Summary of the impact

The IOE researchers featured in this case study have had a major and sustained impact on education in the Indian sub-continent. Geeta Kingdon has shaped UK government policy on educational aid to India. She has also helped to ensure that millions of poor children in Uttar Pradesh — India's most populous state — qualify for free places in private schools. Angela Little's work in Sri Lanka has raised the profile of primary education, which has been hampered by low status and inadequate funding. She has also done much to improve the life chances of the country's disadvantaged children — particularly those growing up on tea plantations.

Summary of the impact

Clarissa Campbell Orr has contributed to broader cultural enrichment through her participation in three exhibitions and their associated events. The exhibitions and venues are:

• on Mary Delany at the Yale Centre for British Art (YCBA), New Haven, USA and the John Soane Museum, London;
• on Johan Zoffany at the YCBA and the Royal Academy;
• on Thomas Lawrence at the London, National Portrait Gallery (NPG).

These are significant venues with an international clientele, the exhibitions last on average for 12 weeks, and are reviewed both in the art historical press and mainstream newspapers and magazines in the UK and USA.

Summary of the impact

This case study is underpinned by research carried out within a Leverhulme Trust International Network award on Women and Union Leadership. The case demonstrates three sets of impact: (1) engagement of Professor Kirton to advise the probation service union Napo on changing policy and practices to improve women's representation in the union's leadership and decision-making structures; (2) career development, activist development and new networking opportunities for women union leaders/activists in the UK and USA; and (3) increased action on improving women's representation in unions and raising greater awareness (including lobbying through Motion 26, TUC 2011) of the pressing importance for union renewal of correcting women's under-representation in union leadership in UK and USA unions.

Summary of the impact

Using a ground-breaking database of recovered narratives of Latin American women during the Wars of Independence,

• new histories have been created and shared with audiences in Buenos Aires, London and Nottingham through exhibitions, workshops, guided city tours, theatre productions and translation programmes leading to new public knowledge and raised awareness;
• drama and photography workshops have enabled a community of young Latin American migrant women in London to understand their collective heritage and cultural identity more fully, and through this understanding, to develop personal confidence and pride;
• employees of Southwark Council have changed how they work with their growing Latin American community after participating in a cultural and language exchange series contributing to improved community cohesion.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Research by Dr Garikipati identifies that microfinance is most beneficial to women when it enables them to enhance their livelihoods and participate in the local enterprise economy. It also shows that over 80% of the microfinance loans in Andhra Pradesh, India, did not meet these conditions. Using these research findings, Dr Garikipati directly lobbied the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP). This has had an impact on governmental organisations and other stakeholders within the microfinance industry and lead to the introduction of the Livelihood Enhancement Plan (LEP), which is used at the time of loan application. Dr Garikipati collaborated with the GoAP in designing and implementing the LEP. It impacts 500,000 women per year who join the microfinance program and enables them to enhance livelihoods in keeping with the demands of the local economy.

Summary of the impact

The findings of empirical research conducted by Professor Jim Barry and Dr Trudie Honour of UEL were shared at two focused capacity building sessions held in 2008 and 2009 for women leaders in middle and senior positions of responsibility and decision-making in the public and third sectors of a number of developing countries. Workshops were attended by women from Albania, Bahrain, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Tunisia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Participants considered the relevance and application of the research findings for their own countries, and worked together and with the researchers to formulate potential capacity development implementation strategies for women in positions of responsibility in those countries.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Dr Julie Gottlieb's research on women's politicization and gender roles in inter-war British extremist politics has had cultural impact in terms of the understanding of, and the coming to terms with, often uncomfortable and traumatic family memories. The personal and contemporary resonances of this research have led the media and the public, in particular the descendants of those still affected by the much-stigmatized political choices of their immediate ancestors, to become closely engaged with her work, serving to recover and understand overlooked histories. Of the audiences of hundreds who have heard her in person and hundreds of thousands who have listened to her on radio, several have contacted her with information and insights that signify a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted relationship between women and politics in the aftermath of suffrage, in particular during the crisis years between the world wars. Gottlieb's work has provided an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate women who have been sidelined in political history, providing a launching point for public discussion about women's political agency and representation almost a century after suffrage.

Summary of the impact

Research started by Professor Joni Lovenduski in 1992 and developed with Dr Rosie Campbell since 2003, influenced both policies about party political representation of women and the understandings of women's role in politics of party officials and activists. Showing that political recruitment, representation and participation are highly gendered — masculine — processes, Lovenduski and Campbell have successfully challenged the attitudes and contributed to changing processes that determine political equality between women and men. Both are routinely consulted about policy on political representation by political parties, UK government and parliament, the EU, and national and international organisations.