Equality Agenda Research Articles

Leaving no-one behind: can the Sustainable Development Goals succeed where the Millennium Development Goals lacked?

ABSTRACTThis article considers what the Leave No-one Behind agenda means, and how it interacts with the gender equality agenda. It starts with a brief assessment of what the Millennium Development Goals have delivered for women and girls by way of comparison. We then go on to look at the Sustainable Development Goal framework, in relation to both gender equality and Leave No-one Behind. This is followed by an assessment of what is needed to put this rhetoric into practice, through national plans, policy changes, data, financing, and political will.

From Ex-Quota to In-Quota: An Analysis of Guidance Counsellorss Perceptions of the Impact of 2012 Budgetary Cutbacks on Their Care Work Across Different School Types.

Baker’s equality discourse (2004, 2009) and Lynch’s affective care dialogue (2002, 2007, 2009) informed this study on the impact of budgetary cutbacks on guidance in Irish schools, which found that uneven guidance reductions, primarily between fee-charging schools and schools in the Free Education Scheme (FES), resulted in an unequal distribution of care and a negative student care experience. From its inception in the 1970s, guidance in Irish schools had a holistic, equality agenda, and it is discussed as one means of reducing the impacts o f many inequalities in schools. While guidance in all schools helps students make choices in their lives, the thesis showed that it operated differently in fee-charging schools and FES schools, with greater demands from students for help with personal decisionmaking and counselling in FES schools and by contrast a greater emphasis on educational decision-making and career decision-making in fee-charging schools. Factors such as social class, familial habitus, parent-power, cultural, social and economic capitals, and institutional habitus were shown to influence young people and their parents’ decision-making, and in turn the guidance provided in schools. Care was not distributed equally across all school types. The study demonstrated that students in FES schools experienced compromised care, due to a large reduction in counselling appointments. With a reported rise in student mental health issues, the demand for counselling in FES schools increased, but as these schools prioritised career guidance, counselling was neglected, the quality of the service suffered and it became a reactionary crisis-intervention service, mirroring the trivialisation and neglect of the affective in education (Lynch, 2009). Managing greater care demands with less time resources also increased guidance counsellors’ stress. The change from an ex-quota to an in-quota guidance allocation thus had an unequal impact across schools and a negative impact on the quality and distribution of student care in some school types.

Money, Empowerment and Neglect – The Europeanization of Gender Equality Promotion in Greek and Portuguese Employment Policies

AbstractThis article examines the impact of the European Employment Strategy (EES) on Greek and Portuguese employment policies (GEP and PEP, respectively) with regard to gender equality promotion during 1995–2009. It focuses on the three main EES goals of gender mainstreaming, reconciliation of work and family, and reducing gender pay gaps, drawing on 44 semi‐structured interviews, official documents and the academic literature. The first part discusses the content of GEP and PEP before the introduction of the EES, arguing that gender equality promotion was absent in both countries. The second part examines the reforms promoting gender equality in GEP and PEP after the introduction of the EES in 1997, arguing that both countries implemented a substantial policy change which can be observed in two areas: first, expanding training and providing start‐up subsidies for women; and, second, expanding care facilities to promote the reconciliation of work and family life. In the third part it is argued that these reforms were linked to the EES and that the Europeanization of GEP occurred through the European Social Fund's conditionality, whereas in the case of PEP, Europeanization occurred through the external empowerment of domestic policy entrepreneurs who used the EES to promote their pro‐gender equality agenda. Overall, in both countries the EU caused a considerable but not transformative change in their welfare states, with the EES constituting the key driver of pro‐gender equality reforms in employment policy.

Thirty Years of Gender Quotas in Germany: Policy Adoption between Mainstreaming and Minimal Compliance

This paper reviews three decades of gender quota policies in Germany and assesses policy adoption in parties, public administration, as well as on corporate and public boards. Germany was an early adopter of quotas for women in political parties and in public administration. Even though both measures were controversial when first enacted in the 1980s and early 1990s, they have since become rather low-profile gender equality strategies. A recent initiative to adopt quotas for women on corporate and public boards, by contrast, produced substantial public discussion. The mainstreaming of positive action plans in public institutions that include decision quotas, fixed quotas and goal quotas has given gender advocates formally strong leverage to advance a gender equality agenda. At the same time, a culture of minimalist compliance has pervaded the public sector and parties. Male institutions and organizations tend to exhibit more passive resistance than vocal opposition, thus making it difficult for feminists to engage effectively with non-compliance. A lack of sanctions as well as intricate strategies to circumvent quota decisions add to a sense among German feminist activists that quotas are one, but by no means the only strategy for gender equality in public life.

Austerity and the Future for Gender Equality in Europe

Austerity policies in Europe are disrupting and potentially reversing progress toward gender equality, a core principle of European policy from the mid-1990s onward. Not all EU gender-related policy has been aimed at promoting equality but instead has been associated with reforming the EU social model toward more neoliberal, flexible, and high employment labor markets. In this article, the author assesses these uses and potential abuses of the gender equality agenda in Europe, both before and after the crisis. While the crisis has not reversed the trend toward women’s integration into employment, women are facing cuts in employment conditions post crisis, affecting both the higher skilled in the public sector and the lower skilled, attributable to accelerated labor market deregulation. Moreover, the trend toward a new reproductive bargain has been halted with public care services being cut, particularly in member states where services are already limited.

Are Litigation and Collective Bargaining Complements or Substitutes for Achieving Gender Equality? A Study of the British Equal Pay Act

We present a socio-legal case study of the recent equal pay litigation wave in Britain, which saw an unprecedented increase in the number of claims, triggered in part by the entry of no-win, no-fee law firms into this part of the legal services market. Although the rise in litigation led to greater adversarialism in pay bargaining, litigation and collective bargaining mostly operated as complementary mechanisms in advancing an equality agenda. Litigation may be a more potent agent for social change than some recent analyses, which stress the limits of the law in the face of organisational pressures to canalise and diffuse human rights, have suggested.

Are litigation and collective bargaining complements or substitutes for achieving gender equality? A study of the British Equal Pay Act

We present a socio-legal case study of the recent equal pay litigation wave in Britain, which saw an unprecedented increase in the number of claims, triggered in part by the entry of no-win, no-fee law firms into this part of the legal services market. Although the rise in litigation led to greater adversarialism in pay bargaining, litigation and collective bargaining mostly operated as complementary mechanisms in advancing an equality agenda. Although there are limits to the effectiveness of law-driven strategies in the face of organisational pressures to canalise and diffuse human rights, litigation may be a more potent force for social change than some recent accounts have suggested.

Gender, Financial Deepening and the Production of Embodied Finance: Towards a Critical Feminist Analysis

This article critically interrogates the ways in which gender equality has been linked to processes of financial deepening, partly via a global coalition of public and private institutions that have come together in recent years to promote an instrumentalist gender equality agenda. Corporations, banks and financial firms are playing an increasingly important role in shaping the contours of the global gender equality agenda and reproducing narratives regarding the need to (1) financially “empower” women, (2) uphold women as the “saviours” of national economies post-2008 and (3) “tap in” to the productive (i.e. profitable) potential of women's bodily capacities. Drawing on Marxist and feminist theory, I develop an approach to theorising the inherently embodied and gendered nature of finance that reveals the ways in which these tropes obscure the labour associated with social reproduction, promote the commodification of women's bodily capacities to produce, and support the differential production of bodies while simultaneously masking embodied forms of difference.

Pathways to Gender-equitable Men

Efforts to promote gender equality have recognized the importance of involving men and boys. Yet, in general, we have done little in terms of large-scale research in the Global South to understand how men are responding to the global gender equality agenda. This article presents findings from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), one of the most comprehensive efforts of its kind to gather data on men’s attitudes and practices related to gender equality in eight low- and middle-income countries: Brazil, Chile, Mexico, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. It provides a current picture of men’s attitudes about gender and gender equality, explores the determinants of equitable attitudes, and investigates the associations between equitable attitudes and relationship behaviors. We find that men report positive but ambivalent attitudes toward gender equality, and that education, income, and more equitable practices in men’s childhood homes are associated with men’s more equitable attitudes and practices. Finally, we show that in most countries, men’s equitable attitudes are also associated with more equitable practices, including more participation in the home and reduced use of violence, as well as higher sexual satisfaction. The findings suggest both the need for program approaches that change attitudes, as well as policy and structural approaches that create lived experiences of gender equality for men. Given how much early childhood experiences influenced men's adult attitudes and practices, the findings also emphasize the need for programs and policies to promote equitable caregiving.

Advancing the equality and diversity agenda in armed forces: global perspectives

Purpose– Focusing on some of the key strands of equality and diversity (E&D), the purpose of this paper is to highlight the progress made by armed forces in implementing the E&D agenda, with specific focus on Anglophone countries and their allies. The research also looks at the obstacles encountered by managers and policymakers in attempting to establish effective diversity management in a traditionally highly conservative public sector institution.Design/methodology/approach– Using an approach known as secondary analysis, there is an in-depth review of a wide range of data sources.Findings– The analysis reveals that E&D issues in armed forces have been under researched and there is also unbalanced coverage and reporting of E&D across nations. There is also evidence of greater progress on diversity management in the armed forces of some countries but a distinct lack of progress in others. A combination of political, legal, economic and social influences are impinging on the culture of militaries. Whilst in the long-term these pressures are likely to result in armed forces becoming more reflective of developments in wider society, the road to achieving this is still fraught with uncertainty.Originality/value– To increase the understanding of diversity management in public institutions characterised by an mono culture and traditionally associated with resistance to change, and establish the extent to which the legal, social justice and business cases for promoting E&D are wholly applicable to the armed forces.

English Law and American Democracy in the Revolutionary Republic: Maryland, 1776-1822

Between 1776 and 1784, eleven of the original thirteen states made some provision for the continuing authority of the common law and British statutes. But there were highly significant variations in the pattern from state to state, variations that helped to differentiate each state as a unique jurisdiction. In Maryland, despite the effort of leading lawyers to settle the matter once and for all in 1776, the precise effects of Article 3 had to be worked out over several decades of political, legal, and intellectual maneuvering. As a result, Marylanders left a remarkable record of politicians, lawyers, and judges contesting for different views of the importance of legal continuity in a democratic republic. This history helps explain why Marylanders are still entitled to the benefits of the common law by the authority of Article 5 of their current constitution, and it also illuminates a defining feature of American democracy, the tension between its theory of sovereignty and the rule of law in practice. As historians and students of the revolutionary era in Maryland well know, the constitution of 1776 as a whole was a defeat for direct democracy and any popular agenda of social leveling or economic equality that may have been in play, A few idealists, notably Colonel Rezin Hammond of Anne Arundel County, were elected to the 1776 convention but were unable to build a strong statewide political coalition. Effectively led by their wealthy and worldly leaders, notably Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Matthew Tilghman, Samuel Chase, Thomas Johnson, Charles Carroll the Barrister, and William Paca, a majority of delegates embraced independence from the British Empire but voted consistently for a style of government that was familiar and predictable. Why was this plan so conservative? In part because delegates embraced a conception of democratic legitimacy shaped not just by Revolutionary ideals and rhetoric about liberty and rights, but also by the particulars of local legal history.

Impact of EU Gender Equality Policy on Albanian Economic Development

Lack of economic development, unemployment and lack of work-life balance between woman and men has been one of the main challenges of Western Balkan countries. Their fragile internal political and economic structure has made external actors be very powerful in shaping national policies. In the last fifteen years, European Union has been the main promoter of reforms that can bring the countries of the region closer in line with the EU. The main goal of this paper was to firstly look at the EU gender equality policy in the Western Balkans that applies to Albania as well, and assess its compatibility with the real concerns of Albanian woman. Secondly, the study measured the impact of the first policy, i.e. women inclusion in the labor market, on the economic growth of Albania. This research employed a quantitative methodology based on surveys and a regression analysis. Surveys were conducted with 537 female in Albania clustered mainly according to age and geographical location. Regression analysis was based on official statistical data of the women employment and annual real growth of GDP of Albania in a range of ten years. The results showed that Albanian women are mostly concerned with the lack of economic development and their expectation is that the EU accession policies should primarily address that. In addition to that, the study found out that there exist a direct and positive relationship between women inclusion in the labor market and economic growth. Therefore, EU gender equality agenda covers the main needs of Albanian women as women employment means higher economic growth and less inequality that are factors of economic development. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n3p146

No Empowerment without Rights, No Rights without Politics: Gender-equality, MDGs and the post-2015 Development Agenda

The main argument of this paper is that progress towards gender equality and women's empowerment in the development agenda requires a human rights-based approach, and requires support for the women's movement to activate and energize the agenda. Both are missing from Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3. Empowerment requires agency along multiple dimensions—sexual, reproductive, economic, political, and legal. However, MDG 3 frames women's empowerment as reducing educational disparities. By omitting other rights and not recognizing the multiple interdependent and indivisible human rights of women, the goal of empowerment is distorted and “development silos” are created. Women's organizations are key actors in pushing past such distortions and silos at all levels, and hence crucial to pushing the gender equality agenda forward. However, the politics of agenda setting also influences funding priorities such that financial support for women's organizations and for substantive women's empowerment projects is limited. To re-focus the post-2015 Development Agenda around human rights, we conclude by outlining an approach of issue-based goals and people-focused targets, which makes substantive space for civil society including women's rights organizations.

Latin Women Take the Helm

Latin Women Take the Helm

Bringing disability history alive in schools: promoting a new understanding of disability through performance methods

The transfer of disability history research to new generation audiences is crucial to allow lessons from the past to impact the future inclusion and equality agenda. As today’s children are the policy makers and the legislators of tomorrow, it is important for them to have opportunities to engage with disability life story narratives to understand personal experiences of disability and the social systems that influenced their construction through time and space. Through the embodiment and manipulation of these powerful narratives, children have the opportunity to challenge traditional perspectives of disability that may be disabling and oppressive. Such materials contribute to the making of an inclusive society by enabling children to craft mechanisms of intervention that can used to build resilience and resistance to barriers, and thereby generate social change. This paper examines how performance techniques can be used as a pedagogical tool to transpose new understandings of disability history and culture to school-based audiences. It builds on two previous projects: one focusing on life history narratives of three generations of disabled people, and the other exploring the potential for text-based disability narratives to move beyond text in interesting and creative ways. In so doing, this paper reports on a cross-disciplinary project which brought together academics (from performance and social science backgrounds), three performing arts secondary schools and disabled theatre performers. It presents qualitative evidence of how performance workshops delivered in three schools, by disabled performers, and stimulated by disability life history research, has the potential to increase disability awareness in the mainstream classroom and challenge negative disability stereotypes that influence how disabled people are made known in society.

Structured Inequality: Historical Realities of the Post-Apartheid Economy

With the advent of the twentieth anniversary of the democratic elections in South Africa, it is useful to examine the most crucial and certainly one of the most controversial areas of change: the South African economy. The historic wealth of South Africa, making it the second largest economy on the continent, was based on enormous mineral wealth combined with a racially discriminatory legal system that resulted in an abundant disenfranchised and poorly paid workforce. 1 In this manner, huge profits were gener ated for a very few. While the apartheid economy suffered from a very small internal consumer market, and increasingly from external censure and withdrawal, it still functioned successfully for the extremely small, privileged white community that reaped the benefits of the country’s wealth. Has it continued to be successful with an entirely different agenda of equality? South Africa has fully joined the international community and has been transformed in countless ways. All residents of the country now enjoy the full rights of citizenship; they are free to move about the country, and to engage in business and economic pursuits. South Africa has been welcomed into international business circles and freely trades with all nations. South Africa was asked to join the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) of developing economies, and is the only country in Africa to be ranked among the top fifteen emerging economies worldwide. The very size of the economy has expanded by 438%, from $80 billion to $350 billion, and per capita GDP has increased by 90%. 2 Any visitor to the country’s urban centers will be astounded not only by the growth of the population, but also by the expansion of commerce. Apparently the end of apartheid was great for business in a general sense, but has that change benefitted most South Africans? In reality, the economy has not changed much for many. South Africa today suffers with the most unequal income

A Radical Agenda for Men's Caregiving

The gender equality agenda has long discussed the unequal burden of care work for women and girls. But this debate has seldom focused on how to create the conditions necessary for men and boys to do more care work and be part of a global effort to value care work, regardless of who carries it out. In this analysis of global data and trends, the author argues for a radical shifting of the conversation to understand the resistance to men's care work, the benefits to men of greater participation in care work, and provides a set of policy recommendations for how to promote this change. The article also argues that the benefits of men's caregiving may be the impetus to move from a limited and zero-sum notion of the ‘patriarchal dividend’ to a ‘gender equality dividend’ with benefits for women, children and men themselves.

The spiral of advocacy: How state-based LGBT advocacy organizations use ground-up public communication strategies in their campaigns for the “Equality Agenda”

This article outlines the communication and outreach strategies used by state-based LGBT advocacy organizations. Leaders of these organizations explained through in-depth interviews that their campaigns address four policy areas: non-discrimination, hate crimes, safe schools, and relationship recognition. LGBT citizens and allies serve as spokespersons. They convey stories of the LGBT experience and reinforce LGBT issues as mainstream concerns. State-level advocacy emphasizes that substantive change occurs from the ground up; change nationally requires a critical mass of support first at local levels. This article demonstrates how public relations can serve as a tool for democracy and an instrument of social change, and how “managing legitimacy” can be placed as central to the public relations’ process.

Understanding the ways in which health visitors manage anxiety in cross-cultural work: a qualitative study

This paper is a report of part of a study that explored the ways in which health visitors manage uncertainty and anxiety when working with clients across cultures. Internationally health care professionals are required to deliver a high standard of culturally appropriate care to increasingly diverse communities and yet problems persist. Research evidence informing cultural 'competence' is focused largely around student experience and consequently little is known about the day-to-day experiences of health professionals in diverse community settings. Anxiety and uncertainty are increasingly recognised as important emotions experienced by a variety of health care professionals when working across cultures and yet the ways in which anxiety and uncertainty is managed in practice is less well understood. Grounded theory methodology was used and 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with participating health visitors in the North East of England between May 2008 and September 2009. All participants described themselves as white. This study identified three different positions adopted by the health visitors to manage uncertainty and anxiety in their work across cultures. Identified as, 'Fixing a culture', 'Reworking the equality agenda' and 'Asserting the professional self', these strategies identify the ways in which health visitors try to manage the uncertainty and anxiety they feel when working in diverse communities. All of these strategies attempt in different ways to negate cultural difference and to render culture as static and known. Given that health professionals report anxiety and uncertainty when working across diverse community settings, identification of the strategies used by health visitors to manage that anxiety is important for both policy and practice. New strategies need to be developed to help health professionals to manage uncertainty and anxiety in ways that promote both cultural safe care and health equity.

Understandings of gender and education in the political and cultural context: the case of Afghan students in an MA (education) programme

Globally, gender differences in education have been an area of policy concern, research, and development partnerships. The international agenda of gender equality has been adopted by national governments even in countries, such as Afghanistan, where predominant views are clearly at variance with this agenda. Attempts to analyse such conditions must be based on examination of gender and education in the broader political and cultural context. Gender issues have been a central theme in an EU-funded Master's programme in Educational Research and Development for Afghan students at Nangarhar University, conducted during 2008–2010. This article analyses the political and cultural context of gender in Afghanistan, which constitutes the framework for the Afghan students' understandings of gender and education. These are examined as expressed in texts produced by the students and in group interviews. On the basis of our analysis, the following tension is clear: the students are aware of the international agenda of gender equality in education, but at the same time they are concerned about problems in the practical application of this agenda in their own society and relate these concerns to their interpretations of principles of Islam and Afghan cultural traditions.