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The affinity for tech-driven solutions of 'smart cities' has been critiqued at length, as has the gender disparity in technology firms. This paper draws these literatures together along with our own data on Australia's innovation economy – one that includes its spaces (incubators, accelerators and co-working hubs), events ('hackathons'), and places (innovation districts). These three components are ubiquitous among smart city strategies across all levels of government. In this paper we examine the gendered landscape of the innovation economy and the strategic urban agenda to which it is tied. The paper draws on data collected through interviews conducted with women entrepreneurs around their experiences in Australia's innovation economy. Drawing from policy documents and further interviews, our discussion mirrors their vignettes with an examination of the three innovation economy components using case studies from Australian smart city planning. In doing so, we illuminate how the gendered experiences of women in the innovation economy are entwined with the smart urbanism imperatives of high-growth, technology-focus, and the attraction of 'talent'. Existing attempts to grapple with discrimination in the innovation economy are shown to reinforce gendered hierarchies, resulting in 'smart cities' designed for men. We argue that the gendered nature of the tech industries that underpin the innovation economy has implications for who the smart city is for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places outside the city have continuously been characterised by received knowledge about decline, youth outmigration, lifestyle discourses and a lack of opportunities for young people. This paper argues that greater clarification of young people's place-making practices counteracts received knowledge about the decline of the regions, discourses about the 'idyllic' communities and lack of access commonly understood to impact young people beyond the city. This paper further seeks to contribute to the academic discussion about non-urban spaces by focusing on regional places specifically, a key geography in the discussion about place. A focus group study with 62 individuals aged 16–28 years was designed to capture young people's place-making practices. Using Harris, A., and J. Wyn. (2009. "Young People's Politics and the Micro-Territories of the Local." Australian Journal of Political Science 44 (2): 327–344) concept 'micro-territories of the local' as a framework, the analysis draws on gender and social class to interrogate young people's place-making projects. The findings indicate that regional towns represent a unique constellation of people, resources and history that highlights the specific place-making projects of young people in their teens and into their 20s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops and applies the emergent concept of institutional transphobia to explore the barriers to transgender research in early years education. It argues that institutional processes embed and disguise the logic of transphobia by drawing on dominant, taken-for-granted claims of the inappropriateness or irrelevance of gender-focused education interventions that challenge cis-normativity and heteronormativity. Drawing on the barriers and difficulties experienced through a PhD journey, the paper explores how institutional transphobia was evident in the seemingly neutral reasons for denying site access and ethics approvals, divergent institutional ethics requirements, the tensions between individual support and institutional processes, and the expectations on research higher degree students. The paper concludes that current processes and priorities must be challenged and replaced with an institutional mandate that explicitly values and welcomes transgender research as a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing respect, gender equity and gender-based violence in schools has a long history. Renewed government efforts to address gender-based violence in schools through a whole school approach have commenced under the umbrella 'respectful relationships education'. The research presented in this paper is nestled within a larger project aimed to evaluate the implementation and impact of a whole school approach to respectful relationships education across two Australian states (Our Watch, forthcoming). The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a six-month respectful relationships education program on the gender awareness and bias of early primary school students. Using a single group pre-post test research design, students from two primary schools in Australia completed a survey before (n = 202) and after (n = 217) completion of a respectful relationships education pilot program. A modified version of the Children's Occupation, Activities, and Traits-Attitudes Measure (COAT-AM; Liben and Bigler, 2002) and the Children's Occupation, Activities, and Traits-Personal Measure (COAT-PM; Liben and Bigler, 2002) were used to assess students' views about gender. After the pilot, boys and girls were significantly less likely to consider stereotypically masculine occupations and activities as only for boys and stereotypically feminine occupations and activities as only for girls. Results indicate that ongoing respectful relationships education could be an effective way to disrupt gender stereotyping in early primary school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite ongoing attempts to disrupt the white cis-hetero-masculine nature of the literary canon the secondary school English curriculum remains tethered to its lineage. In conversation with feminist new materialist scholars who argue that the stories we read and write have material affects on who we are becoming, this paper argues that in order to mobilise change in the secondary years of schooling, interventions into the canon must move beyond (re)forming text lists or providing teachers with readymade pedagogical resources. Drawing on the Australian context, the authors outline some of the contemporary challenges teachers face in diversifying and decolonising the curriculum. Drawing on their Literary Linking Methodology the authors discuss a pilot project that seeks to unsettle the canon by supporting teachers to undertake extended immersion with both contemporary literary texts and archival research. Accordingly, this paper contributes to understandings of the tensions and challenges teachers face in introducing contemporary Australian texts into the curriculum and offers insights into the ways in which professional learning might be (re)imagined so that English teachers might draw on available cultural resources as researchers and literary knowledge producers in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluate the utility of brief online training for facilitating mental health professionals' perceived knowledge, confidence, and comfort in working with non-binary clients, and building positive attitudes. Baseline participants were 79 Australian registered mental health professionals, of whom 38 completed online training and a one-week follow-up assessment. Participants completed an assessment of attitudes, comfort, confidence, and perceived knowledge pertaining to non-binary people before and after completing online training. The training (30-minute average completion time) provided information on non-binary people's lives using text, images, embedded video, and links to optional resources. Follow-up measures completed one-week post-intervention indicated engagement in the training may lead to increased perceived knowledge, confidence and comfort. Attitudes were positive at baseline and were not significantly different at follow-up. Providing brief online training for working with non-binary people in mental health might improve practitioner perceived knowledge, confidence and competence at low cost and with easy access. Future research is required to account for limitations and build on current outcomes. Key Points What is already known on this topic: Little is known about the effects of brief online training regarding non-binary genders on mental health practitioner's attitudes, confidence, comfort, and perceived knowledge. Previous research has shown that brief training can increase positive attitudes for, knowledge of, behavioural intent, and cultural competence for working with sexual and gender minorities, though has not specifically focused on non-binary people. Previous literature has highlighted positive associations between practitioner knowledge and the well-being of non-binary people accessing health services. What this paper adds: This paper adds to the ongoing genesis of options for training mental health practitioners about non-binary people and relevant issues. Findings suggest beneficial outcomes from both prior professional training in this area and the brief training used in the study. The brief online training used in the study was associated with higher perceived knowledge, confidence, and comfort for working with non-binary clients, but further research is needed to understand reasons for change in these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and asexual (LGBTQA+) Australians are vulnerable to religion-based attempts to change or suppress their sexuality and/or gender identity, including conversion ideology messaging in school-based sex education. Conversion bans are currently being debated across the country. This paper reports on a critical survivor-driven study which retrospectively explored Australian LGBTQA+ youth exposure to conversion practices both within and outside of education settings. It privileges the perspectives of self-titled 'survivors' of conversion ideology and practices through the use of a reference group and constructivist grounded theory. Qualitative data were collected 20 from Australian LGBTQA+ conversion ideology and/or practice survivors aged 18 years and over, using focus groups and 35 individual interviews between 2016 and 2020. In conversion-promoting religious contexts including education institutions and groups, messages concerning sexuality and gender changed as individuals grew older and were drawn into more/enclosed settings in which core conversion messages of LGBTQA+ 'brokenness' were prevalent. While individuals progressed through the conversion experience in different ways, their experience was characterised by the absence of any form of affirming LGBTQA+ education – enabling conversion itself to become their LGBTQA+ (mis)information source. School policy addressing conversion, alongside enhanced provision of affirmative age-appropriate gender and sexuality education, may mediate this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the longstanding erasure of women from representations of resistance within the academy, increasing attention is being paid to myriad ways in which women are performing and enacting resistance. This is particularly evident in burgeoning research exploring women's resistance to natural resource extraction. However, within this literature, a prevailing reliance on gender as an explanatory analytic runs the risk of overlooking a much wider, messier and diverse resistance terrain. This paper argues that in continuing to rely primarily on gender to frame and analyse women's resistance to resource extraction, gender can inadvertently become installed as a form of strong theory, which obscures the many ways in which women's resistance to natural resource extraction is multiple, contingent, more-than-gendered, and more-than-human. Rather than relying on singular categories of social difference (such as gender) to explain women's resistance, this paper turns to weak theory to move away from explaining why women resist, to instead exploring the many diverse ways that they resist. Drawing on two stories of women's resistance to natural resource extraction in New South Wales, Australia, this paper uses weak theory to attend to the diverse more-than-gendered and more-than-human ways in which women resist, and argues that such multiplicity is erased when women's resistance to resource extraction continues to be approached primarily through singular analytical framings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asylum-seeking women's liminal citizenship in home countries is a contributing factor to their irregular migration. In this paper, we examine how conditions of gendered citizenship, specifically family violence, exert additional pressures on women to undertake irregular journeys. In examining the narratives of refugee and asylum-seeking women from Iran and Afghanistan, women spoke of multiple instances of family violence in home countries, in addition to the more traditionally understood factors of insecurity associated with irregular migration, such as conflict, torture and war. Using the concept of lived citizenship to examine women's experiences, we contribute to the nexus of knowledge on global mobility, gender and family violence. These findings are important to ensure women who seek asylum have supports and services tailored to them that address these issues within the broader family violence schema in affluent host nations, including within the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the lives of women that are invisibilized by the racial penal governing mechanisms of the settler state. It demonstrates how a racial penal governance is configured historically by its interlockings with multiple and hierarchical systems of oppression that intervene differently in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and women, convict women, racialized diaspora and marginalized white women. The paper engages with four 'moments of appearances' that interrupt and speak back to racial penal governance. Mirzoeff's The appearance of Black Lives Matter (2017, ) theorization of decolonial spaces of appearance is integrated to the analysis of historical and recent moments of appearance visibilized in the testimonials of Thomas Brune, the Aboriginal youth Co-editor of the Flinders Island Chronicle in 1837 in the Wybalenna prison Camp and of Zoe, Alison and Pamela who have lived experience of prisons. These are embodied moments that make lives in prisons appear and matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pathway to aging well is not always clear for older migrants living in a foreign country, who must navigate a range of challenges resulting from differences between the cultural expectations of aging in their country of origin and the realities of aging in their country of residence. Transnational migration scholars indicate that digital media are important resources for maintaining relationships and support networks across 'here' and 'there'. They say relatively little, however, about the experiences of maintaining a sense of home, particularly for older migrants. In this paper, we draw on ethnographic interview data with older migrants from Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar), who live in Australia, to examine how their practices of 'digital homing' help them to manage the challenges of aging well in a foreign land. Three key findings are proposed. First, older migrants are active and skilled in using digital devices to create spaces of belonging and home. Second, older migrants' access to and uses of digital media are structured by gendered, ethnic and generational roles, expectations and obligations. Third, the practices of digital homing that enhance migrant experiences of aging well tend to simultaneously reinforce and reproduce gendered inequalities within families and communities. We conclude by arguing that it is the very capacity of digital homing practices to reproduce ethnic and generational selves in host societies that simultaneously contributes to the reproduction of unequal gendered obligations and expectations, including in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines young Indian-Australians' understandings of identity expressed through their preferences in an intimate partnership. Studies in comparable contexts have indicated that diasporic Indians may identify as generically 'Indian', and express a desire for partners who are the same. This is no less true for many of Australia's Indians. Based on fieldwork with members of the diaspora in Sydney, this paper looks at the extent to which the social hierarchies of regional/linguistic identity, religion, caste and class are reproduced through this group's marriage and partnership practices. I find that their varying relationships with these hierarchies are often unconsciously shaped, and find expression in a sense of 'Indianness' and adherence to 'Indian' values. This paper further disrupts essentialising conceptions of inherent, intransient diasporic identity by highlighting that the diasporic negotiation of self is deeply personal and prone to differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how coercive control underlies financial abuse as men re-interpret the gender of money, stripping it of its moral safeguards. Financial abuse denies women access and agency over money. It works through male reinterpretation of how money is gendered – that is the way men and women own, inherit, use, manage and control money. Recent Indian migrant women experience coercive control when the male control of money is exercised without responsibility for the welfare of the wife and children. The family boundary of money becomes a way of extorting money from the wife's family. Sending money home, a sign of filial responsibility, becomes abusive when the wife is not consulted, leaving the family in Australia without sufficient money for their settlement needs. This paper extends the theoretical and geographic breadth of studies of family violence among Indian women in the diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the place of gender in relation to labour and transition in regional development. A 'gendered lens' is applied to planning documents relating to the region of Gippsland, Australia. While previous research highlights the importance of accounting for gender in regional development, gendered analyses outside Europe are scarce. We argue that an apparent gender neutrality in planning documents in effect privileges masculinised elements of the economy. It means that current approaches to regional development, at best, reproduce the gendered status quo and, at worst, further re-entrench gender inequality in the region, with consequences for regional labour policy. Our findings have flow on effects for gender relations, and specifically for women, and economic policy in regions undergoing transition in Gippsland. We conclude that any regional policy that does not account for gendered realities and the lived experiences of women, ultimately fails the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the author's personal experience as a second-generation Greek-Australian woman caring for aging parents living in Australia to illustrate issues that arise for Greek Orthodox Australians in response to mourning practices. The Greek diaspora, at its peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is now an aging population in Australia. Burial and mourning practices for Greek Orthodox Australians are much the same as they are for Greeks living in Greece. However, this paper argues that some of these practises are not easily reconciled with an Australian identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three years (2015-2017), various media articles have pointed to an apparent "boom time" for women's sport in Australia. Evidence for this boom is drawn from examples such as the introduction of the Women's Australian Rules Football League, the television success of the Women's Big Bash League (cricket), and the rise in interest in soccer due to the international achievement of the Matildas. Such media reports reflect and reinforce a narrative of progress that assumes that gender equality is becoming closer with every decade. This paper employs a critical historical method inspired by the work of Joan W. Scott to analyse articles that have declared or commented on a contemporary boom in women's sport in Australia. The 120 contemporary articles are analysed alongside 400 historical articles that present similar arguments and themes. In identifying similarities between the historical and contemporary articles, this paper raises questions about the reality of the so-called moment of progress we are currently experiencing, and discusses the possible consequences for feminism and social change in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity in relation to 'settlement' as a migrant generates challenges in redefining the old self into what one is and/or ought to become. The process of 'becoming' and redefinition of the 'self' leads to an ongoing struggle alongside the context, practices and culture of the host country thus creating multiple challenges while discarding or modifying popular notions of self and culture. Identities are fluid and subject to varying degrees of change brought about by one's experiences and culture. As two ethnic migrant women in Australia, living in the context of social cleavages encompassing race, gender, culture, class, education and memories, we acknowledge our hybrid identities based on our past selves and the borrowed/adapted ways of doing and being in Australia. Tied in with these issues of identity is the concept of 'settlement' in Australia. While remaining mindful that dislocation of nation is not always dislocation of gender and social class, our autoethnographic accounts reveal our negotiations of 'settlement' within this alien yet now familiar space. In the process, this paper highlights the need for a niche discussion space for unpacking the experiences of transnational women of colour such as us who occupy a zone of what we term as 'privileged marginalisation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic caused working from home to spike abruptly, creating a unique spatial organization of paid and unpaid work that was not so different for women and men. This paper reports early results from a survey of Australian men and women, conducted during state-imposed lockdown in May 2020, on how the pandemic affected paid work, domestic work, and caring responsibilities. Findings reveal a rise in domestic work burdens for all. Women shouldered most of the extra unpaid workload, but men's childcare time increased more in relative terms, so average gender gaps narrowed. The relative gap in housework remained. While the lockdown generated lower subjective time pressure, dissatisfaction with balance of paid and unpaid work rose markedly and from a much higher base for women. Overall, the results reflect a need for sustained policy attention to the care economy to narrow rather than widen gender disparity. HIGHLIGHTS Lockdowns created extra unpaid work, at the same time as people also worked from home. Men pitched in more, but only to about the same amount as women were doing before the pandemic. Employers expected their workers to be as productive as before the pandemic, ignoring care burdens. Childcare and school closures disproportionally affected women's paid and unpaid work. Women's economic security will be at growing risk unless affordable care services are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicultural societies such as Australia are becoming more diverse, and understandings of mixed race descent experiences are urgently needed. In this paper, we contribute to such understandings by examining how mixed-race Asian-Australian women navigate the complexities of race through their cultural expressions and embodied experiences. Our discussion draws on ethnographic research, interviews and social media analysis conducted with Indonesian-Australian and Filipino-Australian cultural performers and producers. Through their cultural works, these women artists explore and articulate issues of racial, national, gendered and familial identities. Our analysis of their works and lives draws on Ngo's recent discussion of 'racist habits', to examine how mixed-race experiences require them to navigate the embodiment of racialised perceptions from both their maternal homeland and their Australian homeland. Their problematising of habits through cultural practices provides an important opportunity for recasting mixed-race in ways that resist both the valorisation and the demonisation of mixed-race bodies. Rather than being presented as 'cosmopolitan ideal' or 'suspect impurity', the Eurasian figure is an opportunity for resisting and releasing the embodied habits of race and racialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale population studies surveying young people in relation to their worldviews have tended to frame their identities in a fixed and limited capacity while also treating the topics of religion/spirituality and sexuality/gender as discrete categories of scholarly analysis. We highlight the affordances and limitations of foregrounding fixed religious, sexual and gender-based identity categories in the process of collecting and analysing data related to the worldviews of young people. In this paper we argue the value of studying the complexities and intersections of these identities and worldviews together in one study. We do this through reference to the Australia's Generation Z (AGZ) study: the first nationally representative sample focused on providing an evidence-based understanding of both the religious/spiritual/non-religious and sexuality/gender identities and worldviews of young Australians aged 13–18. We discuss how we built on existing surveys in designing the AGZ survey. We also demonstrate how this survey allowed for the incorporation of young people's non-binary understandings of religion, sexuality and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everyday activities and routines, such as, cooking, cleaning, and shopping, draw attention to the changes, contrasts, and adaptive processes that migrants undertake when settling into new living arrangements and relationships. For those coming from countries with rigid gender hierarchies, such as Nepal, these changes and necessary adaptations to the new socio-cultural practices and more flexible gender roles, often magnify the emotional and relational experiences of migration. This paper explores how female Nepalese students living in Brisbane, Australia experience shifting gender roles and expectations. It expands on the scarce literature on female Nepalese migration, in contrast to the recent growth in females as primary visa holders. Drawing on a series of qualitative interviews and ethnographic reflections, we examine how the more mundane roles and duties of a household are negotiated by these students and their partners. We suggest that attention to the mundane, everyday negotiations of gender between partners and in shared households sheds light on the complexity of migration experiences for Nepalese students living in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates computing students' entrepreneurial intentions, motivations, recognisable barriers and encouragements towards entrepreneurship, with a focus on gender. Two universities, one in Australia and one in the UK (n = 247), were used as locations for the research to consider two distinct contexts. In each university there were similarly high levels of interest in entrepreneurship among computing students, however some significant differences in responses were found, especially between male and female participants. Job flexibility was a strong motivation for the UK-based female participants; while female participants at the Australian university identified internal barriers (such as lack of confidence and experience). Enablers to entrepreneurial activity were identified, including access to incubators and academic support. Directing such support towards computing students, while recognising gender differences, could increase interest in, and take-up of, entrepreneurship. Recommendations are made regarding how universities can best support would-be entrepreneurs and encourage inclusive entrepreneurship into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers problematic recognisability and deficit constructions of sole parent families which I suggest contribute to conditions that can perpetuate family-based violence. Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's safety (ANROWS) state that one in four women in Australia have experienced at least one incident of violence by an intimate partner, equating to 2.2 million women who, since the age of 15, have experienced male intimate partner violence. A proliferation of discourses constructing the deficit 'single mother' tends to reinscribe the centrality and normative power of the hetero-nuclear family. When we obscure and restrict choice and alternatives to familial forms we restrict the possibilities of these alternatives becoming liveable lives. When deficit constructions of sole parenting are reinforced, people in dangerous and untenable violent family circumstances are less likely to view sole parenting as a possibility for constituting an alternative and happy family life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the benefits of play and discovery in cities have been widely discussed, the impact of augmented reality games, such as Pokémon Go, induced urban discovery on different demographics and their impact on perceptions of public spaces is yet to be studied. This paper examines the perceptions and usage of public spaces by different demographics of augmented reality gamers. The study finds that there are several statistically significant differences between the experiences of men and women, and players of different ages playing Pokémon Go in public spaces in Australia, particularly in their mobility, sense of marginalization and sense of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing bullying victimization of students with disability is a significant challenge for schools. While social support can protect against bullying victimization in the general population, its role in mediating the relationship between disability and bullying is under-researched. This paper examined covert bullying prevalence (encompassing relational, social and indirect aggression) and its relationship to social support (peer, family, and teacher) among a national sample of 4,753 Australian 8–14 year olds, 490 of whom self-identified as living with disability. Positive teacher and peer support predicted the reduced probability of bullying victimization among students overall, but low support levels among students with disability negated this effect. Interventions to address covert bullying of students with disability need to focus on whole-school approaches that reduce opportunities for victimization of students with disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gender differences in the relationship between parent drinking and adolescent drinking are poorly understood. As parental alcohol use is a primary early exposure to alcohol for adolescents, it is important to understand how consequences may differ for adolescent males and females. Objectives: The aim of this paper was to examine gender differences in the relationship between mother's and father's heavy episodic drinking, and its combination, and adolescent drinking. Methods: The sample included 2,800 14-15 year olds (48.9% female) living in two-parent households from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. The adolescent outcome measure was having had an alcoholic drink in the past year. Mothers and fathers self-reported their frequency of heavy episodic drinking. Covariates included parents' education, smoking, non-English-speaking background, and symptoms of psychological distress. Logistic regression was used to examine the hypotheses. Results: After adjustment for covariates, both mothers' and fathers' heavy episodic drinking significantly increased the likelihood of adolescent drinking. Moreover, fathers' heavy drinking was more strongly related to adolescent drinking for girls. However, there were no gender differences in the relationship between mothers' drinking and adolescent drinking, and the combination of mothers' and fathers' drinking was not more risky than heavy drinking in either parent alone. Conclusions: Parent heavy episodic drinking is a risk factor for adolescent drinking, after controlling for potential confounding variables. Results suggest that girls may be especially vulnerable to parent heavy drinking in early adolescence. This variation should be considered in the design and evaluation of family-based interventions to prevent adolescent drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines factors affecting parental expectations of higher education prospects for their children using Australian household survey data. We find that a variety of factors influence parental expectations, of which parents' assessment of their children's academic performance is the strongest. Factors known to impact upon actual higher education participation, such as parental education and remoteness, are already evident in parental expectations, but with limited evidence of expectations being shaped by financial constraints. We also find evidence of a 'same gender' effect, with mothers exhibiting higher expectations for higher education for their daughters. This may be in part due to significantly lower expectations held by fathers with sub-bachelor qualifications. These factors contribute to higher expectations overall for girls entering university. The research points to the importance of interventions commencing in early childhood, and accounting for key household background characteristics when designing, implementing and evaluating programmes for widening participation in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical analysis of existing literature on historical and contemporary gender dynamics in Australian social work education and practice. Analyses of gender dynamics and inequalities have the potential to illuminate pathways for inclusive social work education and practice, for both practitioners and people who access social work services. This critical review of the literature demonstrates that Australian social work education and practice have been shaped by gendered discourses, structures, and power dynamics since its inception. In a contemporary sense, women constitute the majority of social work educators and practitioners, while men disproportionately dominate positions of power and prestige, although rigorous Australian data on the roles and representation of men and women are not readily available. Our findings point to the need for further engagement with gender as a unit of analysis in Australian social work research, including further engagement with inclusive and intersectional feminisms. IMPLICATIONS Enhanced knowledge of Australian social work history, particularly in relation to gender, allows for a greater understanding of current gendered power relations in social work education and practice. Gender dynamics are underresearched in contemporary Australian social work education and practice. Up-to-date data on the status and representation of men, women, and nonbinary people in social work are needed as the foundation for transformative and inclusive social work education and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, there has been little examination of those who complete training in male-dominated sectors and continue to work in these sectors within regional Australia. Therefore, in this preliminary qualitative study, we examine the attraction and retention issues of women entering male-dominated trades within regional NSW. This paper reports on findings from our initial industry consultation sessions of 35 participants within regional areas of NSW. Findings highlight retention issues such as workplace cultures, spotlighting, expecting women to fit into dysfunctional cultures and lack of career pathways. While these are preliminary findings and generalizations cannot be made for all regional areas, implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laws and regulatory guidelines dealing with assisted reproductive technology in Australia and elsewhere typically operate on the principle that the physical and psychological well-being of the person who might be created using the technology must be an active consideration. An ethical/legal problem arises when future persons are protected at the expense of existing persons. This occurs when women, who create and gestate these future persons, are socially, legally and medically positioned as transgenerational vectors of harm, and are subject to pressure to act for the benefit of people who do not yet and may never come to exist. This paper explores the way women are understood, in science and law, as subject to situational and environmental harms as well as constituting a (prenatal) environment for the perpetuation of those harms. Finally, recognising that harm is itself actively gendered, this paper also explores how gendered assumptions are smuggled into legal explanations of disease and its causes and how this might impact regulatory responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its subject the circulation of tolerance discourse within two pedagogical encounters in two Australian educational settings, and draws from the work of Wendy Brown on tolerance as a regulatory force. Brown argues that discourses of tolerance are produced within historical and cultural milieu that enable tolerance and aversion to exist simultaneously. This has significant implications for how we might come to understand the project of working towards a socially just educational system and the various struggles encountered within pedagogical sites. I also examine the pedagogical affects that are produced within different educational moments as we work to teach in or around difference and when we embody the Other in the classroom. I engage with how these experiences speak to the way in which tolerance as national ideal acts to both alleviate and circulate discourses of inequality such as sexism and homophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the available literature on single older non-home owning women in Australia and their housing issues. Preliminary information suggests that this subset of the population is increasingly at risk of becoming homeless or inadequately housed in later life. In fact, there is a historical dearth of research on women’s housing in general. This invisibility and vulnerability is interrogated within this paper through a feminist standpoint lens. We argue that in order to better understand the situation for single older women who do not own their own homes, it is necessary to revisit the social landscape inhabited by these women in their early years. Firstly, however, the current landscape is explored. It appears that ageing and single status are compounding factors which place non-home owning women at higher risk of homelessness or inappropriate housing. The paper then attempts to assess how the social and economic conditions that were extant in the mid-twentieth century led to the present situation. Our analysis leads us to suggest that women’s traditional roles in society are largely responsible for housing insecurity in their later years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the poor performance of students in 2007 who had used a Certificate IV to meet minimum entry requirements, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle campus, developed a specific intervention. A compulsorily-required 'primer' course was developed and taught by a staff member with extensive experience in both vocational education and training (VET) as well as higher education settings. The course attempted, in part, to address the lack of student experience with extended reading and writing tasks and to position students to be successful in their undergraduate studies. In doing so, it highlighted core intra-sector differences in terms of how each interprets learning skills, outcomes and competencies as defined under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Its link to increased retention within undergraduate courses offers a valuable case study to address such differences through established learning support principles. Though compulsory, the course has been well received by enrolling students and student feedback post-course has been overwhelmingly positive. This paper explores the reasons for the development of the 'primer', its structure and the issues which arose relevant to the AQF's qualification pathways policy. The paper acknowledges the absence of specific policy AQF guidelines to assist any pedagogical (general teaching and learning approaches) (Darder, Baltodano, & Torres, 2009) or andragogical (adult learning approaches) (Knowles, 1980) review of intra-sector differences, however, some theory suggests that combining pedagogy and andragogy will help shape future discussion on gaps in national qualification pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity is growing in Australian society, in schools, visibility and inclusion of knowledge pertaining to those who are gender- and/or sexuality-diverse, such as lesbians, gay men and transgender people, remain marginalised. This may be due, in part, to a belief that parents are opposed to such content inclusions in their children’s education; yet, virtually no Australian research supports this belief nor have parental perspectives on gender and sexuality diversity inclusion been specifically examined. This paper draws on a broader research study that examined New South Wales parents’ perceptions about the visibility of gender and sexuality diversity and the inclusion or exclusion of related content in school curriculum. It focuses on one particular focus group comprised of only mothers who lived in a specific enclave of Sydney known for its gender and sexuality diversity. The discussion highlights their awareness of gender and sexuality diversity and the dynamics surrounding it; and their perceptions of local school approaches to, and limitations around, gender and sexuality diversity in school curricula, policy and practices, despite potential support for it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the aspirations of a group of young women in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It examines how their hopes and expectations are influenced by the reality of their everyday lives and the extent to which they are able to influence the course of their lives and become agents for change in their own communities. As with adolescents in lower socio-economic groups, the majority of young women in River Town have not developed life goals or clear strategies of how to achieve these goals. The choices that young women have are constrained by their narrow range of experience, which is characterized by early pregnancies and the potential threat of male violence. However, young women have articulated specific domains where they are able to control and structure their lives. This paper discusses the experiences of young women in this remote Aboriginal community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on findings from a research project funded by the Scottish Executive which analysed the gender balance in teaching and explored the underlying reasons for the decline in the number and proportion of men, particularly in secondary schools. As in other developed countries, such as Australia, the USA and Canada, the proportion of men entering teaching has declined fairly rapidly over a ten-year period. At a time when women are participating in paid work in greater numbers than ever before, their concentration in certain areas of work, particularly in the service sector and the 'caring' professions, is increasingly apparent. Despite the clarity of this trend, it is evident that responses from academics and policy-makers have been very different, with some policy-makers linking the declining proportion of men in teaching with the problem of boys' underachievement and a perceived 'crisis in masculinity', whilst some feminist writers have questioned these views, drawing on recent gender theory which questions the utility of the binary categories of 'man' and 'woman', instead suggesting that gender is performed and may have little to do with the body of the person who is involved in the particular performance. Sex and gender thus become decoupled, with the focus on individual actors freely choosing the version of gender they wish to practice. This line of argument suggests that the sex of the teacher is irrelevant; what really matters is the way in which they perform gender in the classroom. Work on the gender balance in teaching therefore provides an opportunity to reflect on underlying tensions in gender theorising and policy-making. The paper begins by considering tensions between modernist and post-structuralist accounts of sex and gender. Having outlined the underlying theoretical tensions, it then goes on to consider the accounts given by teachers and students of the reasons for their own choice of teaching as a career, their experiences in teaching and their views of the reasons underlying the declining proportion of men in teaching. The aim is to consider whether students and teachers believe that sex is an important variable structuring their lives, including their decision to become a teacher and their experiences of working as a teacher, or whether they regard gender as something which is chosen from a wide repertoire of options and is relatively free from the constraints of embodiment. In relation to research on the gender balance in teaching, the paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need to make use of the idea of gender as performance, whilst at the same time holding on to the foundational concepts of 'woman' and 'man'. This is necessary to monitor and understand the career paths and underlying power relations of women and men in teaching and to transform these over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early 1950s witnessed growing unrest among British migrants housed in Australian migrant hostels. In 1952, British migrants organized marches to protest about communal feeding, withheld payment for accommodation and fought with police trying to evict them. They also exploited the letters pages of newspapers to mobilize local public sympathy, especially through letters by British women voicing their frustration at not being able to cook for their families. This paper considers the complaints made about food in the migrant hostels, relating these to the role of the British women as wives and mothers, and to the central role that women played in protesting about hostel conditions. The paper contrasts the British protests of 1952 with those by single British men in 1947 and by single Italian men in 1952, in whose protests food played a very different role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the experiences of young mothers are examined in the contemporary context of a heightened emphasis on individuated personhood and suggestions of a vastly changed modern femininity. Sociological preoccupation with the features of post-industrial society has emphasized the declining influence of preordained and institutionalized structures. The declining influence of such structures in turn ushers in new requirements for personal agency and decision-making. Under the influence of such posited de-traditionalization, the family is widely conceived to be constituted less through obligation and more through negotiation. Understandings of the regulatory dimensions of neo-liberalism and the post-feminist sensibility are drawn on to consider how young women are implicated in this landscape of de-traditionalization and individualism. This paper reports on Australian empirical research with young women who are mothers that reveals the continuation of supposedly outmoded but evidently enduring features of traditional motherhood. Significantly, though, these supposedly superseded gendered features of family life are now encountered amidst the requirements of reflexive modernity, and it is argued that they are responded to in ways that reflect transformations in the experience of the personal; particularly the construction of individualized biographies of reinvention through motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a study of gender and politics in the Australian parliament in order to make a contribution to methodological debates in feminist political science. The paper begins by outlining the different dimensions of feminist political science methodology that have been identified in the literature. According to this literature five key principles can be seen to constitute feminist approaches to political science. These are: a focus on gender, a deconstruction of the public/private divide, giving voice to women, using research as a basis for transformation, and using reflexivity to critique researcher positionality. The next part of the paper focuses more specifically on reflexivity tracing arguments about its definition, usefulness and the criticisms it has attracted from researchers. Following this, I explore how my background as a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1987 to 1996 provided an important academic resource in my doctoral study of gender and politics in the national parliament. Through this process I highlight the value of a reflexive approach to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates why some Australian households use paid help with domestic labor while others do not. Consistent with earlier studies, the analysis examines hypotheses relating to resources, objective demand, and gender attitudes. Additionally, this paper examines the impact of attitudes toward using paid domestic labor, an area that has not been investigated previously. The findings suggest that resources and objective demand provide the parameters within which employing household help is made possible or necessary, but beliefs about the appropriateness of this strategy also play a role in determining whether Australian households use paid domestic labor. The paper concludes that understanding whether Australian households pay for domestic help is dependent not just on the level of resources and objective demand but also on whether individuals view paid domestic help as an appropriate strategy for undertaking domestic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper problematises embedded notions of masculine and feminine embodiment within the contexts of contemporary Australian mainstream popular culture. Drawing on Bourdieu's (1990:56) theory of `habitus' as non-consciously performed practices'… internalised as second nature and so forgotten'; personal reflections as artist, choreographer and teacher; and a brief analysis of the male body in the television program, So You Think You Can Dance Australia (TEN Network, 2008), the author questions and considers the development of habitual ways of perceiving particular forms of male embodiment as aesthetic and attractive, and other forms as un-aesthetic. Further, the impact of the author's own experiences as actor! dancer and choreographer are considered in relation to his work as a director and choreographer of `the bodies of male and female students' in school productions. Through this paper, the author conjectures about the potential for the drama classroom to be a site in which embodied gender inequities may be challenged and deconstructed. Jack Migdalek [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores leadership styles and gender in higher education (HE) by examining representation of female professors in Australian and Turkish universities and identifying barriers to achieving seniority. The paper explores factors, including leadership styles, which explain the higher representation of female professors in Turkey, despite legislative frameworks and strategies in Australia to improve representation of senior women. It then explores barriers to women's career advancement, including the difficult management culture, low morale, informal processes in appointment and promotion, and lack of training for management roles in Australia, and conflict between career and family roles in Turkey. Finally, the paper identifies the impact of strategic choices on leadership styles and women's career advancement. This research questions the impact of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action frameworks on women's representation as professors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the body, specifically a child's body, as a site where identity becomes contested. It is also about a surface or space where we lay claim—a site of vested interest. In April 2004, the Australian Family Court ruled that a 13-year-old child (Alex) had gender identity dysphoria and decided to allow reversible hormonal treatment. The Court ruling produced considerable legal, medical and public reflection over whether these decisions were in Alex's best interests, whether Alex was able to make such a decision at his age, and to assess Alex's competency. These debates also aimed to fix sex and gender through the deployment of a nature and nurture framework. The purpose of this paper, using the example of Alex, is to illustrate the various ways that these claims over a child's body, undermine the possibility for rethinking sex and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the extent of graduate overeducation in Australia utilising both the objective and mean methods. As well, the paper tests for non-linear returns to overeducation. It is found that the rates of graduate overeducation vary by both gender and with the methods utilised, and stand between 21% and 46%. Non-linear returns to overeducation were evident among some groups of graduates. Young male graduates seem to suffer no penalty for overeducation compared with their matched peers, but this may be a reflection of technological change altering workplace requirements faster than changes in occupational titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted a series of content analyses of the articles published by International Journal of Science Education , Science Education , and Journal of Research in Science Teaching from 1998 to 2002. A total of 802 research papers were analyzed in terms of the authors' nationality, research types and topics. It was found that researchers in four major English-speaking countries, including the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada, contributed to a majority of the publications, but the researchers from other non-English countries may have, to a certain extent, gradually played a valuable role on the published work. This probably implies that science education research may have progressively become an important field recognized by the international academic community. This study also found that most of the published articles were categorized as empirical studies, while position, theoretical and review papers were rarely presented in the journals. Although the research topic of students' conceptions and conceptual change was the most frequently investigated one in these five years, a declining trend was observed when analyzed by year. Moreover, in 1998-2002, the research topics related to student learning contexts, and social, cultural and gender issues were also received relatively more attention among science educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how young people of migrant background in Australia make meaning of cultural, ethnic and racial difference to work out belonging in times of super-diversity. It asks what functions difference still has for a generation growing up within conditions of proliferating diversity that demand and accommodate competing constructions of cultural identities. It suggests that young people's narratives about difference depend on the space of belonging, and explores how young people use difference differently depending on whether they are articulating membership in the local community, the nation or youth culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, there has been an increase in global and local policy protections on the basis of gender identity and expression in education and a recent spate of coverage of transgender students on Australian television and news media. This paper explores the school experiences of Australian transgender and gender diverse students', with particular consideration of recognition of their gender identity in documentation, experiences of puberty and sexuality education, treatment by staff and students, and other forms of provision. It reports on the findings of a 2013 study which combined a survey of 189 transgender and gender diverse Australian students aged 14–25 years, with 16 online interviews with members of this group. The study was informed by a community advisory group which included a range of transgender, gender diverse and intersex people. Findings include both quantitative and qualitative data, detailing a trend towards more disruptive, fluid and inconsistent identifications by members of this student group, and a diversification of their needs at school. Student advocacy on topics including sexuality and puberty education was shown to be common and also useful in improving individual well-being and social outcomes. We offer some reflections towards more useful school practices and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mobilities across contested terrains are key to the formation of settler societies. This paper explores how safety bicycles were drawn into the Australian settler project at the turn of the twentieth century, just as the six independent colonies were federating into the Commonwealth of Australia. As recently imported objects, bicycles afforded settler men unprecedented mobility across remote landscapes that had not been smoothed by the infrastructures of the ‘old world’. In those years of national formation, bicycles were received as objects that could fill ‘empty’ land with people, things, activities and stories, at the same time as they generated masculine, settler subjectivities. A practice approach to settler mobilities helps to tease out the entanglements between bicycle ‘overlanding’ and two fundamental imperatives of settlerism: transforming indigenous places into settler places and creating ‘nativised’ settler subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on related research studies in two urban centres (Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia) with South Sudanese men and women engaged in varying degrees with higher education. The co-authors examine some gendered differences in the process and demands of resettlement, including within employment and education, and its implications for rapidly changing public versus private gender roles. We argue against essentialising discourses of the ‘liberatory’ nature of education in the west, versus constructions of ‘cultural knowledge’ as innate, burdensome, and less useful in western contexts. Drawing on Ahmed's critique of discourses of the ‘melancholy migrant’ which position western knowledges and gendered practices as progressive and therefore more desirable, the authors interrogate the possibility of multiple forms of knowledge and new migrants – especially South Sudanese – as enriched by their previous experiences and knowledges, rather than impoverished by them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Emotions have received increasing attention in educational circles in the last decade. Drawing on Bourdieu, feminist scholars use emotional capital to illustrate the ways gendered inequalities can compound the disadvantages of social class. This paper examines relationships within childcare services in Australia, showing how emotional capital functions as a resource for staff. Data from interviews with childcare staff illustrate key aspects of emotional capital, such as reflexivity, resilience and embodiment. Findings show that investing in emotional capital is the key to a long-lasting commitment to childcare work, and should be valued accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]