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Using interviews with women from diverse backgrounds, the author of this book makes an invaluable contribution to the debates around the gendered politics of austerity in the UK. Exploring the symbiotic relationship between the state's legitimization of austerity and women's everyday experiences, the book reveals how unjust policies are produced, how alternatives are silenced and highlights the different ways in which women are used or blamed. By understanding austerity as more than simply an economic project, the book fills important gaps in existing knowledge on state, gender and class relations in the context of UK austerity. Delivering a timely account of the misconceptions of policies, discourses and representations around austerity in the UK, the book illustrates the complex ways through which austerity is experienced by women in their everyday lives.

This book explores Chinese young men’s views of manhood and how they construct and negotiate masculinities in everyday lives. Drawing from empirical research, it uses the term shenti (body-self) as a central concept to investigate the Chinese male body and explores masculinity within intimacy and kinship. The book proposes and develops a new concept of ‘elastic masculinity’ which can be stretched and forged differently depending on the context. At the same time, the men’s masculinity formation is constrained by the availability of resources, structural constraints, cultural traditions and diverse personal relationships. The book showcases how Chinese masculinities reflect the resilience of Confucian notions as well as transnational ideas of modern manhood. By doing so, it prioritizes local knowledge while setting the scene in a global framework. The book provides a unique dialogue with ‘western’ discourse on masculinity, and a timely study of how ordinary men actively engage with China’s global modernity, increasing individualisation, shifting gender values and changing local realities.

Issues of social and spatial gendered justice have never been more pertinent in contemporary post-industrialist societies. This book which marks an intervention in contemporary debates about women’s bodies, public space and rape culture, in order to think through ways in which the normalization of violence against women might be contested. It brings together a rich web of thought about politics, embodiment and public space to examine social and spatial justice in the context of the female body in public. Transforming rape culture is not easy; the problems outlined in this book are not things that can be fixed by policy changes or legal reform (alone). They necessitate an overhaul in the ethics of the way in which we think and act in public spaces, including attending to the exclusions that everyone, in part, is complicit in enacting. Through analyses of three provocative case studies (pregnancy in public space, the female body as protest, and BDSM in public spaces), this book opens up generative ideas about transgression and revolt and advances a transformative politics of the possibilities of living without rape culture.

As new forms of family and ‘non-traditional’ families grow in number, there is a need for understanding of these “new” arrangements and models of parenthood. This ground-breaking book discusses, using a comparative and a sociological perspective, examples of the relationship between changing gender identities and processes of family formation in the Western experience: including asexual couples; childfree women and men; living apart together (LAT) couples; lone mothers and fathers; homosexual and trans parents. The book shows that, in the 21^st century, it is possible to live, love, form a family without sex, without children, without a shared home, without a partner, without a working husband, without a heterosexual orientation or without a “biological” sexual body. This unique book also discusses the political implications—in terms of social movements characteristics and demands—of these emerging dimensions of family life. Such changes are likely to be of interest for a wide range of educational and policy areas which impact on families, women, men, and children and the book will therefore be of interest to a wide readership.

The author of this book is a pioneer in the field of sociological research. In this classic re-issue, the author interviewed 60 women to find out what it is really like to have a baby. Covering pregnancy, birth and child care, the book relies on the stories mothers tell to discuss whether and why women want to become pregnant, how they imagine motherhood to be, the experience of birth, post-natal depression, feeding and caring routines, and the challenges for the domestic division of labour and to fathers. It shows that most women are unprepared for the birth or the work of caring for a baby, but also for the joys that a baby can bring. As topical today as the day it was written, this important book was the first to examine first-time motherhood in the words of those experiencing it, and it continues to influence generations of researchers today.

Women's increased role in the labour market has combined with concerns about the damaging effects of long working hours to push time-related issues up the policy agenda in many Western nations. This book assesses policy alternatives in the light of feminist theory and factual evidence. It introduces mainstream ideas on the nature and political significance of time and re-frames them from a feminist perspective to provide a critical overview of policies in Western welfare states. Themes covered include gender differences in time use and the impact of ‘time poverty’ on women's citizenship; the need to value time spent giving and receiving care; the social meanings of time and whether we can talk about ‘women's time’ and ‘men's time’; and the role of the past in framing policy options today.

Until recently, higher education in the United Kingdom has largely failed to recognise gender based violence (GBV) on campus, but following the UK government task force set up in 2015, universities are becoming more aware of the issue. And recent cases in the media about the sexualised abuse of power in institutions such as universities, Parliament and Hollywood highlight the prevalence and damaging impact of GBV. This book provides the first in-depth overview of research and practice in GBV in universities. The book sets out the international context of ideologies, politics and institutional structures that underlie responses to GBV and sexual violence elsewhere in Europe, in the United States, and in Australia, and considers the implications of implementing related policy and practice. Presenting examples of innovative British approaches to engagement with the issue, the book also considers UK, EU and UN legislation to give an international perspective, making it of direct use to discussions of ‘what works’ in preventing GBV.

The transformations that are now taking place in women's lives are of great interest to social scientists and policy makers, yet we know very little about the impact of this social change over time. This new study uses longitudinal data — information gathered over a considerable period of time — to provide new insights into the changing dynamics of lives of women today. In particular, it explores the potential of longitudinal or life course analysis as a powerful tool for appreciating the gender dimension of social life. The contributors view the data from a policy perspective and use comparative analysis from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Japan to expand our understanding of women's life courses in relation to both men and women and the system of inequality.

Gender equality is often seen as a hallmark of the Nordic countries. This book explores this notion by examining the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today. It focuses on three Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway, and Sweden – and the policy reforms that have occurred relating to family and care. Beginning with the radical marriage reform carried through in all the three countries in the early decades of the twentieth century, the book progresses to explore contemporary challenges to the traditional model of equality, including equal rights for fathers, multiculturalism, and a critical young generation. It focuses on both differences and similarities between the countries and discusses the relevance of talking about a Nordic model. Stressing the importance of viewing the concept of equality in its historical context, the book critically investigates and discusses the Scandinavian ‘success story’ portrayed in normative political theory and presents an historical analysis of the development of gendered citizenship rights.

The book provides a systematic scientific overview of gender mainstreaming in Europe. It recalls the main steps of the origins and the development of the European gender mainstreaming (GM) strategy. The book also connects this framework with the current situation of gender equality and explores the strength and weak points of the strategy. To do so, it provides a critical evaluation of the instruments used to measure gender equality and explores how societal aspects, such as the opportunity structure defined by work-family balance policies and practices, affect the individual values of gender equality supporting the development of gender egalitarian cultures. Further, it develops an outline of the current and future challenges of the gender mainstreaming strategy, that run in parallel with the general European Union’s challenges, such as the integration process, economic crisis, migration and refugees crisis, and the rise of right-wing Euroscepticism. In addition, the old but always current problem of conceptualizing gender equality in different ways leading to jeopardized results. The book offers a critical review of the GM strategy in Europe and analyses whether and how gender equality in Europe is improving, with a specific interest in the cultural differences between the European countries where this common strategy is implemented.

The understanding of welfare states has been much enriched by comparative work on welfare regimes and gender. This book uses these debates to illuminate the changing gender regimes in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It has particular significance as countries in the region make the transition from communism into a European Union (EU) that has issues of women's employment, work–life balance, and gender equality at the heart of its social policy. The countries of Western Europe have, to varying degrees, been changing from a traditional male breadwinner/female carer model towards that of a duel earner, although in reality most are one-and-a-half, with women's paid work competing with their care work. But what is the trajectory of those countries of Central and Eastern Europe now joining the EU? The transition from communism has challenged those welfare structures that supported women in the labour market. Are these countries re-traditionalising as women's employment reduces, nurseries close and competition puts mothers at a disadvantage? The analysis draws on quantitative comparative data and on qualitative data from a new study of mothers in Polish households, illuminating the effects of changing welfare and gender relations from the perspective of those most directly affected – the mothers of young children.

An emerging consensus sees British pension policy as unravelling. Yet the gender impact of expanding private pension provision and relying increasingly on means-testing has been largely overlooked. This book examines key issues such as: how pension choices over the lifecourse are structured by gender, class, and ethnicity; the impact of changing patterns of partnership and parenthood on pension building; the distributional impact of privatising pensions; questions about individualisation of rights, survivor benefits, a citizen's pension, and means-testing; and the EU dimension – comparing alternative strategies for improving gender equity.

This is a collectively written, inter-disciplinary, thematic cross-national study that combines conceptual, theoretical, empirical, and policy material so as to explore a key concept in contemporary European political, policy, and academic debates. The first part of the book clarifies the various ways in which the concept of citizenship has developed historically and is understood today in a range of Western European welfare states. It elaborates on the contemporary framing of debates and struggles around citizenship. This provides a framework for three policy studies, looking at: migration and multiculturalism; the care of young children; and home-based childcare and transnational dynamics. The book is unusual in weaving together the topics of migration and childcare, and in studying these issues together within a gendered citizenship framework. It also demonstrates the value of a multi-level conceptualisation of citizenship, stretching from the domestic sphere through the national and European levels to the global.

Gender is a factor of youth migration; it shapes the roles, capacities, access to resources, and cultural expectations in society. Gender defines who leaves and who stays behind in the place of origin, or the extent from which the youth travels outside of their own communities. This collection is possibly the first to present the intersection of gender and youth migration with encompassing themes related to imperial histories, negotiating identities, education, and work using diverse studies in Canada, France, Hungary, Bangladesh, Turkey, Italy, Albania, Ethiopia, U.K. and the U.S. Gendered modalities suggest that there are particular ways or modes in which gender as a system of power relations become manifest in youth migration, either voluntarily or coerced, and consequently, their negotiation of structures and limiting social practices.Gender and youth are intrinsically connected to migration, and this book is about these connections in multidisciplinary perspectives in an increasingly globalized world.

Health inequalities have emerged as a key global concern in the early twenty-first century notably in the work of Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) and also of Michael Marmot (2008) for the World Health Organisation. Health inequalities are differences between individuals’ health experiences or outcomes which stem from social inequalities, including sexual orientation and gender identity. While there is a substantial body of evidence that social inequalities lead to poorer health outcomes in relation to class, ‘race’ and gender, there has been little examination of the social inequalities and poor health outcomes experienced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) people. The health of LGBT people may be compromised by a range of factors including homelessness, being a looked after child, gender nonconformity especially in childhood, in End of Life Care or living in residential care. Social workers play a key role in supporting LGBT people when their health is impaired, but they can also take action to actively promote health and well-being. This book will engage with social work’s contribution to reducing LGBT health inequalities, in particular: by examining key concepts relevant to health inequalities including the social determinants of health and human rights approaches; showcasing social work interventions aimed at making a difference in LGBT people’s health and social care outcomes; discussing research and curricula developments in social work which inform good practice.

This book examines minority women’s experiences of and activism within the austerity regimes of France and Britain. Through in depth case studies of the particular dynamics of austerity and activism in Scotland, England and France, we explore how activists operate in this moment of political and economic uncertainty and practice a ‘politics of survival’ (Hill Collins 2000). It explores how race, class, gender and legal status interact and shape both minority women’s grassroots anti-austerity activism in each country and what kinds of claims and political actors are recognised and legitimated by both policymakers and civil society allies. It is interested in who is audible and legitimate and how these hierarchies of knowledge and political credibility are reproduced or overthrown. Centering minority women’s articulations of both crisis and resistance is a way to subvert the dominant narrative of both ‘crisis’ and ‘activism’.

Methodologically innovative in its use of mixed-media diary research, this timely book offers a focused sociological study of non-binary people’s identities and experiences in the UK. From negotiating a sense of legitimacy when ‘not feeling trans enough’ to how identities can shift over time, it reveals important nuances of diverse gender identities while offering crucial insights into trans-related healthcare inequalities. The findings of this ground-breaking research mark an important contribution to the wider fields of gender studies, LGBTQ scholarship and medical policy.