Promising Nordic practices in gender equality promotion: Developing teacher education dialogue, practice, and policy cycles on-line

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 605-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Adán Cardona López ◽  
Ole Bredesen Nordfjell ◽  
Firouz Gaini ◽  
Mervi Heikkinen

This case study examines a Nordic on-line course on gender equality promotion in education, in which principals, teachers, school staff and gender equality activists engaged in dialogue regarding contents and practices. The on-line course was designed with reference to promising practices identified in a previous Nordic network project. The article considers challenges appearing across localities in relation to diversity, in gender equality promotion practices, policies and pedagogies. Digitalisation enables educational collaboration among teacher education institutions between the distant Nordic countries and facilitates the dissemination of Nordic education and the gender equality model, but this raises questions about whether these forms of education and equality are globally ‘branded’; and whether an intersectional gender equality promotion approach can be contextually and locally specific. This paper focuses on the contradictions of gender/sex binary concepts impairing understandings of diversity, sexuality and identity, the consequences of the emergence of scepticism toward practice standardisation, discrepancies between norms of equal treatment and critical reflection, and the development of citizen-based actions initiating policy changes. It is shown that the results of the project will benefit Nordic collaboration on teacher education development.

Author(s):  
Ying-Chyi Chou ◽  
Van Dang ◽  
Hsin-Yi Yen ◽  
Pi-Shan Hsu

According to the United Nations, males and females should be given equal treatment in physical and psychological services, and healthcare institutions should exert greater efforts to reduce the gap in gender equality. However, this issue has been largely ignored in previous literature on healthcare environments. Designing a hospital environment that focuses on gender differences is critical to academic researchers and practical managers in all healthcare institutions. Thus, as an exploratory effort, this study aims to develop a measurement to assess customer perceptions of gender-friendly hospital environments. To identify and refine the structure of the instrument, two studies are conducted at different hospitals in Taiwan. The exploratory evidence shows there are five factors (i.e., physical design, functional design, marking design, gender perception, and gender-friendly services) and 28 items in the measurement scale of gender-friendly hospital environments. Results also show that gender-friendly hospital environments affect customers’ loyalty and willingness to pay. Based on our findings, hospital practitioners and researchers can adopt the measurement instrument used in this study to deal with the gap of gender equality in healthcare environments.


Author(s):  
Eni Maryani ◽  
Preciosa Alnashava Janitra ◽  
Detta Rahmawan

A report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2016 says that Indonesia is still struggling to close its gender equality gap. However, looking at the development of internet usage and the penetration of social media in Indonesia, it can be said that Indonesia has the opportunity to utilize social media to address various gender issues. This article uses a case study to explore and analyze the way “Aliansi Laki-Laki Baru” (ALLB) or “New Men’s Alliance”, a form of activism which emphasizes the importance of men's involvement in fighting for gender equality, utilizes social media to promote their ideas. As a social movement, ALLB consistently use social media to reach their audiences, engage their partners, and creating a sense of community. They focus in promoting mutual relationships between men and women and the importance of men’s involvement to support gender equality. The study on men’s involvement in promoting the agenda of feminism and gender issues is critical, yet there are still few studies in the context of Indonesia. This study shows that through ALLB, advocacy on gender issues has undergone a fundamental change that does not make women as the main focus but rather on men, and their role to fight for gender equality and justice for women.


Author(s):  
Erin J. Black

This article follows the development of a European Union gender equality regime through three broad periods: equal treatment policies, positive action measures, and Gender Mainstreaming. The policy-making process entails conflict between competing policy frames; unequal resources behind each secures the dominance of an economic frame. Strategical framing practices have been employed by equality advocates to overcome this disadvantage. This article traces the gradual shifts in meaning within each period until equality goals are integrated into the dominant economic policy frame. It concludes that equality advocates need to engage in deeper analyses of power in order to sustain attention to equality goals over longer periods of time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison T. Wynn

Companies have devoted significant resources to diversity programs, yet such programs are often largely ineffective. Cultivating an organizational commitment to diversity is critical, but scholars lack a clear understanding of how top executives conceptualize change. In this article, I analyze data from a year-long case study of a Silicon Valley technology company implementing a gender equality initiative. The data include 50 in-depth interviews and observation of 80 executive meetings. I pay special attention to longitudinal interviews with 19 high-level executives and explore how their ideologies about inequality affected their change efforts. I find that executives tend to favor individualistic and societal explanations of gender differences and inequality, and these explanations correspond with change efforts focused mainly on altering individuals or affecting external communities. Executives rarely engaged in attempts to change the organization structurally. Thus, the implementation of gender equality remains limited by top executives’ ideas and assumptions about the sources of inequality.


Author(s):  
Vera Lomazzi ◽  
Isabella Crespi

This chapter deals with the definition, understanding and exploration of the issue of gender equality approaches that the EU has developed to promote equal opportunities between men and women. The chapter examines the different strategies used across time to implement gender equality in the EU and how this conceptualisation led to the current approach of gender mainstreaming. In particular, three phases are identified and discussedinthe chapter: equal treatment, positive action and gender mainstreaming. The last one is discussed deeply because itformed a substantial and important backbone in the context of the individual rights of citizens of the Union by creating a basis of equal rights guaranteed to all, regardless of gender. The goal pursued by gender mainstreaming approach consists of a deep change in the organizational culture of society, institutions and workplace, where gender equality should be implemented in a transformed cultural framework.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1556
Author(s):  
Anastasia Zabaniotou ◽  
Anastasia Pritsa ◽  
E-A Kyriakou

The study takes an equality justice perspective to compare resilience against the controlled management of wildfires, for an effective preparedness, which is a prerequisite for equitable mitigation. The objectives were (a) conceptualizing wildfire mitigation by exploring the ties with gender equality to wildfire hazards, (b) taking the case of wildfire 2018 in Mati, Greece, to contribute reducing the country’s gender inequality, and (c) increasing resilience to climate change hazards by considering lessons learnt. The authors underscore the benefits of a workshop-based and instrumental case study methodology for unravelling evidence on the need for gender-sensitive approaches and tools for future planning at local, regional, and global scales. The case study unravels women’s lack of preparedness to wildfires in Greece, their absence in decision-making for fire management, and the need for capacity building to transform communities’ resilience. The literature research and the specific interviews conducted helped bring awareness to the wildfire’s dynamics, in alignment with the fundamental aspect of gender equality, and to ground recommendations for socio-ecological resilience transition and gender-sensitive approaches in fire management, from reactive fire-fighting to proactive integration. Although in the geographical-context, the study can bring widespread geographical awareness, bringing insights for relevance to similar areas worldwide.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. p87
Author(s):  
Demola Akinyoade ◽  
Bosede Awodola ◽  
Adeola Ogunrin

Interventions are meant to improve people’s lives; however, they can fail to do so and at times even worsen situations. Gender equality is one area that needs improvement in societies, but which interventions can inadvertently impact upon negatively. The study assessed the impact of the Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) interventions on gender dynamics in Odi Community. A case study design was adopted for the study. Data collection and analyses were iterative. Findings showed that although gender sensitivity is articulated in the mandate of the Commission, however, the NDDC lacks institutional capacity for it. Hence, it did not appropriately mainstream gender in its interventions, and thus, impacted gender relations negatively. This it did by inadvertently entrenching traditional power disequilibrium and gender roles between females and males. Also, it did not include women in its community engagement meetings and unconsciously allocated more financial resources to males. Finally, the Commission did not make provision for women’s needs to encourage women participation and entrenched women’s traditional reproductive activities. It takes more than policy to make intervention agencies to support gender equality: institutional capacity and sensitivity are required.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Isabel Pla-Julián ◽  
Jose-Luis Díez

Abstract Despite the growing interest in the subject, the gender perceptions in the context of university studies have not been sufficiently studied so far. In this contribution, what is being proposed is a practical approach in the Spanish university system assessing the progress regarding the perception of equality among students receiving training on gender perspective in the framework of an Equality Plan. For this purpose, a case study was designed by assessing the progress as regards equality perceptions in the student body of the Universidad de Valencia Estudio General (UVEG). 338 students in grades filled out questionnaires on gender both before (225) and after (113) receiving a course in gender training. Results show Equality Plans with gender training significantly improves gender perception in university students. Academic institutions can play an essential role in ensuring developing Equality Plans with initiatives in education concerning gender equality.


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