Based on the identification of the discourse of choice in debates on neoliberalism, meritocracy and post-feminism, this article analyses how highly educated mothers position themselves within the discourse of choice and use "choice" as their discursive resource when reflecting on how their demanding careers combine with motherhood. The…

Women's empowerment is an important goal of the educational processes around the world. Women in developing countries need support and motivation for attaining higher education and empowerment. This qualitative-exploratory study sought to explore the perceptions of Pakistani female university academics living inside predominantly patriarchal…

The Saudi 2030 vision states it is committed to empowering women through education and employment, but the literature scarcely addresses their everyday realities. This paper utilises a critical realist perspective to examine the mechanisms emerging from the interplay of structural and cultural factors that impact women's empowerment concerning…

Girl Scouts aims to foster leadership by encouraging girls to discover themselves, make connections, and take action to make the world better. This paper chronicles the five-year journey of eight professional mothers of color who sought to provide their daughters with a space to 'think and live differently' as Girl Scouts and young women of color…

This paper attempts to explore the connections between expanding female education and the participation of women in paid employment in Japan, China and India, three of Asia's largest economies. Analysis based on existing data and literature shows that despite the large expansion in educational access in these countries in the last half century,…

An important part of making philosophy as a discipline gender equal is to ensure that female authors are not simply wiped out of the history of philosophy. This has implications for teaching as well as research. In this context, I reflect on my experience of teaching a text by medieval philosopher Christine de Pizan as part of an introductory…

This paper reports the results of a small-scale narrative study of men and women who grew up in mid-twentieth-century rural Wales, and their reminiscences regarding women and education. Although the dominant image of Wales during that era is that of a male-dominated society, all of our participants remembered influential independent women and…

In this article, the author focuses on the women of the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) who were a particularly important group of professional women workers, whose politics illuminated themes which were current in the feminist history-writing of the 1980s and 1990s. What the author found particularly striking about the feminist teachers…

Recently I gave a presentation on class, success and subjectivity. One response was that I should "Get over it". This comment informs the following discussion exploring some contradictory views about speaking personally in relation to class experience. There is a continual need to review the feminist mantra of the "personal is political". Does…

Participatory literacy programmes in developing countries are often seen as an important tool for women's empowerment and equality. This article problematises the way in which evaluation of progress towards these goals is couched in a linear trajectory, and often fails to uncover the messy reality of women's negotiations to achieve their own aims.…

This article reflects an interest in exposing links between women's academic work and the gender codes which organize and shape working life in the university context, both now and in the recent past, as a contribution to the sociology of women's work. Our specific focus is the gendered division of labour in teacher education in universities in…

Discusses the increasing exclusion of women from the higher levels of computing. Recommends changes in the content and focus of computer science curricula that might encourage greater participation by women. Describes how this would benefit the computer industry. (DM)

Longitudinally examined how young Australian women who attended school during an era of equal opportunity made career decisions and perceived their unfolding lives. Respondents considered themselves active agents in constructing their own futures, and gender did not control their destinies. While they succeeded on male terms, many competing…

Examines Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) discourse and explains why WISE has had limited success. It argues the WISE discourse limits the space women have to speak of the conflicts and contradictions they experience, and suggests the need for a greater understanding of how subjective experiences of gender and sexuality impinge upon work…

Women are under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors and careers in most industrialized countries around the world. This paper explores the broad array of explanations for the absence of women in STEM put forth in the literature of the last 30 years. It is argued that some proposed explanations are without…