An article examined the extent to which young women were interested in politics. Young people might have turned away from the ballot box and from parliamentary politics: but, when questioned, they were actually interested in political issues.
Source: Jacqueline Ellen Briggs, 'Young women and politics: an oxymoron?', Journal of Youth Studies, Volume 11 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Dec
A report examined key statistics relating women's lives to those of men. Women outnumbered men in the population. In 2007 there were almost three times as many women as men aged 90 or over. Women could expect to live longer than men, and could expect to spend more of their life in poor health or with a disability. Similar proportions (around half) of men and women were married in Great Britain in 2006. More people were cohabiting in 2006 compared with 20 years ago, with divorced men more likely to cohabit than divorced women. Although employment rates were higher for men than women there had been a convergence of the employment rates for men and women over the period since 1971.
Source: Focus on Gender, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: Report | ONS press release | FT report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Sep
A government report examined what needed to be done to get more under-represented groups of women to play an active role in civic and civil life – particularly women from ethnic minorities.
Source: Jill Bedford, Sue Gorbing and Sue Robson, Closing the Gap: Final report – Women Take Part, Government Equalities Office (020 7944 0601)
Links: Report | GEO press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Sep
The equality and human rights watchdog published an annual report examining the number of women in top positions of power and influence across the public and private sectors. It highlighted a 'worrying trend of reversal or stalled progress'. Fewer women held top posts in 12 of the 25 categories (almost half). In another 5 categories, the number of women had remained unchanged since 2007.
Source: Sex and Power 2008, Equality and Human Rights Commission (020 3117 0235)
Links: Report | EHRC press release | GEO press release | Fawcett Society press release | ICG press release | FT report | Guardian report | Telegraph report | BBC report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Sep
A report said that women were 'lulled' into believing that having children would have little effect on their lives, compared to those of their own mothers: becoming a mother carried an enormous penalty, and women on the lowest incomes paid the highest price.
Source: Sally Gimson, Listening to Mother: Making Britain mother-friendly, Family and Parenting Institute (020 7424 3460)
Links: Report | FPI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report said that premature sexualization, and pressure to grow up too quickly, were key influences on girls' emotional well-being and mental health.
Source: Teenage Mental Health: Girls shout out!, Girlguiding UK (020 7834 6242)
Links: Report | Telegraph report | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report examined participatory research conducted with women in poverty living in three large cities. It was found that women with experience of living in poverty were well-placed to articulate the policy changes which could most effectively improve their situations.
Source: Women's Budget Group, Women and Poverty: Experiences, empowerment and engagement, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | JRF Findings
Date: 2008-Jul
A report examined how women's experience of motherhood had changed over the generations. Grandmothers, who had taken a more relaxed attitude to raising offspring during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, said modern parents were under pressure to control every aspect of their children's lives.
Source: Rachel Thomson and Mary Jane Kehily with Lucy Hadfield and Sue Sharpe, The Making of Modern Motherhood: Memories, representations, practices, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jul
A new book examined the contemporary social relations of gender and women's health. The once all-important sex/gender distinction fostered an 'undue separation' between the social and the biological: whereas it was their interaction and flexibility that was important in the production of health and illness.
Source: Ellen Annandale, Women's Health and Social Change, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Jul
A new book examined progress and change in areas of major interest in social policy during the previous year. A themed section examined gender and social policy.
Source: Tony Maltby, Patricia Kennett and Kirstein Rummery (eds.), Social Policy Review 20: Analysis and debate in social policy, 2008, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Jun
A new book examined the lives of older women from ethnic minorities. Key themes included: family and networks; health and well-being; religion, faith, and spirituality; income, pensions, and housing; the meaning of identity and life course events; and death and dying.
Source: Haleh Afshar, Myfanwy Franks, Mary Maynard and Sharon Wray, Women in Later Life: Exploring race and ethnicity, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Jun
A collection of essays examined the perspectives and experiences of ethnic minority women.
Source: Zohra Moosa (ed.), Seeing Double: Race and gender in ethnic minority women's lives, Fawcett Society (020 7253 2598)
Links: Report | Fawcett Society press release
Date: 2008-Apr
A report by a policy group of the opposition Conservative Party set out its priorities for women. It said that a new approach was urgently needed to address the different issues women faced. Labour's 'one size fits all' approach failed to recognize the diversity and complexity of the issues that confronted women. Labour had pressured parents into returning to work and left stay-at-home mothers feeling 'discriminated against and penalised'.
Source: Women's Policy Group, Women in the World Today, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Report | Conservative Party press release | Fawcett Society press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Feb
A report examined the scale of advertising of women, and services offered by women, in personal classifieds in the English regional and local press. The advertising of women, either discreetly or overtly, for sex or sexual services was commonplace. Typically, these advertisements were sandwiched between innocuous advertisements for other services and goods.
Source: 'Women Not for Sale': A report on advertising women in small ads in local newspapers, Government Equalities Office (ministers@dwp.gsi.gov.uk)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jan