Log in
Dr Kate Bedford's work has demonstrated the limits of existing frameworks for addressing gender and sexuality in development policy and has had a significant impact in four main ways. First, it has supported and influenced the work of the major NGOs (including Sexuality Policy Watch, and the Bretton Woods Project/Action Aid) in holding development institutions to account on questions of gender equality. Second, it has had substantial influence on the work of transnational public bodies (including UNRISD), challenging conventional wisdom and stimulating debate among policymakers. Third, it has had considerable impact on how development practitioners are taught, in the UK and beyond. Finally, it has enjoyed a sustained influence in shaping a new area of critical public debate, improving public understanding of sexuality and development and engaging diverse international audiences. In the light of increased global attention to gender and development (evident across several leading international institutions), Bedford's research has stimulated important debate about policy orthodoxy and has directly influenced several campaigns for policy change.
Evans' internationally acclaimed research on gender and sexuality in China has had significant impact on critical debate, heightening public awareness of gender as a key marker of social difference and hierarchy, and encouraging diverse professional organisations to address gender in their work on China. Through radio broadcasts, television appearances and web-based media, NGO and government consultancy, gender training workshops and translation, Evans' work has influenced the thinking and practice of representatives of international and Chinese NGOs working on women's gender and sexual rights, and reproductive and sexual health. Prominent amongst the organisations she has worked with is the world's largest state-based women's organization, the All China Women's Federation, and UK non-governmental and legal organisations. In recent years, Hird's research on men and masculinities in China has broadened the reach and significance of this impact through attracting the attention of international and Chinese NGOs, and commercial advertising interests seeking to include men and ideas about masculinity in their work on gender and sexuality rights and representations.
Gender inequality affects workforce effectiveness. Our research has significantly increased awareness of factors which contribute to the paucity of female representation in the public sector. Notably it has shaped the policies and strategies of public sector agencies such the Scottish Government, Leadership Foundation in Higher Education, NHS and educational institutions such as universities and further education colleges. The research provided a platform for implementation of the Gender Equality Duty for the Scottish public sector.
Research undertaken by Dr Rainbow Murray in the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at QMUL has assisted governments and activists from Europe, Israel and China interested in adopting gender quotas in elections to understand their potential advantages, pitfalls and consequences. Users of her research include parliaments, intergovernmental organisations, political parties, public bodies, NGOs and the media.
Using a ground-breaking database of recovered narratives of Latin American women during the Wars of Independence,
Research disseminated through the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) has played a pivotal role in changing attitudes and increasing recognition of the importance of gender-insensitive disaster policy and practice. GDN is an international collaboration between Northumbria University, UN agencies and US and Swiss government agencies that distributes research-led resources through an open access website (www.gdnonline.org) co-ordinated by Dr Maureen Fordham at Northumbria. GDN resources are used internationally by practitioners in the United Nations, national and local governments, and non-government and corporate business organisations. Gender analysis is now routinely incorporated in training for disaster management and risk reduction and this is seen in official UN documents, for example the guidance published in 2009 `Making Disaster Risk Reduction Gender-Sensitive: Policy and Practical Guidelines' for which Fordham was a contributor.
Professor Sasha Roseneil's sociological research on social movements has become a central reference point for journalists, film makers, writers, artists, curators, archaeologists, and activists interested in the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and the wider milieu of post 1960s anti-nuclear, women's and LGBT movements. It has impacted upon public and specialist understandings of, and knowledge about, Greenham, the protests of the late Cold War era, and feminist and queer politics more widely. It has influenced artistic production across a range of media and discussions of the preservation of heritage.
More than twenty years of sanctions and war have decimated all areas of Iraqi society, including its higher education sector. In this context, the work of Professor Nadje Al-Ali has countered conservative forces pursuing Iraqi reconstruction in ways that explicitly marginalise women. Drawing on her research on women's rights in Iraq and beyond, Al-Ali has worked to raise consciousness of how perspectives informed by gender theory can contribute to a more equitable reconstruction of Iraqi civil society. Through in-country and regional training of academics and women's rights activists, and mentoring numerous Iraqi research projects, Al-Ali has substantially progressed the promotion of women's rights and gender-based equality in Iraq.
Allwood's research into Women and Politics has looked at women's participation in mainstream and alternative forms of political activity; gender and policy, focusing on prostitution, violence and abortion policy; and the political participation of refugee women. The research has informed government advisory panels, think-tanks, and NGOs, in particular in debates around gender quotas and the relationship between gender and democracy. External voices and actors have helped shape the research process, and the audience of this research has made material and distinct decisions based on new insights effectively shared, as demonstrated by citations of research outputs in policy documents and discussion papers.
The production of hand-knitting is of key economic and cultural importance in Scotland. University of Glasgow research on the history of hand-knitting has: helped to enhance a significant textiles collection at Shetland Museum and Archives (~88,000 visitors each year) and contributed to the growth of public interest in and understanding of this craft activity and its history. Glasgow research has also informed the work of contemporary knitwear designers who have found inspiration in the traditional designs and colour ways and has engaged the wider public, promoting greater appreciation of the cultural significance of hand-knitting and its role in the rural economy of the past and present.