Returning to STEM: gendered factors affecting employability for mature women students

This paper adds to current discourses around employability by arguing for an explicit recognition of gender, in particular in relation to women’s employment in male-dominated sectors such as science, engineering and technology. This is not limited to young first-time graduates but continues and evolves throughout the life course. Mature women students, who are returning after career breaks, face a number of barriers in re-entering such employment sectors. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of women graduates in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, who participated in a UK government-funded online programme aimed at supporting them to return to work, the paper examines three gendered factors identified as being of particular influence on outcomes – gender role normativity, locality and mobility, and structural and institutional barriers. The paper concludes by identifying strategies deployed by those that successfully returned to employment, including retraining, networking and doing unpaid or low-paid work.     

Flirting,dating, and breaking up within new media environments

Although romantic and sexual relationships are an important aspect of young people's lives, research on how young people negotiate their love/sex relationships is lacking. New media environments provide a new context within which young people negotiate their love/sex relationships; however, what is negotiated is often not all that different from what was negotiated before the advent of new media technologies. Using an online discussion board and individual in-person interviews, this paper explores how young Australians, aged 18–25 years, engage with dominant gendered discourses to negotiate their love/sex relationships within the context of new media environments. Previous research suggests that young people make use of new media technologies to flirt with one another, to initiate new relationships, to maintain their relationships, and to fight and end their relationships. This paper focuses on young people's practices of mediated flirting, surveillance, and breaking up. It considers the creative and agentic ways young people use new media technologies in the negotiation of their love/sex relationships.     

Education as Part of the Migratory Project of Latin American Migrant Women Traveling to the United States in Undocumented Conditions

Education is an indispensable element for the development of society. In Latin America, the point of origin of most of the undocumented immigrants to the United States, equal opportunity in access to education and educational achievement is still pending. The study presented here focuses on the analysis of the expectations of female migrants via Mexico’s northern border, focusing attention on educational attainment as an important aspect of the “American Dream” of the migrant women interviewed and their dependents.     

少数民族妇女手工艺品在甘肃旅游商品开发中的意义——以甘肃东乡族和裕固族为例

甘肃省拥有十分丰富的文化旅游资源,尤其在少数民族地区的文化旅游开发中具有得天独厚的优势。作者在研究文化旅游开发理论的基础上,着重对甘肃省少数民族地区妇女生产手工艺品作为旅游商品进行研究,提出了甘肃省文化旅游的开发战略,为其文化旅游的开发提供借鉴,从而使其成为民族地区妇女“脱贫致富”的重要途径。     

由《金瓶梅》领略晚明女性生育民俗

《金瓶梅》作为明代"四大奇书"之一,是我国第一部文人独立创作的白话长篇小说,是世情小说的开山之作,《金瓶梅》研究是中国古代文学研究中的显学,已经产生了大量研究专著和研究论文,在国内外极具影响力。拟就《金瓶梅》与晚明女性生育民俗的角度探究被称为"中国十六世纪后期的社会风俗史"的《金瓶梅》所反映的晚明女性生育民俗文化的特点,使我们透过作品真实地感知晚明时期女性的生育状态,了解晚明女性生育民俗。     

农村妇女参与社会体育健身的影响因素及对策研究

从经济条件、家庭角色、体育环境和个体主观因素四个方面对农村妇女参与社会体育健身所受到的影响进行了论述,并为如何促进农村妇女群体对社会体育健身的参与提出了相应的对策,旨在为推动建设社会主义和谐社会大环境下的全民健身提供必要的理论依据。     

从唐代婚姻法看唐传奇中的女性

唐传奇作为一种时代的产物,对它的研究绕不开当时的社会历史条件。法律作为重要的社会组成部分,其对社会秩序的维护、造成的社会风貌、体现的价值观念对唐传奇皆有影响,自然也是研究唐传奇值得关注的重要内容。唐代婚姻法对女性社会地位、生活处境等均造成影响,在唐代婚姻法影响下形成了唐传奇典型的三类女性形象。从唐代婚姻法的角度,可以更好地理解当时女性的生存境况、理解不同女性形象的丰富内涵。     

Sexuality education: findings and recommendations from an analysis of 10 United States programmes

In this study, we identified 10 sexuality education programmes from different locations in the USA that aim to give young people knowledge and skills to develop healthy relationships, as well as avoid pregnancy and disease. We conducted in-depth interviews with programme administrators to develop a series of case studies and provide concrete recommendations for education and public health professionals to implement similar approaches in their communities. Many programme administrators succeeded in developing partnerships, adapting existing curricula to suit their environments, engaging external evaluators and garnering support from teachers and parents. However, few programme developers conducted formal needs assessments before developing programmes and many struggled to implement curricula with fidelity and to employ rigorous evaluation designs. Nearly all participants identified concerns over funding as a threat to sustainability. We conclude that schools and organisations need technical assistance to build capacity for rigorous programme planning, implementation and evaluation, as well as additional funding streams to support emerging programmes.     

Ready,steady, action: what enables young people to perceive themselves as active agents in their lives?

Government and educational priorities place importance on young people of secondary school age being active, having their voices heard, and participating in their community. This paper explores an understanding of the role of agency in young people’s lives and how the concept is developing. Young people who perceive themselves as having agency may feel they have the ability to change something about themselves or their environment for a valued goal; this may increase their resilience and adaptability to life challenges.

A systematic review of agency-related literature revealed little consistency and coherence in definitions and components of agency, particularly regarding young people. Empirical research used realist grounded theory to analyse discussion of three focus groups consisting of 11 young people aged 13 to 17 involved in active school and community projects in both rural and urban areas from a large county in the UK. Findings indicate how certain psychological factors relate over time between a young person’s thoughts and feelings, their structural context and their positive interpersonal relationships to support their sense of being an agent.

This article argues that focus on young people’s agency is a key thread linking many areas of educational practice to empower young people. Implications for practice with young people, professionals and families are discussed, including use of a schema of the findings to guide assessment and intervention.     

Developing scales to measure parental mediation of young children's internet use

With children using digital media at ever younger ages, media-education becomes a pressing issue for parents. As there is hardly any research on how parents guide the online activities of toddlers and young children an internet-survey was held among 792 Dutch parents of children aged between 2 and 12 years. Factor analysis revealed that for the internet, parents partly use the same strategies they also apply for television and video games: ‘co-use’, ‘active mediation’, and ‘restrictive mediation’. In addition, they also utilise new strategies: ‘supervision’ and ‘technical safety guidance’. Mediation was mainly predicted by the child's age and online behaviour (e.g., gaming, social networking), as well as by the number of computers in the home and the parents' gender, education and computer/internet skills. Finally, parents also use more mediation when they expect that the internet has a positive effect and particularly when they believe that it has a negative impact.