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Purpose: Patient self-advocacy is valued and promoted; however, it may not be readily accessible to all. This analysis examines the experiences of women in Australia who had cardiac disease in pregnancy or the first year postpartum through the lenses of self-advocacy and gender, specifically seeking to elaborate on the contexts, impacts, barriers, and women's responses to the barriers to self-advocacy. Method: A qualitative study design was used. Twenty-five women participated in semistructured in-depth interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Analysis of findings generated the following themes: 1) Silent dream scream, 2) Easier said than done, 3) Crazy-making, and 4) Concentric circles of advocacy. Regardless of women's personal attributes, knowledge and experience, self-advocating for their health was complex and difficult and had negative cardiac and psychological outcomes. Conclusion: While the women encountered significant barriers to self-advocating, they were resilient and ultimately developed strategies to be heard and to advocate on their own behalf and that of other women. Findings can be used to identify ways to support women to selfadvocate and to provide adequately resourced and culturally safe environments to enable healthcare professionals to provide person-centred care. [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]

The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students' poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys' Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with 'authentic' learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and 'inauthentic learning' worked to undermine female students' demonstrated success. The role of these binaries in the reproduction of a paradoxical relationship between gender and achievement is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Although high-stakes tests play an increasing role in students' schooling experiences, scholars have not examined these tests as sites for socialisation. Drawing on qualitative data collected at an American urban primary school, this study explores what educators teach students about motivation and effort through high-stakes testing, how students interpret and internalise these messages, and how student hierarchies develop as a result. I found that teachers located boys' failure in their poor behavior and attitudes, while arguing that girls simply needed more self-esteem to pass the test. Most boys accepted their teachers' diagnosis of the problem. However, the boys who felt that they were already 'doing their best' and 'working hard' began to doubt that educational success is a function of merit and effort. I conclude that students learn about much more than the three Rs through their experiences with high-stakes testing, and argue that future research should attend to the social dimensions of these experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital is generally recognized as the positive outcome of sociability and social connection and, more specifically, as the capacity to realize economic benefits through social connections. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the potential of social capital at the intersection of socioeconomic disadvantage. The first part of the article examines assumptions of class and gender in the theoretical literature on social capital. The second part explores the influence of class and gender contexts on social networks among women living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Victoria, Australia. The analysis reveals the ways in which social network assets are conditional on socioeconomic and gender circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines gender policies related to education in Australia and Europe from 1975 to 1985. Academic conferences have been held in Australia to discuss sex roles and science and technology in relation to gender. They resulted in the breakdown of male domination of society and increases in female recruitment. The federal government produced its "National Policy on the Education of Girls" in 1986. The Affirmative Action Act and an anti-discrimination legislation were also enacted. In Ireland, the Irish Equal Employment Agency commissioned a study on the practices of single-sex and mixed schools in order to examine sex differences and sex roles in education.

Recently public and policy discussions about gender equity have become strongly concerned with boys This article discusses some aspects of the form, the context and the implications of these developments in Australia (and notes some points of similarity and difference with developments in the UK) It focuses on three main areas the ways examination and other `indicators' have been wed in public policy constructions of gender inequality, secondly, the issue of what types of reforms constitute gender equity as a project and thirdly, the issue of research agendas and the entry of masculinity to gender research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]