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Gender stereotypes are often an unconscious notion, which can unjustly confine individuals' pathways to that of those deemed acceptable in society. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore whether such ideals are shown by primary school students' and their teachers. Results showed that gender stereotypes were present, with both students and teachers expressing this. Students indicated that all six professions explored had large stereotypes. Teachers were largely in agreement, noting that although they felt able to challenge such ideals, many of them had no formal training throughout their teaching program. The results offer a rationale for more initial teacher training programs to explore the effects of gender stereotypes, preparing teachers to challenge these early on while children are developing their long-term beliefs, to avoid unjust bias.

Tackling gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) is an essential step for addressing gender inequality. This article applies theories of student/survivor 'voice' to accounts from interviewees (n = 35), analysing their perspectives on how higher education institutions (HEIs) should address this issue. Interviewees were current or former students in the United Kingdom who had disclosed or reported GBVH to their HEIs. The most urgent step that interviewees called for is open discussion of GBVH and how HEIs are handling it. They also want more education, prevention and early intervention, and changes in how reports are handled. These findings are contextualised within a critical discussion of how reporting parties' voices are, or could be, heard within higher education. It argues that institutional mechanisms for hearing survivors' voice in relation to GBVH may need to differ from approaches for engaging with students on other issues, most notably by taking into account how power relations shape voices.

This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods study which investigates the socio-cultural impacts of UK gendered school sport uniform and the role uniform plays in shaping female school sport experiences. Drawing on an extensive analytical survey with over 400 women of all-ages and 8 interviews with women aged 18-24, it explores how school sport uniform directly impacts female sporting experiences and participation in physical activity, and how uniform policy could be changed to promote greater female sport participation. Gendered school sport uniform continues to operate as a socio-spatial mechanism that names, frames and positions young people in heteronormative school sport spaces. This paper assesses how gendered school sport uniform contributes to the disciplining of the 'ideal feminine body' in schoolgirls and the construction of behavioural gender binaries in sport. The data reveal gendered sport uniform influences the development of a 'fear of masculinisation' in sport and common athletic-feminine identity tensions in teenage girls. The research finds gendered school sport uniform plays a major role in the high drop-out rates of teenage girls in school sport and offers practical insight into how policy could be changed to promote inclusivity, comfort and greater female sport participation. This paper proposes redesigning traditional gendered school sport policy to focus on 'enabling' participation has huge potential to transform female embodied and psychological experiences of school sport and increase school sport participation and enjoyment.

Despite longstanding calls for social justice-oriented teaching, there remains limited understanding of how to achieve it. This paper reports findings from a research-development project that explored the experiences of UK-based primary science teacher educators participating in a nine-month equity-oriented professional development programme and offers insights for supporting teacher learning for social justice. Analysis of written reflections and open-ended interviews with 15 teacher educators identified three types of reflection that supported justice-oriented practice: personal privilege in relation to race, class, gender and science; the norms and values of educational professional development; and practical implementation of justice-orientated professional development with teachers and schools. We discuss the importance of creating safe and brave spaces for critical reflection for primary science teacher educators and highlight the productive potential of experiences of discomfort that generated humility, empathy and insights that resulted in more equitable practice. The paper underlines the value of supporting educators to embrace discomfort as part of social justice-orientated professional development and calls for a greater valuing of and support for expanded models of professional development that foreground critical reflection and go beyond 'top tips', 'quick fixes', and dominant norms around professional 'politeness'.

Gender stereotypes established early in childhood have a profound impact on a child's sense of self-definition: they commonly influence behaviours regarding academic pursuit and career aspirations. The aim of the current study was to investigate the emergence of explicit and implicit gender stereotypes in children aged 5-8 years. Fifty-four children were recruited from a primary school in Manchester, United Kingdom. Four occupations (scientist, nurse, athlete, singer) and their corresponding personality traits (intelligence, empathy, athleticism, confidence) were examined. Explicit bias was measured using a forced-choice preference task. Implicit bias was measured using the Implicit Association Test. Binomial tests showed that explicit biases emerged amongst the youngest of pupils. Using a Four-Way ANCOVA, it was found that both boys and girls showed an implicit preference for males towards the Athlete domain only. These findings were discussed with reference to a sociocultural perspective through Social Learning Theory, and a cognitive framework through Gender Schema Theory.

Dating and relationship violence (DRV) and gender-based violence (GBV) among children and young people incur a high cost to individuals and society. School-based interventions present an opportunity to prevent DRV and GBV early in individuals' lives. However, with school resources under pressure, policymakers require guidance on the economics of implementing interventions. As part of a large systematic review funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), we searched for economic evaluations and costing studies of school-based interventions for DRV and GBV. No formal economic evaluations were identified. Seven studies reporting costs, cost savings, or resource use for eight interventions were identified. The largest costs of implementing interventions were related to staff training and salaries but savings could be made by implementing interventions on a large scale. The potential cost savings of avoided DRV and GBV far outweighed the costs of implementation.

This reflective paper explores the emotions, ethics, and challenges of facilitating training for youth practitioners to tackle gender-related violence (GRV). This paper draws on insights from a training intervention that emerged from an EU-funded feminist project (UK GAPWORK project), which sought to bring together approaches to tackle violence against women and girls with challenging heteronormativity and homophobia. Drawing on accounts from facilitators and participants, the aim of this paper is to identify tensions, opportunities and strategies in developing training to support critically engaged practice around sensitive topics such as GRV, and to consider the significance of working with discomfort within any such training intervention. We reflect on how discomfort presented within the training space and the challenges presented. This paper examines how Boler's theoretical work on pedagogy of discomfort can be operationalised to think productively about designing and delivering training for informal educators on sensitive issues with ethical integrity.

Universities are increasingly recognized as spaces and cultures where gendered and sexualized harassment is endemic. This article pays close attention to the manifestations of sexualized behaviours in a campus university in the UK, examining some of the ways in which formations of masculinity are encouraged and reproduced through university structures, processes and aesthetics. The discussion draws on data generated by a creative project utilizing film-based materials as a prompt for collaborative reflections. Bringing together staff and students from across the university in a creative space enabled diverse experiences to be shared and produced rich and detailed insights across disciplinary and generational differences. The paper argues that such creative interventions are a vital form of feminist pedagogy offering a powerful resource for future work in this increasingly urgent field of study.

Serious gaps are found when evaluating the recognition and inclusion of gender aspects in transport strategies, research and innovation. Similar issues can be spotted in the transport labor market, where only 22% of workers are women at the European level. The roots of these limitations are in the low participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) studies and, therefore, in the traditionally male-dominated transport field occupations. Stemming from the European project TInnGO, the current paper proposes a descriptive analysis to evaluate the gender gaps in educational provision and research in ten European countries. Specific indicators, such as percentages in the gender composition or the presence of university courses dealing with mobility and transport, have been defined and their availability in different countries is verified. In addition, a desktop review of practices for encouraging and supporting women in STEM studies is operated, underling characteristics such as the kind of initiative, the methods and tools used, the target group or the type of promoter. The results of this activity show that a wide network of associations and mentoring operates in various European nations, mostly targeting secondary school students, trying to make females aware of their potentialities in a deeply gender-biased field like the STEM one.

The under-representation of women in computer science education courses is well documented, and the social and commercial need to address this is widely recognised. Previous literature offers some explanation for this gender imbalance, but there has been limited qualitative data to provide an in-depth understanding of existing quantitative findings. This study explores the lived experiences of female computer science students and how they experience the male dominated learning environment. Female computer science students from eight universities were interviewed (n = 23) and data were analysed using template analysis. Whilst these women have not been troubled by their sense of fit at university, a combination of stereotypical assumptions of male superiority in this field, and a masculine, agentic learning environment, has left them feeling less technologically capable and less motivated. The findings are discussed in terms of Cheryan et al.'s tripartite model for women's participation in STEM (2017) and we recommend that computer science departments should consider feminist pedagogy to ensure that all learners can be well supported.

The degree to which policy, practice, and facilities accommodate trans and non-binary participants in outdoor programmes has been subject to limited research. The outdoors can be a heavily gendered space, demonstrative of both heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity. This research explores current practices and the awareness, confidence and desire for inclusivity amongst outdoor practitioners. It adopts a bricolage approach involving composite vignettes with qualitative data obtained through questionnaires and interviews, and reports on the lived experience of trans and non-binary outdoor practitioners and participants, and expert inclusivity trainers in the UK. The data indicate that aspects of outdoor programming policy in respect of gender are unsuitable, outdated and incongruent with the opinions and aspirations of many practitioners and participants. The findings should encourage outdoor providers to review their policies in relation to gender and to strive for explicit inclusivity in respect of accommodating and welcoming gender variant participants.

This study presents findings from testing an innovative student-centred drama-based teaching methodology for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines for secondary school students. The method, based on performances, was tested in two case studies, Spain and the UK, on a sample of 2089 students. These performances have been shown to be an effective way of generating a two-way dialogue between students and researchers and prompting student reflections about researchers as role models, gender inequalities in science and ethical issues in STEM careers and scientific research. Furthermore, they have enhanced young people's positive attitudes and interest in science, scientists and scientific careers and have debunked science-related stereotypes. This indicates that the performances evaluated in this study are supporting the aspirations of young people, but not limiting their inclination to critically assess the relative benefits and risks of scientific development for themselves.

This critical autoethnography is an account of my experiences as a woman of color (WoC) academic at a predominantly White institution in the times of COVID-19 and the consequential turn to online teaching and learning. It reflects on how the pandemic has exacerbated my experiences of discrimination, marginalization, isolation, and the struggles to find a balance between my personal and professional identities. Guided by intersectionality, the article explores the ways in which multiple forms of inequality are perpetuated within academia through my own lived experiences. It also explores the ways in which I, as a WoC and an early career academic (ECA), learned to navigate the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, and motherhood amid the pandemic. In writing this article, my hope is to adjoin the voices of WoC in British Academia calling for an urgently needed open dialog with those in positions of power.

While "Rebecca" is not currently a set text for A-Level English Literature, this paper argues that the novel's multi-faceted richness would justify its inclusion in any list of recommended texts. Divided into four interconnected parts, the paper offers, firstly, some approaches to the reading and teaching of fiction, generally. The second part presents some framing contexts for illuminating many of "Rebecca's" preoccupations. These include: ideas about the Gothic tradition and the presentation of Fatal Women in some Romantic literature; some considerations about patriarchy, misogyny, gender and identity; finally, attention is given to the intersection between dream and reality in "Rebecca" and to the idea of obsession and the double self in two other works by Du Maurier. In the third part, more detailed attention is given to the presentation of character in the novel. The fourth part explores some pedagogical approaches to the novel in the sixth-form classroom.

A plethora of work has identified forms and sources of gender inequality in sport coaching. Quantitative studies with psychological framings dominate the literature. However, a smaller and more recent body of qualitative work has identified structural gender hierarchies as the root of inequalities, specifically the prevalence of hegemonic masculinity. Fewer studies have contextualised understandings of women's experiences of this, particularly at grassroots levels and there is little acknowledgement of a notable shift in the visibility of women's power and presence in society including sport. Thus, in this study [Gill, R. (2007). "Gender and the media." Polity Press] "postfeminist sensibility" was used to examine seven female coaches' experiences of various grassroots sports settings, specifically what might be novel in women's contemporary coaching experiences, but also to acknowledge any persistent structural inequalities. Findings suggest that while female coaches are continually facing challenges borne out of dominant forms of masculinity which remain deeply rooted in sport cultures, they are actively contesting and navigating these by drawing upon performed masculinities. Consequently, new femininities have emerged, but these are fragile, often misinterpreted and can lead to women struggling to progress their coaching careers. Future work in this field should look to develop the use of postfeminist lenses in similar ways, to further identify new(er) femininities which have the potential to grow and develop women's representation in coaching.

This paper explores the experiences of eight Muslim women academics (MWA) within a range of sciences and humanities disciplines. The data draws from my doctoral study which examined the experiences of men and women Muslim academics at UK universities. Findings from in-depth interviews with participants highlight the intersectionality of religio-gendered identities as central to their experiences. Being hijabed in academia triggered gendered-Islamophobic micro-aggressions, whose potential impact on the participants was buffered by their resilience, positive outlook, and belief. Further, they capitalized on their visible faith to demystify negative perceptions about Muslims and to advance their career-through utilizing the diversity logic within academia, while recognizing its tokenistic nature. Despite facing challenges, the participants share certain qualities that facilitate success, with agency being the uppermost quality.

Tackling the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills shortage is an ongoing challenge for governments and policymakers worldwide. While the last decade has seen an increase in student enrolment into STEM degree courses in the UK, the gender gap remains a persistent issue in academia. In order to understand the causes underpinning female under-representation in STEM, it is essential to consider the whole academic pipeline and identify its "leaky points". As the transition between compulsory and voluntary schooling represents a critical attrition point in the STEM educational pipeline, we conducted a survey to investigate the attitude of a cohort of year 11 and year 12 pupils towards STEM disciplines. Our results indicate that a gender bias is already evident at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level, where only 25% of girls expressed the intention to pursue a career in STEM. In both age groups, girls expressed a considerably lower preference for chemistry, physics and ICT, and a higher preference for biology compared to boys in the same year group. Participation in extracurricular activities and parents' educational status both showed a strong correlation with pupils' intention to undertake STEM studies in higher education and pursue a career in a related field. A recurring theme emerging from the survey is that pupils are eager to gain more knowledge about "real life" applications of science and are inspired by interactions with visiting scientists. These results corroborate the notion that outreach activities have a crucial role in promoting engagement in STEM subjects amongst young learners, and are essential towards the endeavour of "mending the pipeline" at an early stage.

This article explores the role of gendered academic networks in the context of research evaluation, and women's lived experiences of UK universities. Gendered power is conceptualised as an important aspect of inequality regimes, providing insight into how men maintain power and how power dynamics and informal networks function, characterised in this article as 'the hustle'. A case study comprising 80 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews was completed in a UK university. Acker's theory of inequality regimes informed the central analytical framework, and Bradley's resource-based theory of power was used to explore the power dynamics in the case study. The findings have resulted in the creation of a conceptual framework which theorises the hybridised nature of inequality, gendered power and organisational lived experience, in which inequality regimes and gendered power interact and are mutually reinforced through informal processes. This article argues, from the findings of the empirical research, that in the context of the neoliberal university, inequality regimes and gendered power interact, and are mutually reinforced through informal processes and networks--'the hustle'.

This article explores findings from two projects that explore the impacts and institutional experiences of the Athena SWAN (ASC) and Race Equality (REC) Charter Marks in UK universities. The article offers an important, timely and original insight into the ways that these two charter marks are shaping and influencing practice in universities. We argue that in higher education policymaking, there has been a privileging of gender over race in terms of addressing inequalities in higher education. Whilst acknowledging the persistence of inequalities in both groups, the data from our projects highlight a significant risk that gender and race inequalities become conflated in current equalities work. We argue that as a consequence of a logic of efficiency that drives Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to combine gender and race equalities work, and the privileging within this combination of gender, HEIs can publicly work towards equality and inclusion in general terms, without having to confront uncomfortable and deeply embedded practices that perpetuate White privilege in the academy.

The dire implications of navigating the overwhelming whiteness of the education system for Black women is foregrounded by the author's autoethnography about her educational journey and experiences. Within it, the author illustrates the key role of her Black identity - despite being immersed in whiteness-- to provide a strong sense of self, pride and resilience, which ultimately leads to her survival in the unequal spaces of the education system. By way of her own educational experiences, the author shares how she becomes motivated to embark upon a PhD as a way to centre and affirm Black identities and in order to make palatable spaces within the hostility of whiteness. Drawing on her PhD research, which is framed by Black feminist epistemology, Critical Race Theory and Bourdieu's theory of practice, her findings, based on the semi-structured interviewing of 25 other Black British women graduates, illustrates that the participants share similar educational experiences and responses. The paper concludes by asserting that the attainment of Black girls and young women often does not reflect their strong commitment to education- which evidences one consequence of journeying into the 'heart of whiteness'. Therefore, the author argues for the necessity of more research and support for this diverse group.

Following identifications of gendered inconsistencies in higher education delivery [Ain, C., F. Sabir, and J. Willison. 2018. "Research Skills That men and Women Developed at University and Then Used in Workplaces." "Studies in Higher Education," Published online.], this work exposes unseen gender-related issues in the graduate population. With graduates prevalent as managers, developing management attributes and employability is emphasised across higher education. Meanwhile, notable disciplinary gender imbalances exist across education and this research explores employability in this context by triangulating Higher Education Statistics Agency and Higher Education Academy data with graduates' degree experiences. Findings reveal notable levels of employability-related support existing, with significant disciplinary variations in its visibility. Some remains unseen, especially in female-orientated disciplines, creating a gap populated by almost 50% more females than males. Consequently, fewer female graduates may recognise certain capabilities as being management-related, potentially resulting in slower career progression compared to male peers, as observed by the Office for National Statistics [ONS. 2019. "Overeducation and Hourly Wages in the UK Labour" Market; 2006 to 2017. London: Office for National Statistics. Accessed May 2, 2019. Opportunities exist across disciplines, especially the arts, humanities and social sciences, to enhance visibilities of employability-related support.

The cultural construct 'shame' (sharam) is cited as an oppressive force that controls and perpetuates patriarchal structures within particular cultures. 'Shame' and the related construct 'honour' (izzat) are believed to be key instruments for the oppression of women. Research has suggested that shame prevents women from South Asian communities from help-seeking in relation to mental health difficulties. There is little research investigating the impact of shame on British born South Asian girls and its relationship to their help-seeking behaviour. This research investigated the discourses of South Asian girls in relation to the cultural construct 'shame', mental health, and the influence that these have on their help-seeking behaviour. The analysis showed that discourses are complex and contradictory. Thus, shame is constructed by the girls as regulatory, sexist and oppressive and at the same time as helpful and protective. Implications for educational practice and the work of educational psychologists are discussed.

Gender bias exists in our language environment. We investigated personal name usage in two large corpora of language written for and by U.K. children aged 5-13. Study 1 found an overrepresentation of male names in children's books, largely attributable to male authors. In stories written by over 100,000 children, Study 2 found an overall male bias that interacted with age. Younger children wrote more about their own gender. With age, girls became more balanced yet boys continued to show a strong male bias. Our findings demonstrate a male-centered bias in both children's books and their own writing. We consider the power of written language to both shape and be shaped by cultural stereotypes via systematic biases in gender associations.

The articles in this themed issue explore global educational experiences that embrace various cultures, traditions, religions and identities. Collectively this work offers valuable insights into unexplored areas of research, illuminating issues that intersect across race, ethnicity and gender. The significance of these studies lies in the solutions, centred on social justice, that reflect resistance, activism and innovation harnessed in response to the problems discussed. This collection helps to bridge the divide between north and south in the academic world, demonstrating that answers to educational inequalities can be found in models for transformation both within and beyond the western hemisphere.

Concerns have been voiced about lad cultures in UK universities for approximately five years. The National Union of Students has been especially vocal in airing concerns, which more recently have been taken up by universities through bodies such as Universities UK. A small amount of work has explored students' perspectives about, and experiences of, laddism. That research suggests that lad culture is particularly associated with groups of men in social contexts and involves excessive alcohol consumption, rowdy behaviour, sexism, homophobia, sexual harassment and violence. This paper is the first to explore staff perspectives: we draw on data from interviews with 72 staff across 6 universities to explore their perceptions of lad culture, including its prevalence, the contexts in which it occurs and the forms it takes. We argue that perceptions about the prevalence of lad culture are strongly influenced by how it is conceptualised and, relatedly, to whom it is visible.

In 2019, AdvanceHE reported that there were just 25 UK Black female full professors in British universities. Black women are less likely to occupy a role at this level than their male and White counterparts. Despite this, Black women remain relatively absent in institutional initiatives to advance gender equality, and there is little commitment amongst UK universities to explicitly address structural inequalities of race as they affect the experiences of academic staff. Black female academics remain under-represented and invisible in UK higher education. This article draws on the first known qualitative study into the career experiences and strategies of twenty of these Black female professors. Specifically, it engages Critical Race Theory and Bourdieu as principal theoretical frameworks to explore how their academic journeys, shaped as they are by an existence at the intersection of race and gender, result in racial battle fatigue, feelings of isolation, and disillusion with the academy. The article demonstrates how, despite these challenges, these women have been agentic in their efforts to navigate higher education. They have developed and continue to deploy sophisticated strategies of analysis, hyper-surveillance, self-care, and resilience in order to carve out a successful career in the academy and remain within it.

Purpose: Global gender diversity and equality indexes have been developed to promote gender diversity and equality at the country level, but it is difficult to see how those indexes are applied to organizations on a daily basis. The purpose of this study is to examine the application of environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures for gender diversity and equality at the organizational level in a Korean context. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the institutional theory, the authors reviewed ESG measures for gender diversity and equality of women funds in four countries (USA, Canada, UK and Japan) and examined "The Women Fund" in Korea through document analysis and interviews. Findings: ESG measures in four countries' women funds mainly assessed the percentage of women in the workforce, on boards and in leadership positions. In "The Women Fund," gender diversity indicators consider the ratio of female to male employees, while gender equality indicators take into account gaps of male and female salaries and positions. This study's impact analysis indicates that the companies invested in by "The Women Fund" had higher return on assets and return on equity than those without the fund. Research limitations/implications: Although women funds explored in this study exemplify the use of ESG measures to apply global gender diversity and equality indexes at the organizational level, research is needed to examine ESG measures and women funds and their associations. Possible topics include what needs to be measured in ESG, who should be involved, how ESG measures should be applied, what outcomes of using ESG measures would ensue in organizations and how ESG measures relate to regional and global gender diversity. Practical implications: In promoting ESG measures that apply global gender diversity and equality at the organizational level, human resource development practitioners, as change agents, can help organizations develop socially responsible and ethical behaviors and transform organizational culture, practice and systems, which may influence organizations' long-term survival and development as well as financial performance. Social implications: As the government's support and policies guide and drive firms to develop and implement initiatives and programs, the launch and implementation of gender diversity and equality at the organizational level in the form of women funds require a certain level of collaboration between the government and the private sector. Originality/value: This study on the application of ESG measures for global gender diversity and equality at the organizational level in the form of women funds is timely to engage organizations in dialogue regarding what needs to be done to promote women's participation and leadership roles in organizations in Korea and other countries.

Gender inequality prevails in academia; there is currently no review on the barriers and facilitators to success for female academics in UK Higher Education. We conducted a systematic search identifying 32 papers addressing this issue. Narrative review revealed six themes: networks (prohibiting the inclusion of women), home-work balance (where women are expected to make a binary decision between the two), everyday sexism (leading to compromised psychological wellbeing and reduced likelihood of application for career advancement), inclusion/hierarchy/power structure (the assignment of less valued roles), intersectionality, and facilitators (supportive partner and Athena SWAN). The manifest, overarching narrative was of continued biases, barriers, double-standards, and unsupportive work environments. Law and resulting institutional policy should, but does not appear to, address identified barriers; consideration should be given to processes employed to implement and culturally embed these. Findings suggest we must challenge institutional norms, attitudes and expectations through facilitating accessible networks, consciousness raising and mentorship.

In recent years, the publication of children's non-fiction books about women has skyrocketed. These books aim to inspire children to get excited about STEM, emphasising that STEM can be accessible for all. Speaking informally with teachers, parents and other practitioners, Louise Couceiro has found that there seems to be an assumption that boys are unlikely to be interested in reading these types of books. In this article she begins by reflecting on data from this study to suggest that people should refrain from making assumptions about who will and who won't be interested in these types of books. She then discusses why it is important to suspend any preconceived expectations regarding the texts' popularity with particular groups of learners. Finally, she concludes by offering some recommendations on how teachers can facilitate all learners' engagement with books that celebrate the achievements of women in STEM.

Categorical career stages offer an institutional framework through which mobilities can be claimed and contested by feminists in academia. Inhabiting career stages uncritically can serve to reproduce neoliberal academic structures that feminists may seek to resist. Collaboration across career stages is a significant empirical case for understanding how feminists occupy academic space. We use auto-ethnographic methods to read career stages and feminist collaboration through each other, analysing the authors' cross-career collaborations and mentoring relationship in a Scottish University. We ask how feminist collaboration can claim "and" disrupt the neoliberal temporal logics of competitively achieving individuals on upward career trajectories, where academic arrival can feel permanently deferred. As such we argue for more pluralised and fragmented understandings of 'career stages', which as fixed categories work to position academics as "either" precarious or privileged, and for a messier imaginary of academic work and careers.

This paper gives an overview of international developments towards gender balance in the ECEC workforce in the last three decades. Research results on the role of male and female ECEC professionals and strategies for recruiting more men are reflected against goals of gender diversity and equality. As the overview shows, attitudes towards male workers and strategies for increasing participation of men are rooted in diverse and often contradictory assumptions about the 'nature' of men and women, their role in children's gendered development, and the relevance of ECEC for gender equality in general. It is concluded that gender-mixed teams in ECEC institutions need gender-conscious reflection and ongoing development of gender-sensitive pedagogy. Moreover, strategies for employing more men in ECEC have to be embedded in a discourse on gender equality in wider society.

The long-taught history of social work may be missing an important part of its root system. Groups of religious sisters were doing work similar to early English settlement houses years before Toynbee Hall, yet were left out of the history possibly due to their gender, religion, and ethnicity. Using original historic writings and illustrations, this article looks at the early work of women religious -- the preferred name for vowed religious women of various faiths -- and how they may have had a direct influence on the work of early settlements, an influence not included in social welfare history. The authors call for a social justice response by adding the work of women religious to social welfare history.

The relationship between masculinity and sports that is naturalised and reproduced in PE settings has been well-documented, highlighting contexts that privilege certain boys, limit girls and where many teachers view girls as a problem to be fixed. However, social norms regarding what constitutes feminism, gender and sexism are changing, which may impact the experiences of girls in PE. Drawing on data from an ethnographic case study, this paper explores the experiences in PE of girls who resist traditional feminine identities within a progressive school context. In doing so, we aim to understand how this shift in social norms relating to their gendered identities is played out in context. Guided by Foucault's work around the disciplining nature of power, our analysis revealed several interrelated discursive and structural barriers that limited these girls' learning and opportunities in PE, a surprising finding given the progressive ethos claimed by the school. We conclude by suggesting changes that might make PE truly 'progressive' for all students.

Inequality in academic careers is structural and systemic. However, the growing writing retreat movement offers alternative structures for academic work, and in many countries retreats are mostly attended by women. We asked women about their experiences of retreats and did a systems and transactional analysis of their appraisals of writing and perceptions of relationships with systems at work. This article provides some answers to the question of why writing retreats are attractive to and seem to benefit women. A Structured Writing Retreat is one place where women can develop process, performance, prospect and profit beliefs in relation to their writing by creating a microsystem that sustains those beliefs. However, ambivalence in responses -- in relation to research assessment, management and teaching overload -- is a reminder of the overarching systems in which they work. This research shows that some women can counter some discriminatory practices, some of the time, at writing retreats.

Critical policy analysis (CPA) is a means by which to critique policy and promote agency, equity, and justice. However, most CPA scholars examine political discourse from a distance rather than actively participate in political processes. Meanwhile, there is a growing interest in community-engaged research whereby academics partner with community members in their research endeavors. In this article, we consider the value of conjoining the philosophies and processes behind both CPA and community-engaged research to create more powerful and meaningful research endeavors that potentially can lead to political action and policy change. For this article, we present a subset of data from a larger study that asked education policy scholars how critical policy analysis informs their work and what they consider to be key objectives of this approach. We focus on a subsection of participants who demonstrated how and in what ways they consider community-engaged scholarship to be an essential component of CPA. Participants discussed the roles of empowerment and voice, emphasized the importance of moving from theory to action in their research, and provided examples of how they embodied policy making on the ground with participants in their communities.

Feminist pedagogies have established the need to query power structures in terms of curriculum content and teaching praxis. However, the topic of student assessment poses difficulties: it is a means through which students' performance is evaluated and quantified according to set institutionalised criteria that values particular forms of hegemonic knowledge. The following article presents a self-reflexive exploration of assessment within a Gender Studies module taught in the Autumn semesters of the 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years at a UK university. The module was a core component of the institution's MA in Gender Studies. This was an exciting opportunity to experiment with assessment styles corresponding to feminist pedagogies to help develop students' and instructors' disciplinary scope and explore the radical potential for creative-critical approaches to assessment. This article outlines some the challenges of employing alternative modes of learning and teaching from a feminist perspective and suggests some strategies to address these.

This paper focuses on how female academics in UK universities use dress to construct their professional identity. The paper draws on the current literature on dress, body and academic identity and uses a theoretical framework of Goffman's work of performance and Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus to explore these women's attempts to construct themselves as professionals. The aim of this paper is to give insights into these women's perceptions of 'what it takes to dress to impress' for the 'professional project' within a constantly shifting university workplace environment. The themes of analysis include issues such as the challenges of being a female academic and establishing yourself in the class, using dress to establish a feeling of belonging in the department and institution as a whole and a critique of how the various aspects of dress are incorporated in this idea of visual gratification of the 'consuming' students.

This article explores how White privilege and a hierarchy of oppression have resulted in competing identities in which gender has been given greater importance compared to race. I argue that the sociology of education needs to adopt an intersectional approach that travels in different directions if it is to remain valid. The article examines how gender, perpetuated by White privilege, continues to play a key role in the positioning of Black and minority ethnic staff, students and pupils within a range of stereotypes that operate to marginalise their life trajectories. The article argues that if sociologists of education are unwilling to challenge White privileged populist discourses and their own positions of White privilege, then they will become complicit in maintaining a socially unjust status quo.

This article uses case study interviews to examine women's experiences in higher education. It focuses on career progression, support available for promotion and particular initiatives for staff retention. The findings suggest that whilst some progress has been made to support White and Black and minority ethnic women in their career trajectories, greater change is needed in order that inclusion is embedded within institutional frameworks and strategic plans. Furthermore, clearer evidence is needed by universities to demonstrate how they are meeting their legal equality requirements as specified by the Equality Act (2010). The mere presence of diversity and equality policies does not necessarily demonstrate that gender and ethnic inequalities are being addressed. Such policies may simply result in a 'tick box' exercise. In order to address such inequalities, issues of diversity and equality must be embedded within the cultural organisation of institutions which are identified in key objectives resulting in real outcomes and practice. Additionally, there is a need to consider intersectional identities and the impact of ethnicity on women's experiences in higher education.

Lad culture is pervasive in UK higher education, fuelling misogyny and violence towards women. Lad culture is commonly described as mix of boorish socialising, drinking, sport and pack behaviour. This study reports on the attitudes and experiences of laddish students from a UK university. Laddish behaviours were ubiquitous in their university lives. They were well aware of the harm lad culture causes but struggled to manage their behaviour. Being a lad is an important part of their identity. With their lad friends they relaxed their performance of assertive masculinity. Interviewees identified banter within their friendship group as an essential social currency but were explicit that banter aimed at other people was bullying. Academic success was important and was gained in part by making a distinct break from anti-academic lads. Their self-awareness and willingness to engage with the issue offers opportunities for more effective interventions to combat misogyny.

This article provides the first analysis of all available UK university anti-bullying policies, summarising, comparing, and contrasting the content of policies acquired from university websites. The importance of anti-bullying policies is known from policy research in schools and workplaces but has previously not been investigated in Higher Education. A new coding framework and guidelines were developed to enable our analysis, and universities were given a score. Scores indicated variation between policies, suggesting some students may have inadequate support when consulting their university policy. The findings indicate that all universities should create and implement an anti-bullying policy. Students could be involved in the development of interventions or policies, as co-created initiatives may be more influential. University policy must be up-to-date, inclusive, comprehensive yet concise, and it must be publicised. We propose that our novel coding framework could be of use to policy makers and researchers investigating bullying policy within higher education.

I look at the changes in higher education (HE) and women's lives over the last 50 years, drawing on my recent book "Feminism, Gender & Universities: Politics, Passion & Pedagogies" which is a life history of feminism entering academe. The Robbins Report (cmnd 2154 1963) on HE was published in the same year that I went to university. It inaugurated a process of change and educational expansion that was linked to other major social transformations, including feminism. Its effects have been widely felt such that women now participate in education and employment on unprecedented levels. Indeed, it has opened up opportunities for education and employment for women including individual and social mobility. From my study I show how it opened up opportunities for women from both middle class and working class backgrounds to be first-in-the-family to go to university. I will also argue that whilst there have been very welcome changes in education, and HE especially, such that there is a gender balance of undergraduate students in HE, this does not mean that gender equality has been achieved. Patriarchy or hegemonic masculinity in HE is still strongly felt and experienced despite women's and feminist involvements in academe over the last 50 years. The question remains about how to transform universities to achieve genuine gender equality across all students and academics in HE.

University life can be stressful, and accurate measurement of perceived stress is important for research and practice. However, despite widespread use, disagreement persists regarding the latent structure of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), which poses serious consequences for how the measure should be administered. Furthermore, factorial invariance between genders has not been established with the 10-item PSS, though gender differences in perceived stress have been detected. This study examined the factor structure, composite reliability, convergent validity, and gender invariance of the PSS-10 among 524 UK university students. Four distinct factor models (one-factor, correlated two-factor, correlated three-factor, and bifactor) were examined using confirmatory factor analysis. The totality of results supported a bifactor solution. Multi-group analysis established configural, metric, and scalar invariance of this model across gender. This study supports the use of total PSS-10 scores with UK university students and suggests the scale is not significantly affected by gender bias.