Much of the recent scholarly attention has been devoted to the low fertility situation experienced by a growing number of developed countries. In this context, the theoretical framework explicitly incorporating the issues of gender in explanations of low fertility has been gaining notable popularity. This dissertation is focused primarily on the application of McDonald's theory of gender equity to the fertility context of two post-communist "low" and "very low" fertility countries, namely Poland and Estonia. Additionally, it tests the relative importance of gender equity at the societal level and the level of the family, contrasts the results of using different operationalizations of gender equity in the family, and compares the effects of gender equity on male and female fertility. I estimate two sex-specific models for Poland and two-sex specific models for Estonia, which respectively use three and two independent variables capturing gender equity in different institutions as well as in the family. All the models use intended fertility as the dependent variable operationalized as either the intention to have the second or higher order birth or the number of additional children intended. The main findings of this dissertation support the gendered explanation of low fertility in Poland and Estonia. More specifically, they indicate that gender equity in the family significantly increases fertility intentions of Polish men and women and Estonian women but not men. However, in none of the models there is evidence that gender equity in institutions outside the family matters to fertility. All in all, the findings support the gendered approach to fertility. The results of my dissertation indicate that it is important to pay attention to how we measure gender equity. I observe some variation in the findings depending on how stringent definition of equity is used. Finally, my research suggests that the importance of gender equity for women's fertility might be more universal but it is also not completely irrelevant to the fertility of men. I conclude this dissertation with a discussion of the implications of my findings and the potential for future development of research in this area.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis is an exploration of my practice as a teacher consultant in the area of gender equity. Focusing on my consultancy practice with teachers in primary school settings, the study explores my development as a teacher consultant. The study is a self-study in teacher education practices and considers the following questions: • How do I experience and understand my practice as a gender equity consultant? • How can I improve my practice as a consultant? • How does self-study contribute to professional learning about consultancy? My learning about consultancy is explored using narrative inquiry methods including field notes, journal entries, in-depth and focus group interviews with participating teachers, and reflections on critical friend interactions. These methods were used to develop stories of teacher professional learning and consultancy that informed my understandings about my work with teachers, and subsequent changes to practice. I argue that the process of becoming a teacher consultant is one of continual construction and reconstruction as one reflects on and reframes experience, based on interactions with teachers, colleagues and the professional literature. This process of reconstruction enables one to come more clearly to know the self in practice, and therefore, better understand the needs of others in teacher professional learning contexts. Finally I argue that self-study of teacher education practices offers teacher consultants the means to investigate their practice in ways which result in transformative learning about their support of professional learning for teachers in school settings. This study has implications for self-study of teacher education practices as it expands this methodology to include its usefulness for understanding the practice of teacher consultants supporting the professional learning of experienced teachers in schools.

Women and members of underrepresented populations remain a relatively small proportion of the engineering faculty and students on university campuses. The lack of diversity potentially reduces the number of innovative and diverse perspectives contributing to these fields. One critical area missing in the research literature concerns faculty mentoring of engineering undergraduate women students. This qualitative study explores the narratives of six engineering faculty member mentors, two student affairs practitioners, and three undergraduate women student mentees and their mentoring experiences in a large public research university. Drawing on relevant frameworks from best practices in mentoring and pedagogy, this study will reframe the conversations surrounding faculty mentoring of undergraduate students by utilizing a feminist lens, which seeks to explicitly address the need to create and sustain an inclusive and engaging classroom environment and mentoring relationships. The following research questions guided the study: 1) how do mentors and mentees make meaning and conceptualize the act of mentoring, 2) how are these mentoring relationships situated within the context of the institution in which they are embedded, and 3) what implications emerge for retention and representation of underrepresented students for faculty mentors and student mentees? With this in mind, a feminist lens was useful for expanding the ways in which mentoring is conceptualized and explored because traditional approaches did not effectively explore or capture the benefits received by the participants. The engineering faculty mentor and undergraduate student mentee participants largely formed mentoring relationships informally, often through a connection established in a classroom. Faculty members were purposeful and thoughtful in their pedagogical choices, fostering an engaging and supportive classroom environment. Unlike the research literature, these faculty mentors perceived real benefits from mentoring undergraduate students. In addition, the faculty mentors participating in this study were particularly aware of the challenges and opportunities facing women and underrepresented undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty in engineering. / text

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis is an exploration of my practice as a teacher consultant in the area of gender equity. Focusing on my consultancy practice with teachers in primary school settings, the study explores my development as a teacher consultant. The study is a self-study in teacher education practices and considers the following questions: • How do I experience and understand my practice as a gender equity consultant? • How can I improve my practice as a consultant? • How does self-study contribute to professional learning about consultancy? My learning about consultancy is explored using narrative inquiry methods including field notes, journal entries, in-depth and focus group interviews with participating teachers, and reflections on critical friend interactions. These methods were used to develop stories of teacher professional learning and consultancy that informed my understandings about my work with teachers, and subsequent changes to practice. I argue that the process of becoming a teacher consultant is one of continual construction and reconstruction as one reflects on and reframes experience, based on interactions with teachers, colleagues and the professional literature. This process of reconstruction enables one to come more clearly to know the self in practice, and therefore, better understand the needs of others in teacher professional learning contexts. Finally I argue that self-study of teacher education practices offers teacher consultants the means to investigate their practice in ways which result in transformative learning about their support of professional learning for teachers in school settings. This study has implications for self-study of teacher education practices as it expands this methodology to include its usefulness for understanding the practice of teacher consultants supporting the professional learning of experienced teachers in schools.

Using qualitative interviews, this study explored public school support of transgender students using questions concerning their knowledge, ideas of what inclusion looks like, level of preparation for teaching transgender students, and openness to learning new information concerning best practices. This study aims to fill gaps in the existing research concerning experiences of transgender public school students, examining teacher support for the sake of helping determine policy steps and education that would best help transgender students looking for inclusive education. Emerging themes included generalized acceptance, fear of teaching outside curriculum, emphasis placed on student needs, and teachers' desires to learn more. These results are explored with consideration to their implications for policy, training, and resource compilation.

No description available.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / This study looked into the effectiveness of the Social and Labour Plan on addressing the gender equity in selected mining houses in Lephalale. The newly elected democratic government of South Africa introduces numerous strategic policies to open all sectors of economy for all South Africans, but with special emphasis on the historically disadvantaged, which include women and people with disability as part of its economic emancipation policy. Hence the Social and Labour Plan was adopted. The main aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the Social and Labour Plan (SLP) in selected mining houses in Lephalale. A qualitative approach was used for this study, and interviews were contacted to collect data and thematic analysis used to analyse the data. It was found that the Social and Labour Plan (SLP) in the mines was not working fully and effectively. Also the research findings included, among others slow implementation of policies, more males than females, white male dominance, and discrimination of women, transformation, where taking place both on race and gender, only at snail pace and the lack of enforcement for implementation of policies such as the Social and Labour Plan (SLP) by the Department of Miners and Resources (DMR). Amongst other revelations were inequality issues, discrimination and nepotism experienced by women. Based on the finding the researcher recommended that mining organisations should review their mining Social Labour Plan (SLP) so that they state very clearly the number of women to be employed by the organisations, and such document once approved by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), should be complied to. Furthermore the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) should commit to an annual review of the Social and Labour Plan Report performance by mining companies, instead of waiting for five years.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka om en jämställd fördelning av hushållssysslor och omsorg om barn påverkar föräldrars planer på att utöka familjen, samt hur värderingar angående jämställdhet samspelar med beteende gällande arbetsfördelning. I många europeiska länder är fertiliteten låg vilket kopplas till att kvinnors roller har förändrats under senare decennier. Andelen kvinnor i högre utbildning samt i förvärvsarbete har ökat, medan kvinnorna fortsätter att ta majoriteten av ansvaret för hem och barn. I Sverige är andelen förvärvsarbetande kvinnor hög samtidigt som även barnafödandet är relativt högt. Svensk familjepolitik har sedan 1960-talet skapat förutsättningar för jämställdhet och givit föräldrar konkreta möjligheter att dela lika på omsorgen om barn. Studiens teoretiska ramverk bygger på tre perspektiv. Gender equity theory utgår från att obalansen mellan graden av jämställdhet i samhället respektive inom familjen bidrar till lägre barnafödande. Gender revolution perspektivet vidareutvecklar detta och menar att ett ökat barnafödande är kopplat till att männen deltar aktivt i omsorg om barn och hem. Gender ideology perspektivet undersöker samspelet mellan värderingar och beteende, och hur detta har en betydelse för hur man upplever sin situation. Data är inhämtat från Generations and Gender Survey, och urvalet består av kvinnor och män som är 25-44 år, som lever i parförhållande och har ett eller två barn. Studiens beroende variabel är “barnplaner”, förklaringsvariabler är fördelning av omsorg om barn och hushållssysslor, samt variabler om jämställda attityder avseende mammors och pappors arbete, och materialet analyserades med hjälp av logistisk regression. Resultaten visade ett positivt samband mellan jämställd fördelning av omsorg om barn och planer på att utöka familjen, som dock endast var signifikant när interaktionen mellan värderingar och arbetsfördelning inkluderas i modellerna. Högst benägenhet att vilja utöka familjen har de individer som jämställt delar på omsorgen om barnen, men som har traditionella värderingar angående mammors arbete.

No description available.

Reducing health disparities requires intervention on the social determinants of health, as well as a means to monitor and evaluate these actions. Indicators are powerful evaluation tools that can support these efforts, but they are often developed without the input of those being measured and invariably reflect the value judgments of those who create them. This is particularly evident in the measurement of subjective social constructs such as gender equity, and the participation and collaboration of the intended beneficiaries are critical to the creation of relevant and useful indicators. These issues are examined in the context of a study to develop indicators to measure gender equity in the Nicaraguan Fair Trade coffee cooperative PROCOCER. Recent studies report that Fair Trade cooperatives are not adequately addressing the needs of its women members. Indicators can provide cooperatives with a consistent means to plan, implement, and sustain actions to improve gender equity. This study used participatory and feminist research methods to develop indicators based on focus groups and interviews with women members of PROCOCER, the cooperative staff, and external experts. The findings suggest that the cooperative has a role in promoting gender equity not only at the organizational level, but in the member families as well. Moreover, gender equity requires the empowerment of women in four broad dimensions of measurement: economic, political, sociocultural, and wellbeing. The indicator set proposes 22 objective and subjective indicators for immediate use by the cooperative and 7 indicators for future integration, mirroring its evolving gender strategy. The results also highlight salient lessons from the participatory process of indicator development, where the selected indicators were inherently shaped by the organizational context, the emerging research partnership, and the unique study constraints. These findings speak to the need for continued efforts to develop a critical awareness and organizational response to gender inequities, as well as the importance of providing spaces for women to define their own tools of evaluation.