne, women's rights have consistently been framed within this neoliberal discourse. Pointing to various measures, such as the personal status code law reforms, the dominant narrative describes Morocco as a ‘progressive’ country with regard to the treatment of women. Additionally, following decades of neoliberal policies initiated under King Hassan II, the liberalisation of both the political and economic system has led to a series of consequences for the Moroccan working class, especially women. Within the past two years, in light of the demands for democratic reforms, the plight of working-class women has gained greater attention, especially following the self-immolation of single mother Fadoua Laroui and the suicide of Amina Filali, a young rape victim forced into a marriage with her rapist. Looking back on years of neoliberal economic policies as well as the political liberalisation measures King Mohammed VI instituted, working-class women in Morocco remain marginalised. The disenfranchisement of working-class women has grown even more evident following their active participation in the February 20 Movement, which was Morocco's version of the uprisings in the region. Contextualising the impact of neoliberal economic policies and measures of political liberalisation on class- and gender-based inequalities, this paper will evaluate how working-class women in Morocco remain marginalised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the intersections of employment regulation, gender and space in the working lives of employees in three banks in an Australian Regional Town, contributing to a socio-spatial analysis of the impact of different levels of regulation. Illustrating our analysis through a dispute around Saturday working at one of these banks, we argue that ‘place’ and ‘space’, in the location and organisation of these banking worksites and in the social organisation of family and market work, create a distinct and gendered pattern of opportunities and constraints for banking employees. The lived experiences of the workers negotiating, accommodating and resisting inadequate staffing and the unilateral imposition of new working time arrangements, highlight the dynamic and contradictory practice of employment regulation, both formal and informal, at the local and individual levels and the ways it intersects with space and gender to shape working lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Western societies, family law has transformed from a hierarchical relationship into a system of gender-neutral equality aspiring terms. Many families however, still apply traditional, gendered patterns in their division of labour and family life, even in a country like The Netherlands which is characterised by strong gender egalitarianism. In this paper we argue that the division of gender-based roles in family life affects power distribution in divorce mediation as well as the use of certain power resources by men and women. To test this, we survey 60 experienced Dutch mediators and introduce a new classification model for power sources distinguishing between material and immaterial power. As predicted, in divorce mediation, mediators perceive generally an equal power distribution between men and women, but power bases differ strongly: whereas men were considered to rely more on material resources, women were considered to rely more on immaterial resources. Implications for mediation practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study advances research on the structural dimension in the predominantly individual-oriented field of poverty studies by evaluating to what extent cross-national differences in population and structural characteristics can explain the differences in poverty outcomes by gender. To facilitate an approach that integrates individual and structural context dimensions, the paper takes advantage of multilevel techniques to test gender differences in the risk of being poor, entering into poverty, and exiting from poverty among seventeen European countries. The analysis covers single-adult households, drawing on data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the years 2007–8. The study concludes that structural effects, such as welfare state policies, labor market characteristics, level of inequality, and the level of women's empowerment in the country, seem to be more relevant than individual effects in explaining differences in the gender poverty gap among countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the recent situation in information and communication technology (ICT) development in Bangladesh, with particular reference to mobile phone technologies. While mass access to ICT is often portrayed as the great socio-economic leveller, we show that in the Bangladesh case the existing evidence illustrates something quite different. Despite the high profile of certain female politicians, Bangladesh performs very poorly on international measures of gender equality and the reasons are deeply rooted in social and cultural norms. As a consequence, programmes aimed at poverty alleviation through widespread deployment of ICT in rural areas are disproportionately beneficial to men, even when targeted primarily at women. We conclude that unless ICT programmes are more sensitive to the causes of gender inequity, the ICT revolution in Bangladesh is likely to deepen rather than ameliorate the gender divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State institutions and transnational civil society organizations play an important role in constructing the public discourses and undertaking interventions related to gender equality and education. However, interventions often directed at girls and institutional approaches aimed at securing rights to education have been limited in transforming gender injustices in other societal spaces. The capabilities approach, and particularly the concepts of public debate and dialogue, offers another approach to engage top-down institutional approaches and bottom-up initiatives in the work toward gender justice. This paper provides an analysis of how actors in an international NGO's gender and education program engage in public debate and dialogue. I draw on feminist scholars’ concepts of voice and recognition, the public sphere and ‘rational’ debate, and solidarities among transnational actors to extend how public debate and dialogue can be enacted by NGO actors to transform gender inequalities. This analysis also reveals the challenges and limits of engaging in public debate and dialogue to foster gender justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV prevention that uses gender as an analytical framework tends to focus on the ways in which gender inequalities differentially affect women's susceptibility to HIV infection. Men, in this context, are often conceptualized as aggressors, as opposed to women, who are seen as passive victims of HIV infection. In recent years, a growing number of researchers and public health officials have called attention to the pitfalls of this paradigm, pointing out that gender inequities harm both women and men. The first step towards transforming gender norms is to understand what norms currently exist. With this in mind, the aim of this paper is to consolidate and analyse literature that examines structural factors that contribute to the continued HIV infection of men in Swaziland, the country with the highest prevalence of HIV. Gaps in current literature related to this topic are also elucidated. Findings highlight the need for research to be conducted in Swaziland and elsewhere that investigates the effects of gender norms on the wellbeing of both women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the educational attainment of Tajikistani adults born between 1947 and 1989. Adults in the oldest cohorts completed school during the educational expansion of the Soviet period and the youngest cohorts completed their education in the post-Soviet period, which was marked by educational contraction. To date, there is not a clear picture of attainment trends during the Soviet period that provide a perspective for judging educational attainment in the post-Soviet period. Using household survey data collected in 2007 by the World Bank, I conduct a synthetic cohort analysis to estimate the likelihood of completing basic, secondary and higher education for men and women; urban and rural residents and ethnic majority and minority citizens. Findings for particular groups are mixed, but in general the gap in educational attainment between advantaged groups and disadvantaged groups narrows during the Soviet era, but widens in the post-Soviet period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of aggregated data from the most recent ISSP surveys and data from secondary sources, this paper analyzes a wide range of country-level indicators that reflect different dimensions of gender inequality and pertain to the economic position of women in different class situations. The findings reveal that indicators of gender inequality pertaining to women in different class positions are oppositely related to the scope and levels of family policy. Specifically, countries characterized by generous family policies tend to address gender equality among disadvantaged groups, while exhibiting an unequal pattern of gender inequality on indicators related to advantaged groups. By contrast, countries characterized by ungenerous family policies tend to advance equality on parameters related to advantaged groups but perform very poorly on parameters of gender inequality pertaining to disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the example of what is now known in a large part of the Anglo-saxon world as the boys' underachievement debate, this paper explores the construction of gender issues, which underpins educational policies in England and France. It argues that the formation of particular questions as 'policy issues' bears limited relation to what happens on the ground, yet is contingent on societal contexts. For example, while England and France share similar patterns in terms of the differential achievement of boys and girls, in the former the boys' underachievement debate is prominent, but in the latter it is non-existent. This supports the view that the emergence of the boys' underachievement debate is not related to a 'grounded reality'. Rather, the debate appears embedded in the discursive construction of gender and education and, more generally, of notions of citizenship and equality/difference. These findings provide a strong case in favour of a reflexive approach to equality matters in educational policy making. They also suggest that the analysis of what is constructed as a key issue in policy circles represents a rich terrain for feminist analysis, and they highlight that national frameworks continue to structure the thinking on equality issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a study on academic career paths of PhD graduates in Switzerland, this paper is concerned with the individual and institutional factors that affect transnational academic mobility in the postdoctoral period. It will be argued that the institutionalisation of geographic mobility in academic career paths through research funding institutions and universities have gendering and stratifying effects. Complex formations related to gender, partnership, children, and dual-career constellations, as well as to social class and academic integration, are resulting in inequalities in the accumulation of international cultural and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely agreed empowering women to take control of their lives and sexual health is a key strategy for tackling gender inequalities and HIV/AIDS, but to date this has been exceedingly difficult to achieve. This paper explores how a sample of South African media represent the relationship between gender and HIV/AIDS in the interests of understanding the symbolic context in which HIV/AIDS programmers conduct their work. The starting assumption is that representations of gender and HIV in the symbolic sphere provide the context within which people charged with designing and implementing women's empowerment interventions - government officials and NGO programme managers - construct understandings of this relationship and how best to tackle it. Content analysis was conducted on four South African newspapers between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2008. Newspapers selected are widely read by 'opinion leaders'; government officials and NGO programme managers. It is accepted that women's empowerment needs to involve top-down and bottom-up approaches. Dominant media representations portray women's empowerment as almost entirely a top-down process in which powerful actors are responsible for identifying and implementing women-focused interventions. Newspapers pay little attention to the need for the mobilisation of women via bottom-up programmes. Furthermore, while the media focuses on structural- and individual-level interventions, there is limited discussion of the importance of community-development interventions. Community-development interventions emphasise the need to build and support community-led responses to HIV. For women's empowerment to be successful interventions need to be at all levels. Currently, much emphasis is placed on the need for 'socially responsible' media reporting in South Africa that supports positive social development and social justice. Against this background, we conclude media representations of appropriate ways to tackle gender and HIV/AIDS are limiting in ways that undermine awareness of the need for community-led interventions to empower women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

With few exceptions, the empirical literature on foreign direct investment (FDI) continues to be gender blind. This paper contributes to filling this gap by assessing the importance of gender inequality in education as a determinant of FDI. The authors estimate a standard gravity model on bilateral FDI flows that is augmented by educational variables, including different measures of gender inequality in education. The analysis covers an unprecedented number of both host and source countries of FDI, thereby reducing the risk of distorted results because of a sample selection bias. The results support the view that foreign investors are more likely to favor locations where education-related gender disparities are small. However, the discouraging effects of gender disparity on FDI are restricted to middle-income (rather than low-income) developing host countries and to investors from developed (rather than developing) countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest public sector institution in the United Kingdom, education is a key site for studying the context of 'choice' and changes in the identities of professional workers in contemporary society. Recruitment and retention problems in education have led to the creation of new routes into teaching to attract career changers from other professions and occupations. In this paper we focus on career changers within the Economic and Social Research Council project 'Primary Teacher Identity, Commitment and Career in Performative School Cultures' who have entered teaching from other private sector occupations. We analyse these career changes in terms of 'turning points' in the participants' lives in order to assess the extent to which choices are 'self-initiated', 'forced' or 'structural'. We are interested in the basis on which these choices were made and the impact of gender on career decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary times there has been a broader definition of poverty to include not only economic deprivation such as income, but also various forms of vulnerability such as lack of dignity and autonomy. The paper seeks to bring out the multidimensionality of poverty from the perspective of both men and women in the Dangme West District of Ghana, through their day-to-day experiences of poverty and how this leads to different livelihood strategies among men and women. It is argued that gender inequalities, the patriarchal system and the traditional gender roles of women create a situation where women's experiences of poverty tend to be more severe than those of men. The author recommends that specific policies geared towards poverty reduction must address the needs and concerns of both men and women. Thus, men and women must be involved in defining projects that reflect their local realities and this must be backed by vigorous gender sensitization and awareness programmes. Engendering poverty reduction programmes with gender sensitization and awareness programmes will go a long way to address patriarchal attitudes and gender inequalities that create poverty particularly among women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]