A report examined the extent to which European countries had developed gender equality considerations in their policies designed for the active inclusion of vulnerable groups in society. It provided concrete policy examples across the three pillars of the active inclusion strategy – adequate income support, inclusive labour markets, and access to quality services. It said that proper gender mainstreaming of policies, for the most part, was still underdeveloped.
Source: Marcella Corsi and Manuela Samek Lodovici (with Angela Cipollone, Carlo D'Ippoliti and Silvia Sansonetti), Gender Mainstreaming Active Inclusion Policies: Final synthesis report, European Commission
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book examined gendered citizenship, focusing on European societies. It considered the limitations on achieving gender-equal or gender-equitable citizenship; and the differences between gender equality policy, diversity policy, and gender mainstreaming.
Source: Elzbieta Oleksy, Jeff Hearn and Dorota Golanska, The Limits of Gendered Citizenship: Contexts and complexities, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book examined the roles that households played in securing the well-being of individuals and families, highlighting the uneven experiences of men and women as both providers and receivers of welfare in European households.
Source: Tindara Addabbo, Marie-Pierre Arrizabalaga, Cristina Border as and Alastair Owens, Gender Inequalities, Households and the Production of Well-Being in Modern Europe, Ashgate Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report presented the views of leading British Muslim women on a wide range of issues that affected them. Muslim women were not a 'homogeneous victimized monolith', as was often depicted: Muslim women held a diversity of views about Islam and its relation to western liberalism.
Source: Faisal al Yafai (ed.), Women, Islam and Western Liberalism, Civitas
Links: Civitas press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A new book examined the tensions between rights-based and welfare-based approaches to the regulation of family life. A central concern was the 'gender-blind' character of rights-based approaches, and the ontological and practical consequences of their use in the gendered context of the family.
Source: Julie Wallbank, Shazia Choudhry and Jonathan Herring (eds.), Rights, Gender and Family Law, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Sep
A study examined the role of women and faith in building cohesive communities. It explored how faith identity and religious beliefs could influence community cohesion and the development of shared values; and it identified key issues for the inclusion of women within communities and in leadership positions.
Source: Ghazala Mir, John Lawler and Mary Godfrey, Women, Faith and Social Cohesion, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2010-Jul
An article said that the election of New Labour in 1997 created a 'window of opportunity' for gender changes in political representation, governance, and policy terms. Despite some subsequent successes, gendered policy change had been constrained by: the way gendered policy problems were framed; the slow pace of change in institutions of politics and governance; and the limits posed by policy solutions that had to fit with the dominant liberal market economic approach.
Source: Claire Annesley, Francesca Gains and Kirstein Rummery, 'Engendering politics and policy: the legacy of New Labour', Policy & Politics, Volume 38 Number 3 Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jul
A report examined how far government strategies had helped women to achieve social inclusion. It made proposals to improve the effectiveness of future strategies, in terms of both their own social inclusion aims and their ability to achieve gender equality in its own right.
Source: Fran Bennett, Gender and Social Inclusion, Oxfam GB and others
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Apr
The government published a 'factsheet' setting out the measures that it had taken to improve the position of women in society, and the further steps that were planned.
Source: Improving Women's Lives: What has the government done for women, Government Equalities Office
Links: Link removed by new coalition government
Date: 2010-Mar