Table Of ContentGender Equality in
Changing Times
Multidisciplinary Reflections on
Struggles and Progress
Edited by Angela Smith
Gender Equality in Changing Times
Angela Smith
Editor
Gender Equality
in Changing Times
Multidisciplinary Reflections
on Struggles and Progress
Editor
Angela Smith
Department of Media and Communication Studies
University of Sunderland
Sunderland, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-26569-4 ISBN 978-3-030-26570-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26570-0
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
Angela Smith
Part I 15
2 Female Role Models in a Male- Dominated Workplace: Do
We Still Need Their Influence Today? 17
Stephanie Atkinson
3 “Oh, it’s actually quite nice up here”: Reflections on
Prejudice, Partiality and Division and Moral Challenges
to Inclusivity Created by Gender, Class and Region 39
Bridget Cooper
4 Prisoners of Inclusivity: Perspective on Spirituality,
Humanism and Place 61
Juila Janfeshar Nobari and Paul-Alan Armstrong
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vi Contents
5 A Critical Analysis of Masculinity During Mentoring in
Contemporary Schools 83
Kim Gilligan
6 Understanding Gender Categorisation in a Binary Society 107
Katie Ward
Part II 129
7 “Enough of this PC-crazed Nonsense”: The Backlash
Against Gender Equality as Personified by Emma Watson 131
Angela Smith
8 Agreement and Disagreement About Social Changes
Regarding Saudi Women on Twitter 153
Wjoud Almadani
9 “Straight Man Cancer”: The Discursive Representation
and Backlash of Sexism on Chinese Internet 181
Xiaoping Wu
10 Gender and Media Representation: Politics and the
“Double Bind” 203
Fiona McKay
11 Smart, Casual, Unisex: Can We Have Gender Equality in
Twenty-First Century Fashion and Dress? 227
Janet Pearson
12 What Next? Some Concluding Thoughts 247
Angela Smith
Index 255
Notes on Contributors
Wjoud Almadani is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Shaqra University,
Shaqraa, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She has recently completed her PhD in
the School of Culture at the University of Sunderland. Almadani is con-
ducting her research on the speech act of refusal and gender in Saudi
Arabia. She holds degrees in English (BA, King Abdul Aziz University)
and TESOL (MA, California State University, East Bay). Her research
interests include pragmatics and discourse, gender and minorities studies.
Paul-Alan Armstrong is Senior Lecturer in Human Resource
Management and Leadership at the University of Sunderland, UK. His
teaching is in the areas of management learning, professional develop-
ment and equality in the workplace. His research interests and publica-
tions are in arts-based methodologies, professional development, digital
reflection and gender issues in the workplace. Armstrong is a VC Teaching
Fellow and has presented at a range of regional, national and interna-
tional conferences on professional development, digital reflection and
arts-based methodologies.
Stephanie Atkinson is from the University of Sunderland, UK, and has
recent research interests, PhD and Masters supervision, and publications
concerning issues within science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM)-related subjects both in higher education and in
schools. This has included the demise of design and technology within an
vii
viii Notes on Contributors
educational context, factors that have influenced woman’s continued
underrepresentation in STEM education and subsequent careers and the
place that role models have played in the hope of improving that situation.
Bridget Cooper has taught in schools and adult education for 15 years
and has researched and taught in various higher education (HE) institu-
tions since 1995: the Open University, Leeds University, Leeds
Metropolitan University and University of Sunderland, where she was
the Director of the Centre for Pedagogy and is now Emeritus Professor of
Education. She has written on a wide range of research issues in teaching
and learning including affective issues, moral education, information
technology, the impact of OFSTED and issues of equality in education
and society.
Kim Gilligan is Principal Lecturer in Teaching and Learning at the
University of Sunderland. Her PhD explored areas of gender, class and
culture in YA fiction. Her current research is in teaching and learning,
social justice, class and gender.
Fiona McKay is a lecturer in Journalism at Robert Gordon University
(RGU) in Aberdeen. During her undergraduate course at the University
of Glasgow, she studied English Literature; she obtained an MLitt in
Journalism Studies from the University of Strathclyde, where she pro-
ceeded to pursue her PhD in Journalism. Her research focused on the
mediated representation of gender in the 2014 Scottish independence
referendum and was funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of
Scotland. McKay’s research focus is at the intersections of gender, media,
politics, and journalistic practice. Her professional experience includes
working as a journalist, mostly for the Herald and Times Group
(Newsquest) in Scotland.
Juila Janfeshar Nobari is Lecturer in Accounting and Finance in the
Faculty of Business, Law and Tourism at the University of Sunderland,
UK. Her research interests are broadly within the area of social account-
ing and reporting in relation to accountability and business ethics issues.
More specifically, her current research involves financialisation of daily
life and history within the focus on the workings of finance and gender.
Notes on Contributors ix
Janet Pearson is an independent researcher interested in ideas pertain-
ing to individuality and identity. An experienced teacher, and former
designer-dressmaker, her research interests include art, language and lit-
erature (especially German literature), history of ideas, narratology, gen-
der and psychology of fashion. She wrote her doctoral thesis (University
of Sunderland, 2015) on the theme of mass culture and individuality in
the work of Austrian-Jewish intellectual Hermann Broch (1886–1951),
focusing particularly on his magnum opus The Death of Virgil (Der Tod
des Vergil). Pearson has presented research papers at several international
conferences and has written journal articles on the themes of time and
crisis in art, in Broch’s work.
Angela Smith is Professor of Language and Culture in the School of
Media, Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of
Sunderland, UK. She has research interests in language and gender, media
discourses and children’s literature and has written widely in these areas.
With Dr Claire Nally at the University of Northumbria, she edits the
Bloomsbury International Library of Gender in Popular Culture.
Katie Ward has recently completed her PhD in Language and Gender
Identity from the University of Sunderland, UK. Her area of research
interest is language and identity in which she has explored the lexicon of
gender diversity and its use in society. Ward has worked with schools and
LGBT societies to explore the impact of language on gender diverse people.
Xiaoping Wu is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of
Communication, University of Macau, China. She has published in
Discourse Studies, Media, Culture and Society, Discourse, Context and
Media, Language and Intercultural Communication and Babel in the areas
of social media discourse studies, new media and translation studies, and
intercultural studies. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Discourse,
Context and Media.
List of Figures and Tables
Fig. 9.1 Internet meme of “straight man cancer”. Translation of the
verbal message: Let’s listen to what “straight man cancer” says:
hi, beauty. How old are you? Young sister, you should not
wear makeup at such a young age. I think you look better
without makeup. Don’t wear makeup when we are together.
Send me your selfie, young sister. Why do you buy so many
lipsticks? Women should be diligent and thrifty. Do you do
housework? I don’t like lazy women 186
Table 4.1 Outline of conversations 63
Table 4.2 Keys themes and explanation 64
Table 8.1 Date of creation of hashtags and number of tweets 160
Table 8.2 Percentage of Saudi men and women expressing
agreement and disagreement 161
Table 8.3 Percentage of Saudi men and women expressing
agreement and disagreement 167
Table 8.4 Percentage of Saudi men and women expressing
agreement and disagreement 173
xi
