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This introduction provides an overview of the gendered nature of politics and international relations, before a brief summary of the articles that make-up this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the current debate about the beneficial effects of text processing software on students with different working memory (WM) during the process of academic writing, especially with regard to the ability to display higher-level conceptual thinking. A total of 54 graduate students (15 male, 39 female) wrote one essay by hand and one by keyboard. Our results show a beneficial effect of text processing software, in terms of both the qualitative and quantitative writing output. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to detect distinct performance groups in the sample. These performance groups mapped onto three differing working memory profiles. The groups with higher mean WM scores manifested superior writing complexity using a keyboard, in contrast to the cluster with the lowest mean WM. The results also point out that more revision during the writing process itself does not inevitably reduce the quality of the final output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature considering international human rights mechanisms stresses that they have the best chance of success when they are closest to ideas which already exist within national contexts. Research which addresses women's human rights bodies, such as the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325), argues that they function best when reinterpreted to fit the local context. Yet, situations where this domestic norm translation is occurring, but policy change is not achieved, have received little consideration. Why do some contexts, even where norm translation occurs, resist policy change? This article examines Northern Ireland, where these women's rights bodies are used extensively in the women's sector, but where change has not occurred. It argues that norm translation is not the only important factor, and that a greater consideration of local political structures is needed in order to more fully explain policy resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consociational democracy has become the most influential paradigm in the field of power-sharing institutional design and post-conflict peacebuilding. Consociation institutes representation for certain formerly excluded groups. However, it simultaneously inhibits effective political representation for groups that do not align with the societal divisions that consociation seeks to accommodate, specifically the 'additional' cleavage of gender. Given the extensive use of the consociational model as a peacebuilding tool in divided states and the growing awareness of the disproportionate negative effect of conflict on women, there is a surprising lack of consideration of the effect that consociational power-sharing has on women's representation. This article considers the specific impact that the consociational model has on women's representation. We argue that because gender is an integral factor in conflict, it should therefore be integral to post-conflict governance. With empirical reference to contemporary Northern Ireland, it is illustrated that consociationalism is a 'gender-blind' theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses considerations that should be made with regard to advances in the early recognition of reading impairment. The authors recommend that research look at the definition of reading and the heterogeneity of poor readers, the longitudinal dynamic relations, early identification that leads to prescriptive early intervention, and early identification in a multilingual and multicultural population. The article examines each article in this special issue and analyzes how they apply to the considerations suggested by the authors.

Although the relationship between auditory processing and reading-related skills has been investigated in school-age populations and in prospective studies of infants, understanding of the relationship between these variables in the period immediately preceding formal reading instruction is sparse. In this cross-sectional study, auditory processing, phonological awareness, early literacy skills, and general ability were assessed in a mixed sample of 88 three-to six-year-old children both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Results from both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses suggest the importance of early auditory rise time sensitivity in developing phonological awareness skills, especially in the development of rhyme awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss the "Developing Early Literacy" report from the U.S. National Early Literacy Panel (NELP), an article on early syllable structure in reading-impaired children, and and article on early oral language markers of poor reading performance in Hong Kong Chinese children.