Women and higher education in Iran: What are the implications for employment and the “marriage market”?

In contemporary Iran, women with higher education face both gender discrimination and an unfavourable economic system, one that is not conducive to employment-generation for women. This paper provides an analysis of women’s access to higher education in Iran, which has varied over the last 30 years, and their continuously limited participation in the job market. Based on qualitative field research, this paper includes the voices of individual women, discussing their experience of higher education and factors they think are contributing to their limited choice of employment. The paper suggests that while the recent trend in negotiating mehrieh (a nuptial gift which is payable by the groom to the bride) has been a strategy employed by Iranian women to overcome some of the discriminatory laws they are subject to, this trend cannot actually be explained by the fact that women’s employment opportunities are limited. The paper concludes by asserting that limited labour force participation for educated women is a consequence of both political economy and gender ideology.     

Higher education and women’s empowerment in Pakistan

This paper summarises the findings of a 2005 doctoral study by Malik which explored to what extent participation in higher education offers empowerment to women in Pakistan. A survey instrument was used to question female faculty members and female students from 10 public universities in Pakistan; 1290 students and 290 faculty members responded. Subsequently, semi‐structured interviews were held with 10 faculty members and 10 students. Respondents highlighted economic independence and an increased standing within family and society as the main benefits of higher education participation. A major finding is that participation in higher education enables women to impact on a number of discriminatory practices simultaneously and thereby effect change for the better. The main recommendation is that future educational strategies be developed with the aim of further promoting gender equality in all areas of education in Pakistan, but particularly with the aim of increasing female students’ participation in higher education.     

对传统性别歧视教育依据的首次解构

性别歧视教育实施的根据是男优女劣天生论和才智有损女德论。戊戌妇女运动对其中国版本男智女愚天生论和“女子无才便是德”进行了与西方早期女权运动同样的批判,指出男智女愚并非天生而是后天性别歧视教育所塑成,亦可通过改变教育来改变;女性必须通过正规教育增长才识,才能具备道德能力。其批判首次动摇了传统性别歧视教育的基础,成为中国争取教育性别公平的开端,亦说明至少中西早期妇女运动的水平不分轩轾,西方学术界茏统地认为中国妇女运动远比西方落后是偏见。     

The cracked glass ceiling: equal work but unequal status

The achievement of gender equity in universities continues to warrant attention. Globally, universities have much work ahead of them if they are to redress the gender imbalance in senior positions and remuneration rates. To examine this issue, multiple sources of evidence were used to observe teaching and research workload of academic staff employed at mid-tier business faculties from two urban Australian universities which had more women employed in junior academic ranks. This article argues that although gender equity, in terms of workload, has improved, inequality, in terms of pay and status, still exists. Specifically, while workload differences between genders were largely not evident, fewer women were employed in senior ranks. These results suggest, despite policy reforms, that inequity continues to be a problem in the Australian higher education sector with implications for the recognition (and addressing) of inequity in the global higher education industry. In summary, higher education institutions, senior policy-makers and managers must be cognizant of balancing teaching workloads with opportunities and support systems for research-related activities and directing human resource efforts and promotion opportunities.     

“不同的声音”——女性主义视角下的课堂教学

女性主义是一种以服务于妇女解放,追求性剐平等为宗旨的思想取向。女性主义者认为,在传统课堂教学中充斥着性别化教育,存在着性别屏蔽、性别刻板现象,导致女性话语权的丧失,使女性处于不利地位。她们主张重构现行课堂教学,提倡关爱教育;呼吁教师建立性别意识,消除性别歧视;“解放”和“赋权”于学生;主张因性施教。这些主张体现着现代课堂教学民主化的趋势。     

梁启超：中国早期争取教育性别公平的领军人

在中国早期妇女运动中，梁启超像西方早期女权运动的先驱玛丽一样猛烈抨击了性别歧视教育实施的两大依据，要求在教育的起点、过程和结果三个阶段都实现性别公平，并与维新派努力使之在中国首次得以部分实现。其对性别歧视教育依据的解构最深刻，争取实现教育性别公平最积极，整体水平与玛丽不分轩轾，因而成为中国早期争取教育性别公平的领军人。     

让高等教育奏响和谐之音--女性主义视角下的中国女子高等教育

中国女子高等教育是中国男性思想启蒙和身体力行的产物,它由男性倡导,极具功利性。针对我国女子高等教育先天不足的弱点和男女地位差异的现状,导引积极的社会性别文化,建立男女两性和谐的教育是21世纪高等教育努力的方向。为此,应将基本国策和性别意识真正纳入高等教育发展政策和教育实践中;大学要促进妇女研究学科化建设,并积极引导社会舆论;在大学课堂中应引入女性主义视角,努力构建男女两性和谐发展的校园文化。     

Gender differences in entrance patterns and awards in initial teacher education

This paper explores a number of themes relating to gender and teaching. The existing balance of women and men in the teaching profession in Ireland and internationally is examined; patterns at entry to initial teacher education in Ireland are outlined; gender differences in final awards are presented; finally, sociological questions raised by these trends are discussed. The international figures on teaching presented imply that the feminisation of teaching is a historical and economic process as much as it is a social, psychological or educational one. What is clear from the analysis of the feminisation of teaching presented here is that prior educational achievement by young men plays a significant role in their patterns of entry into initial teacher education. The lower levels of achievement by men also extend to the levels of award taken in their initial teacher education courses. However, higher educational achievement by women in undergraduate university courses is not confined to initial teacher education but is to be found in almost all disciplinary areas.     

Higher education and gender roles in Japanese society: An assessment of disparity

Conclusion The 1947 education reform and mass education after the period of high economic growth have greatly influenced women's higher education attainments. These changes are beginning to transform women's views towards education and more women with higher education attainment are entering the labour marker. However, as previously indicated, many obstacles to equal opportunity and results in the labour market still remain for women. Higher education for women has never had the same social impact as that for men. So far as the academic career of women is regarded as having ‘symbolic value’—it has a close relationship to marriage in Japanese society. Women's higher education is a social way of maintaining a sub-culture and traditional gender norms. Ph.D. in education (dissertation: ‘The gender roles of Japanese women’) from the University of California in 1993. At present affiliated to the PHP Research Institute (Japan) as a senior research associate. Areas of interest include comparative higher education, educational policy, and gender and education. Her most recently published works in English are ‘Higher education in partnership with industry: the necessity to employ off-the-job-training system’ in theInternational journal of lifelong education (vol. 12, no. 2, 1994) and ‘The gender roles of Japanese women: an assessment of gender roles of Japanese housewives in the United States’ inPHP research report (vol. 9, 1995).     

“DOING AND UNDOING GENDER”: FEMALE HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, female higher education has been characterised by a paradoxical combination of discrimination and exclusion, on the one hand, and increasing equality and empowerment, on the other. This study focuses on the triangle of education, equality and empowerment, using Sara Longwe’s women’s empowerment framework to analyse the interplay between the three. State policies to Islamise the universities during the 1980–1983 Cultural Revolution determined the “gender appropriateness” of each specialisation and led to the exclusion of women from “masculine” fields of study during the early years of the revolution. Despite such discriminatory measures, women today represent the majority of students in all fields, except engineering. Women, however, remain underrepresented at graduate levels of education and as faculty members. An important challenge is to understand why men are not entering different specialisations and whether there is a possibility of “re-doing gender” – this time in addressing male inequality and disempowerment at undergraduate levels.     

From ‘civilising the young’ to a ‘dead-end job’: gender,teaching, and the politics of colonial rule in Hong Kong (1841–1970)

The feminisation of teaching is an important topic in education and gender studies. Discussions have been enriched by comparative and international studies as well as a gendering perspective in which a complicated view of the role of the state has emerged. In colonial Hong Kong, although the government was limited in its support of teacher training, its strategic control was not ineffective. Through regulating the teaching force, the colonial regime was instrumental in training women to help civilise the young and in creating a dead end job – that of a ‘primary school teacher’. It also constantly (re)constructed the nature and role of ‘Chinese teacher’ and ‘Chinese women’. By revealing some seldom-explored strategies and disrupting the fixed meanings of ‘Chinese teacher’, ‘Chinese women’, and ‘primary school teacher’, this paper unravels the intervention and (re)invention of the colonial regime in the teaching occupation and probes their implications for a patriarchal society.     

Women academics and research productivity: an international comparison

In the prestige economy of higher education, research productivity is highly prized. Previous research indicates, however, a gender gap with respect to research output. This gap is often explained by reference to familial status and responsibilities. In this article, we examine the research productivity gender gap from an international perspective by undertaking a gendered analysis of the Changing Academic Profession Survey. We suggest that family is not, in all cases, operating as a form of negative equity in the prestige economy of higher education. In addition, we argue that an over-reliance on an explanatory framework that positions family-related variables as central to the research productivity gender gap might well be drawing our attention from significant structural and systemic discriminatory practices within the profession.     

Retaining a foothold on the slippery paths of academia: university women,indirect discrimination,and the academic marketplace

This paper examines indirect discrimination in Australian universities that tends to obstruct and delay women’s academic careers. The topic is defined and contextualised via a 1998 speech by the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, juxtaposed with a brief contemporaneous exemplar. The paper discusses the prevalence of women among casual and fixed‐term academic workers, and the contrasting low numbers of women in senior academic positions. It is argued that the neo‐liberal ‘marketisation’ of higher education, which still prevails, has fostered a number of indirectly discriminatory practices and conditions that substantially disadvantage women. A selection of studies of the problem are critiqued. It is argued that a broad statistical methodology is inadequate due to its tendency to ‘homogenise’ the academy and its component individuals, in the process giving scope for unjustified optimism among university policy‐makers. A particulate approach is advocated, acknowledging the wide variation between and within universities, and the range of hidden difficulties individual women academics can face. It is concluded that despite apparent reforms over the past decade, the situation of women has improved little in practical terms.     

种族与性别——女性主义视域下的《喜福会》解读

谭恩美借其独特的美国华裔女性身份,通过《喜福会》展现了第一代华裔女性在中国封建男权制下所遭受的残酷压迫,从而对男权制进行了颠覆;又通过对第二代华裔女性形象塑造,以揭示她们在异国所遭受的种族、性别双重压迫。通过女性主义视角,文章分析了两代美国华裔女性从沉默走向觉醒,在不断抗争中探寻自我的艰辛历程;在男权和种族的樊篱下,美国华裔女性展现了坚强、独立、智慧的优秀现代女性品质。     

Gender Relations and the Production of Difference in School-based Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education in Australia

HIV/AIDS discourses have not only made people aware of HIV as a disease entity but have opened up new ways of thinking and talking about sex and sexuality. This article draws on findings from an evaluation of a pilot sexuality education programme, conducted in secondary schools in Victoria (Australia), to examine gender relations and the production of difference. Participating schools were required to incorporate teaching and learning experiences which normalised and affirmed sexual diversity and explored issues around HIV-related discrimination and homophobia. Two examples, gender, power and menstruation and heterosexism and homophobia, are used to analyse the language and practices students engage in as part of the process of achieving a (hetero)sexual identity. It is argued that HIV/AIDS education and sexuality education, more broadly defined, presents a particular challenge to dominant forms of masculinity and that programmes need to address gender, power and heterosexuality and its discontents if they are to have a positive impact on HIV-related discrimination and homophobia.     

Women and higher education in Iran: What are the implications for employment and the “marriage market”?

International Review of Education - In contemporary Iran, women with higher education face both gender discrimination and an unfavourable economic system, one that is not conducive to...     

Discrimination Against Women as a Subtext of Excellence

In this paper an argument for the proposition that emphasizing the pursuit of excellence in sport is discriminatory against women is presented. The argument is developed in three stages. First, a definition of “discrimination” is proposed and discussed. Second, the idea of sport as a quest for excellence is traced through various interpretations of the meaning of sport. Third, excellence is discussed as a socially constructed concept and phenomenon. The dominant social meaning of excellence as a supreme achievement is confronted with the gender consequences of emphasizing the pursuit of excellence in sport. The argument concludes that alongside the primary texts of the glories and triumphs of excellence runs a subtext of inequality and gender discrimination.     

女性主义视角下的中国女子高等教育

在历史长河中,女性处于受歧视的地位,她们的知识与经验未受到尊重,现有的中国高等教育史方面的著作也未能客观地反映女子所受高等教育的情况。事实上,中国古代确有女子高等教育存在,并且有其独特的施教体系和课程内容。近代以来,随着社会的发展和女性的觉醒,中国女子高等教育开始了其新的发展阶段。     

民国时期广州西关女子教育的研究简

性别平等是教育民主化和现代化的重要标志。就目前我国高等教育来说,教育真正意义上的性别公平还是没有完全实现的。女性教育一直在发展,这也是我们国家教育不断取得进步的一种表现。希望通过对民国时期一小段时期的广州西关一带的女子教育的意义研究来重证女子接受教育的意义和作用。也希望社会各界能脱离传统文化性别偏见和社会性别偏见,能客观平等看待女子接受教育这一现象。