Workshop Review
Gender Inequalities in the 21st Century
(a) Summary Abstract
The two-day conference was targeted at social scientists with an interest in gender equality, drawing together experts from sociology, psychology, economics, demography, geography, social policy, management and law. The event marked the final year of the ESRC Gender Equality Network (GeNet). GeNet aims to explore the changing dynamics of gender equality in contemporary society, bringing together nine substantive projects, spread across eight institutions during a 5-year project. The Network will conclude in early 2010 and this 2-day conference was therefore one of GeNet’s final events to provide researchers the opportunity to present work related to the Network’s aims.
The conference included four plenary talks and 18 papers that were presented by invited researchers from the UK and abroad. The themes of the sessions reflected the expertise of GeNet researchers, including careers and household time use, family and well-being, work-family balance, employment and equality, within-household finances and risk, transitions and identities.
b) Conference Review
The purpose of the conference was to both disseminate the findings of GeNet and to explore new research possibilities, including cross-national research in similar domains.
The conference themes included:
• Work-family balance
• Gender equality and well-being
• Fathers and child well-being
• Careers and household time use
• Employment and equality
• Risk, transitions and identities
• Within-household finances
• Family and well-being
In summary, the papers at the conference all showed persisting gender inequalities in paid and unpaid work. However, some of these differences are changing in more recent generations. A detailed conference report will be submitted to Equal Opportunities International.
All papers were by invite only and an edited book will be produced from the conference proceedings. A follow-up day conference considering the policy implications of the academic findings will be held in London in December 2009.
