Background and Methods: We report historical information from longitudinal data held in the British Isles Rett Syndrome Survey (BIRSS) concerning women of at least 40 years. This information, including comments on the quality of care, has been provided by families, carers, and clinicians. Results: Information was available on 30 women with a…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing facemasks was mandatory in the United Kingdom except for individuals with medical exemptions. Facemasks cover the full lower half of the face; however, the effect of facemasks on age perception is not yet known. The present study examined whether age estimation accuracy of unfamiliar young adult women is…

Although higher education is positioned as a site of opportunity for young women in the UK, not all female applicants experience straightforward pathways into this arena. This paper focuses on a group of 16 high-achieving girls from working-class backgrounds who are striving for academic success, in the form of top grades and places at high-tariff…

Since the public intellectuals of the 1960s, there has been a shift towards the celebrity academic, as subjects such as history and science have transferred into popular television entertainment, often with female academics as the presenters. Using a case study of the British media, a post-feminist lens has been applied to examine how 17 celebrity…

This paper focuses on the learning that happens in everyday life, beyond the formal learning environments of schools, colleges, and universities or even beyond community and adult education. It draws on posthuman concepts of 'learning affect' and 'new worlds' to conceptualise this as 'invisible education', affective and transformative,…

This article examines the job crafting strategies senior academic women use to progress in their careers. The study was exploratory and inductive and used in-depth interviews to gather data from 43 senior academic women in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis in combination with reflective…

Using a post-structural lens which situates gender as discursively produced, this study investigates how four 12-year-old girls read feminist fairy tales and what feminist issues and concerns they discern and relate to in these texts. The study used a dialogic approach in Action Research informed reading groups to stimulate their thinking and…

There is widely growing recognition of autism in girls, and both researchers and community members have called for improvements in the diagnostic process. What is not yet known is whether these recommendations are being taken up by professionals. In this study, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with a variety of professionals involved…

Athena Swan was established in 2005 with the goal of advancing the careers of women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) subjects in higher education. Since then, it has expanded its remit in various ways and has generated some controversy. This paper explains how Athena Swan operates as a policy-scoring scheme,…

Background: Across the life course, women and girls with learning disabilities and their carers report difficulties in accessing information and support with menstruation, yet their experiences are often overlooked in initiatives to improve menstrual health and wellbeing. Our aim was to collaborate with women with learning disabilities to…

This research explores the experiences of Beth, a university student in the UK, as she comes to be labelled as 'dyslexic', and as she has her diagnosis taken away. Through use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and discourse analysis, the research seeks to understand how Beth made sense of these experiences, and to explore the…

In 2019 Ofsted introduced cultural capital (CC) into the Early Years Inspection Handbook and defined it as 'essential knowledge' related to 'educated citizenship'. This paper investigates Ofsted's use of CC to critically examine the potential implications for early years work. Due to the feminised nature of early years work, a critical feminist…

Professional dancers have described high levels of performance anxiety while also experiencing flow on stage. However, such research tends to capture one period of time in the performance experience and rarely focuses on vocational dance students. The current study samples vocational dance students at a UK performing arts school and captures their…

Autistic people diagnosed in adulthood often report that the experience can be life-changing, but there are issues with the diagnostic pathway. Few studies consider the views of people "currently" seeking diagnosis or contextualise the experience of diagnosis around developing an autistic identity. In this qualitative participatory…

This study considers the impact of Outward Bound UK's first Women's Outdoor Leadership Course, as a strategy for addressing the gender imbalance in leadership within the organisation and wider outdoor sector. A qualitative approach was taken in order to examine changes experienced by the women on the course, what contributed to such changes and…