Female academics’ research capacities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: socio-cultural issues,personal factors and institutional practices

In October 2010, an interdisciplinary group of female academics from a university in the Kurdistan region of Iraq initiated a collaborative research project with a UK university to investigate opportunities and challenges for female academics' research leadership in universities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The project aimed to develop female academics' research capacities using action learning and research principles, in order to focus on issues of concern to practitioners, seek understanding, reflect on activities and enhance them through needs identification–solution–reflection cycles and collaboratively seek solutions. The research uncovered socially constructed barriers to advancement shaped by socio-cultural issues and institutional practices, found exemplars of successful female academics and strengthened participants' research leadership capacities. We conclude that the expansion of female academics' capacities should be prioritised in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to harness their contributions to nation-building and economic development, goals that are explicitly emphasised in higher education policy statements.     

Challenging public perceptions of childcare teachers through Cixous’s écriture feminine

Cultural stories provide us with a repertoire of narratives through which we interpret and construct our understandings of the world, including our gendered understandings of the early childhood teacher. Through her notion of écriture feminine, Cixous [1976. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Trans K. Cohen and P. Cohen. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1 (4): 875–893] wrote of countering systems of cultural texts that inscribe women as ‘other’. In this paper, I conduct a critical analysis of Disney’s Maleficent (2014), a recent and often deemed feminist adaptation of the Sleeping Beauty tale, to inform our understanding of the challenges faced in rewriting public perceptions of the childcare teacher in Canada today. The early childhood teacher is often constrained within gendered expectations and attempts to revise the ways society values their professional status have yet to be achieved. The analysis suggests that Maleficent offers positive directions for change, however persistent constraints on feminine identities may be particularly difficult to retract in women whose work involves significant caring and other-directedness.     

Black women’s bodies,ideology, and the public curriculum of the pro- and anti-choice movements in the US

This paper explores how opposite sides of the abortion debate employ a discourse of endangerment to mobilise political support for their ideologies about black women’s bodies. I examine the role of black women within that rhetorical strategy through various rhetorical artefacts. To analyse these artefacts, I employ the theoretical framework of ideological or ideographic criticism. This framework helps us see how the artefacts used by both pro and anti-choice movements ‘condition’ the audience not merely to adopt a set of ‘beliefs and behavior, but a vocabulary of concepts that function as guides, warrants, reasons, or excuses for behavior and belief’. Though the two sides of the abortion debate differ in their overt political views, they turn out to share an implicit ideology about black women. This ideology prevents the voices of black women from being heard and valued in a debate that is nonetheless focused on black women’s bodies.     

‘She's alpha male’: transgressive gender performances in the probation ‘classroom’

The past decade has seen an exponential rise in the popularity of cognitive–behavioural programmes as a means of rehabilitating ‘offenders’. Although the programmes have been evaluated by a number of researchers, very little qualitative work exists, particularly with regard to the discourses mobilised by practitioners, and the production of gendered subjectivities in this setting. Consequently, this article focuses on one woman, ‘Michelle’, who attended an Aggression Replacement Training programme as part of her probation sentence. By drawing on Francis’ [2010. Re/theorizing gender: Female masculinity and male femininity in the classroom. Gender and Education] notion of gender monoglossia and heteroglossia I aim to provide a nuanced account of Michelle's seemingly straightforward ‘performance’ of ‘female masculinity’ [Halberstam, J. 1998. Female masculinity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press]. Through an analysis of the discourses mobilised by practitioners I also demonstrate that within this discursive environment the rehabilitation of female ‘offenders’ continues to be one of conformity to traditional ‘feminine’ gender norms as well as a desistance from crime.     

Violence as understandable,deserved or unacceptable? Listening for gender in teenagers' talk about violence

Youth violence is a topic of increasing global concern. Research has primarily focused on young people's responses to existing definitions of violence in seeking to understand how best to develop violence prevention. Little work has explored how young people themselves define violence and the factors which influence their acceptance, and use, of violent behaviour. The present study investigated young people's understandings of what constitutes violence, their acceptance of violence and justifications made for doing so. The study was distinct in its focus on young people's characterisations of violence. The findings revealed that gender norms mediate understandings of what constitutes violence and discourses around the perceived acceptability of violence. Particular forms of violence were clearly identified as being more acceptable and ‘deserved’ than others and young people's perceptions were shaped by their understandings of appropriate and normative gender behaviour.     

Gender,popularity and notions of in/authenticity amongst 12‐year‐old to 13‐year‐old school girls

This paper draws on data from a research project investigating gendered identities and interactions of high‐achieving students in Year Eight in England (12–13 years old), particularly in relation to students’ ‘popularity’ amongst their peers. As part of this study 71 students were interviewed from nine different schools in urban, rural and small town locations. From an analysis of participants’ conceptions of the characteristics of ‘popular’ and ‘unpopular’ students, this paper looks in depth at notions of in/authenticity and how it is perceived and judged in relation to the self and others. In particular, the paper focuses on the genderedness of such discourses of in/authenticity as constructed by these students, and relates such concerns to theorizations of ‘impossible’ femininity.     

Agency in action – young women and their sexual relationships in a private school

Agency among young women is often understood as fleeting in nature, and studies rarely offer insights into how agency could become a more sustained position. Using data from 54 young women discussing their sexual and intimate relationships, this paper suggests a new way of understanding agency beyond that found in work which stresses agentic practice as resistance or the challenging of dominant expectations and understandings. Instead, through the notion of ‘agency in action’ we begin with young women’s conceptualisations of power. In this study, power was viewed as a resource that is shared between partners, but also a capacity of the self. These conceptualisations offer two new ways of understanding agency in intimate relations – either through ‘reacting into action’ and taking power back; or by ‘starting from’ a powerful position. Central to an understanding of young women’s agency is the role of emotions and recognition of these as motivators for change.