Ethical Engineering and Respect for The ‘Other’

Engineers have a very important role and responsibility in shaping modern society. Diversity amongst engineers is important in fulfilling this responsibility and ensuring that the creativity and needs of the whole population are taken account of. However, only a small percentage of engineers are female and very few of them are disabled. The paper discusses the experiences of women and disabled engineers in the context of othering and considers the way in which the existence of binary divides facilitates marginalisation and exclusion. It also discusses the need to involve end-users in design and development and education to encourage this, with a particular focus on disabled end-users

Strategies to address gender inequalities in Scottish schools: a review of the literature

This literature review forms the first part of a study of the strategies employed in Scottish schools to address gender inequalities in relation primarily to attainment. In undertaking this task, the intention is to build upon a number of previous investigations into the nature and causes of gender inequalities in schools. Some of these (Riddell, 1996; Osler et al, 2002; Lloyd, 2005) have considered gender and special educational needs; others have discussed gender at particular stages of schooling (Wilkinson et al, 1999; Croxford, 1999; Biggart, 2000); whilst a number of recent projects in the UK and in Scotland (Powney, 1996; Sukhnandan, 1999; Tinklin et al, 2001) have considered gender, attainment and/or achievement across the population and span of compulsory schooling. A recent nationally commissioned report (Younger, Warrington et al, 2005) has specifically investigated the issue of raising the attainment of boys. Together, these studies and others have established that there are gender inequalities both in the forms of participation in schooling and in its outcomes (albeit there is agreement that gender is not the only, nor even the main, source of inequality). Also available from this body of literature are analyses of causes of gender inequalities and debate about the strategies schools might adopt to address these inequalities. These strategies arise, in general, from understandings of the nature and causes of gender difference. There is, therefore, some contention here. A number of commentators argue that some of the strategies adopted by schools pathologise gender differences and hence reinforce particular forms of masculinity at the risk of suppressing, or marginalising, other forms, and at the expense of femininities. Evidence that there are gender inequalities in attainment in Scottish schools has been discussed in detail elsewhere. It will be reviewed briefly here and will be related to broader patterns of inequality, and in particular to social class. For this study, though, with its focus on school strategies, the debate about the causes of gendered outcomes is especially important and it will be treated in some depth and related to social class before the discussion moves on to consider the range of strategies employed in schools, as far as they are represented in the literature. The strategies to be considered encompass approaches to learning, teaching and assessment; aspects of classroom organisation; and school-wide issues such as staff development. All of these will be considered critically in the light of previous discussion of the causes of gender differences and their intersection by other, and arguably more influential, forms of identity

The Triple Whammy: Gendered Careers of Geographically Marginalised Academic STEM Women

In this paper we explore how gender, non-standard job roles as well as location create a triple whammy affecting the visibility and therefore the career paths of women STEM academics. Drawing on data from interviews and surveys at a distributed university with locations across the UK, we examine the experiences of a group of ‘Regional Academics’ who are located at a distance from the main university campus, either in regional centres or as homeworkers, and show how gender intersects with distance and status to exacerbate inequalities. In their narrative accounts, they describe themselves as the ‘glue that hold the bits of the university together’, mediating between part-time tutors, students and other academics and researchers. We explore how career progression has been limited for these liminal academics, but how small steps to increase visibility and provide recognition for achievement can result in strategies that overcome these inherent obstacles

Men, Masculinities and Water Powers in Irrigation

The aim of this article is to provide an informed plea for more explicitly identifying, naming and unravelling the linkages between water control and gender in irrigation. The fact that power, expertise and status in irrigation tend to have a strong masculine connotation is by now quite well established, and underlies calls for more women in water decision making, engineering education and professions. Yet, the questions of how and why water control, status and expertise are linked to masculinity, and of whether and how such links work to legitimize the exercise of power, are seldom asked. To date, associations between masculinity and professional water performance have largely been taken for granted and remained unexamined. The resulting perceived normalcy makes mechanisms of (gendered) power and politics in water appear self-evident, unchangeable, and indeed gender-neutral. The article reviews examples of the masculinity of irrigation in different domains to argue that exposing and challenging such hitherto hidden dimensions of (gendered) power is important for the identification of new avenues of gender progressive change, and for shedding a new and interesting light on the workings of power in water. KEYWORDS: Irrigation, water, gender, politics, masculinities, engineer

Pushing Back Against Deficit Narratives: Mentoring as Scholars of Color

In this article we share our lived experiences with mentoring. As tenured women professors of color, we push back against the assumption that institutions of higher education are neutral sites, that we have to change to belong, and that we do not belong. Each of us underscores the importance and value of our realities and the knowledge we generate to address inequality and to counteract negative stereotyping. We argue that rejecting deficit narratives and privileging the narratives of those we mentor and of those who have mentored us is vital to increasing faculty of color diversity, inclusion and belonging in higher education.Educatio

Managing masculinities: heads of construction in Further Education

At first glance, the building site could not be more different to a Further Education college. Construction is ‘tough’ work, ‘real’ work, a hyper-masculine environment that foregrounds physical strength, risk-taking and crude, often discriminatory humour. Further Education, on the other hand, is often positioned as a caring environment, a context of emotional labour (Leach, 2011), inclusivity and diversity (Williams, 2008). Yet for all the points of incongruence, congruence may also exist, especially in terms of organisational masculinities (Collinson and Hearn, 2001), embedded as much within the management practices of FE as the physicality of the building site. Against this background, this paper presents the findings from research involving Heads of Construction (HoCs) within FE as they manage the transition and performance of construction lecturers. The theoretical framework draws on studies of gender identity and masculinities within various industries as well as studies of career transitions in both the private sector and education. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 14 HoCs that focused on the backgrounds of the participants, their own transition and their experiences of managing often large and complex schools. The findings highlight the issues of ‘cultural transfer’ as new lecturers struggle to adapt to the teaching role and leave behind the educationally incongruous norms of the building site such as sexism and homophobia. However, while some characteristics of blue-collar masculinity are left behind, others are desirable within colleges such as competitiveness and entrepreneurialism, central to institutional survival in the contemporary educational marketplace, especially in times of austerity. Heads of Construction are therefore charged with managing this re-articulation of masculinity for the benefit of the school, the college and their learners: the competitiveness of their teams was exploited to reach organisational targets; entrepreneurialism was encouraged to exploit links with industry to create new income streams. As such, the paper highlights the centrality of middle managers to the successful transition of vocational lecturers from industry to education as well as their influence upon the formation of the teacher-identity within a reconstructed community of practice

Violent and victimized bodies: sexual violence policy in England and Wales

This paper uses the notion of the body to frame an archaeology of sexual violence policy in England and Wales, applying and developing Pillow’s ideas. It argues that the dominant construction is of sexual violence as an individualized crime, with the solution being for a survivor to report, and with support often instrumentalized in relation to criminal justice objectives. However, criminal justice proceedings can intensify or create further trauma for sexual violence survivors. Furthermore, in addition to criminalizing the violent body and supporting the victimized one, there is a need for policy to produce alternative types of bodies through preventative interventions. Much sexual violence is situated within (hetero) sexual dynamics constructing a masculine aggressor and a feminine body which eventually yields. Prevention must therefore focus on developing embodied boundaries, and narratives at the margins of policy could underpin such efforts