40 research outputs found
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Girls' jobs for the boys? Men, masculinity and non-traditional occupations
Occupational segregation by sex remains the most pervasive aspect of the labour market. In the past, most research on this topic has concentrated on explanations of women’s segregation into low paid and low status occupations, or investigations of women who have crossed gender boundaries into men’s jobs, and the potential impact on them and the occupations. In contrast, this article reports on a small scale, qualitative study of ten men who have crossed into what are generally defined as ‘women’s jobs’. In doing so, one of the impacts on them has been that they have experienced challenges to their masculine identity from various sources and in a variety of ways. The men’s reactions to these challenges, and their strategies for developing and accommodating their masculinity in light of these challenges are illuminating. They either attempted to maintain a traditional masculinity by distancing themselves from female colleagues, and/or partially (re)constructed a different masculinity by identifying with their non-traditional occupations. This they did as often as they deemed necessary as a response to different forms of challenge to their gender identities from both men and women. Finally, the article argues that these responses work to maintain the men as the dominant gender, even in these traditionally defined ‘women’s jobs’
Does the engineering culture in UK higher education advance women’s careers?
Current research suggests that increases in the number of women studying engineering and related courses have not been matched by a similar increase in women engineering professionals. This suggests that although women are attracted to engineering, their experiences in higher education (HE) discourage them from pursuing their chosen career path. The paper explores whether the masculine culture of the engineering sector permeates the culture and curriculum in engineering HE, and if it does, what impact this has on women engineering students. This is achieved through semi-structured, qualitative interviews with a range of female engineering students from both the pre and post 1992 university sectors. Findings indicate that while women are not deterred from pursuing their chosen engineering career, the culture and structure of the engineering education system has been designed for a male audience. This suggests that engineering HE does not benefit most female students to the same extent as male students. It is recommended
that HE engineering must review its structure, culture, practices and curriculum if it is to retain female engineering graduates and to attract more women into the sector. This paper fulfils an identified gap in research on women in engineering and will be of interest to university engineering departments and faculties and the Engineering Council, as well as to those in the fields of social policy, education and equal opportunities
Managing and monitoring equality and diversity in UK sport: An evaluation of the sporting equals Racial Equality Standard and its impact on organizational change
Despite greater attention to racial equality in sport in recent years, the progress of national sports organizations toward creating equality of outcomes has been limited in the United Kingdom. The collaboration of the national sports agencies, equity organizations and national sports organizations (including national governing bodies of sport) has focused on Equality Standards. The authors revisit an earlier impact study of the Racial Equality Standard in sport and supplement it with another round of interview material to assess changing strategies to manage diversity in British sport. In particular, it tracks the impact on organizational commitment to diversity through the period of the establishment of the Racial Equality Standard and its replacement by an Equality Standard that deals with other diversity issues alongside race and ethnicity. As a result, the authors question whether the new, generic Equality Standard is capable of addressing racial diversity and promoting equality of outcomes. © 2006 Sage Publications
Performing women: The gendered dimensions of the UK new research economy
This paper explores the development and maintenance of familiar gendered employment patterns and practices in UK universities, which are exemplars of new modes of knowledge production, commodification and marketisation. After discussing in detail the evidence of gender discrimination in UK higher education and the changes in the academic labour process consequent to the incorporation, at least at the policy level, of universities into the ‘knowledge economy’, institution-specific data is used to highlight the gendered aspects of the research economy from the three intermeshing perspectives of research culture, research capital and the research production process. This nexus is constructed in such a way as to systematically militate against women’s full and equal involvement in research. Lack of transparency, increased competition and lower levels of collegiate activity coupled with networking based on homosociability are contributing to a research production process where women are marginalized
Genders at Work: Gender as a Geography of Power in the Academy
This chapter discusses contemporary research investigating how gender operates as a geography of power in the contemporary academy, particularly in relation to notions of ‘career’. Massey’s understanding of space as ‘a simultaneity of stories-so-far and places as collections of those stories’ (2005, p.11) shapes the research questions and a methodology of ‘spatial storytelling’ which foregrounds relationships between space and power in considering lived experiences of work and career. The chapter presents a selection of participants’ ‘stories-so-far’ which illustrate the complexity and dimensionality of lived, gendered experiences in the workplace and provide a basis for reflection on the opportunities these afford to resist sexism in the academy
Mind the gap? Civil society policy engagement and the pursuit of gender justice: critical discourse analysis of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Africa 2003–2015
This article presents critical discourse analysis of state and civil society organisations’ efforts to implement the gender mainstreaming goals set out in the United Nations’ Beijing Declaration. It is argued that the latter represents a generational opportunity to apply a Feminist Political Economic Framework to development in Africa. However, the research findings show how current practice falls short of the sought-after participative democratic model of mainstreaming. Instead, analysis reveals significant differences in state and civil society organisations’ policy framing, issues over conceptual clarity and a disjuncture in state and civil society prioritisation of key gendered issues such as poverty, economic inequality and conflict resolution. This matters because it indicates that the capacity of the civil sphere to act as a political arena from which NGOs may challenge the traditionally male-dominated power structures is being undermined by a ‘disconnect’ between state and civil society as they pursue contrasting agendas