Objectives: The quality of intimate partner relationships strongly influences men's mental health, yet little research attention has been given to these relationships from a strengths-based critical masculinities perspective. Addressing this knowledge gap, this photovoice study provides insights into young men's experiences of, and perspectives…

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 comprehensive report delves into the persistent gender pay gap within the UK's higher education sector. Despite an environment where women are increasingly visible in both student and staff roles, a wage disparity remains, with women earning on average 11.9% less than their male counterparts across all roles. The report quantifies the gap and…

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,…

In line with other national higher education systems, the UK has, since 2005, taken a formalised approach to improving gender equality in academia in the form of the Athena SWAN charter mark; in 2016, an additional charter mark focusing on race equality (the REC) was introduced. This article, based on data from a multi-site case study exploring…

Using UK data supplied by universities, this paper confirms that women academics earn less than men, even after controlling for a range of covariates. Despite narrowing after 2004/05, the observed (unconditional) pay gap was still -0.089 in 2019/20, while the conditional pay gap was relatively unchanged remaining at around -0.050 in 2019/20. The…

Utilizing the Survey of Adult Skills from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the OECD database, this study investigates the role of gender inequality and public social spending in the gender gap in Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) risk across various age cohorts. The research identifies a…

Gender inequality in the workplace remains a persistent issue that impacts upon women from their first point of entry into the labour market. In this paper, we explore the experiences, of 20 women in the UK as they take their initial steps onto the career ladder upon graduation. Adopting an interpretive methodology that uses a Bourdieusian…

COVID-19 posed little danger to children. Nevertheless, the South African government imposed lockdown measures that impeded children's education, play and food. Schools were closed, feeding schemes were halted and organised sports were banned. In this study of South African children's experience during the 2020-22 pandemic, we use the capabilities…

This small-scale research project explores policy and staff perspectives which affect student parents in higher education at an English further education college. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's work on the welfare state and the social organisation of care work, the paper examines approaches to a marginalised student group. Qualitative data were…

This paper focusses on our concerns about revelations about sexual harassment in universities and the inadequate responses whereby some universities seem more concerned about their own reputations than the care and protection of their students. Seldom do cases go to criminal court, instead they mostly fall within employment relations policies…

This study explores gender-related inequality in participation in Adult Education and Training (AET) in four countries with vastly different adult learning systems and support measures for women's AET. Our examination of the data from an original international survey conducted in 2022 has found that the participation of men and women clearly…

This paper explores perceptions of responsibility for including attention to gender and inequality in higher education curricula and pedagogic approaches internationally, through insights from Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funded interdisciplinary research across India, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Perspectives…

This paper aims to open up the rationales that are used to argue for an increase in male participation in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. Two theoretical concepts are highlighted and compared: gender balance and gender flexibility. An ethnographic study was conducted in one unusual nursery that has five male workers, using…

Globalisation and policy transfer in education make it incumbent upon decision makers to prioritise among competing policy options, select policy initiatives that are appropriate for their national contexts, and understand how system-specific factors moderate the relationship between those policies and student outcomes. This study used qualitative…