Interdisciplinarity, power and feminist research

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity and feminist research have provided invaluable insights into the importance of the domestic work of women and the need for its remuneration as a first step towards achieving public policies that facilitated balance between genders. By the 20th century they found champions in formidable women in position of power that were well aware of the different contributions made by men and women to the economy and sought to assist home based women and open pathways to entitlement to equal pay. But by the 21st century there is a fear that the government has shifted the focus towards equal pay in the formal sector, without recognising the constrains on many women that prevents them from being recognised as equals in the formal market. This paper will consider the difficulties of introducing a gendered understanding to the Equality and Welfare Bills going through the British Parliament. A comparison will be made with the relative success of the Prison Reform proposals and the withdrawal of the mandatory rights of employers to dismiss workers at 65.

Notes

Convinced that participation was central to tertiary education, Moodie was part of the debate about the future of British academia. In 1959, he had published a Fabian pamphlet on the future of universities. At York, he was opening up that new territory. Notions of transparency in academic decision-making were, thanks to him, always part of York. Crucially, in 1968, at the peak of 1960s radicalism, he chaired the staff-student committee on the place of students in the university. The subsequent report, largely written by him, became a blueprint for democracy in universities far beyond York. We—and I was then a York student—won representation at all levels, including the university senate.

Set up in December 1981, the Committee is charged with assisting the Commission in formulating and implementing the Community's activities aimed at promoting equal opportunities for women and men.

The Speaker and the Leader of the House are both women.