Research
Gender and the Financial Crisis
Working with UNESCO, a project on Gender and the Financial Crisis is in its early stages of development. This examines the way in which the causes and consequences of the crisis are gendered. It engages experts from around the world, comparing the gendering of the crisis and its implications in different global regions.
Papers
Some early papers include:
- Gender and the financial crisis
- Auditing the gender implications of recovery plans
- Contested futures: Is the financial crisis a tipping point?
- A response to the EU consultation on the future structure of the regulation of finance
In addition see:
Walby, Sylvia (2009) ‘Gender in the financial crisis’, Commonwealth Finance Ministers Reference Report 2009, 75-78.
Violence Against Women
I have been involved in a series of projects on violence against women and minorities, including a series of projects and papers on measuring this violence for the UN, especially the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and the UK Home Office and Women and Equality Unit. Downloads of work which pre-dates the UNESCO Chair are available on my personal web-site.
The Cost of Domestic Violence, up-dated 2009, for the Attorney General and the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence
The Cost of Domestic Violence: Up-Dates 2009 reviews and up-dates the cost of domestic violence from the original 2004 report for the Women and Equality Unit The Cost of Domestic Violence. The new report was produced at the request of the then Attorney General, Baroness Patricia Scotland, and published to coincide with the re-launch of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence on 30 November 2009.
The report shows that there has been some reduction in the extent and cost of domestic violence over the last decade. The reduction in cost to business and society appears to result at least partly from the development of services in the public and third sectors.
Analysing challenges to the Criminal Justice System in addressing multiple inequalities in physical and legal security, for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
This project is analysing inequalities in the criminal justice system in relation to physical security, including gender-based violence and hate crime, and legal security, in the ways these are addressed by the Criminal Justice System (CJS).
The work entails an investigation on the way physical and legal security for equality groups is measured within the (CJS) and proposes recommendations to improve this in line with the new duty on public bodies to promote equality.
The report contributes to the Triennial Review of equalities in Britain by the EHRC, which will regularly map the equality landscape so as to establish the nature of any changes.
The final report for this project funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission will be available in September 2010.
Measuring Equality
Equality is a contested concept and the ways to measure it are subject to substantial debate. Yet, its measurement is necessary if there is to be an understanding and explanation of changes in the level of inequality and the evaluation of policies to address it.
Earlier work included the measuring of changes in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the UN Platform for Action for UNESCO and for the EU Presidency; the measurement of violence against women for the UN and for the Home Office. Reports on this earlier work are available for download on my personal web-site.
'A Review of Equality Statistics'. Report from research for the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission on statistics and indicators to measure equality across gender, ethnicity, disability, age, religion/faith and sexual orientation across ten dimensions. Project Research Associates: Jo Armstrong (Sociology) and Les Humphreys (Applied Statistics).
Further publications from this project include:
Walby, Sylvia and Armstrong, Jo (2011 in press) 'Developing key indicators of "fairness": Competing frameworks; multiple strands; an array of statistics', Social Policy and Society.
Walby, Sylvia and Armstrong, Jo (2010) 'Measuring equality: Data and indicators in Britain', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 13 (3): 237-249.
Reprinted in C. Hughes and R. Cohen (eds) (2010) Feminism Counts: Quantitative Methods and Researching Gender. Oxford: Routledge.
Gender Equality Policies
The analysis of policies for gender equality is a component of several of the UNESCO Chair projects. It is the main focus of the 'Quing' project, which is concerned with the quality of gender equality policies in the Member States of the EU.
Quing is an Integrated Project funded by the European Union under Framework 6 to investigate gender and citizenship in a multicultural context, 2006-2011. The project involves close analysis of key policy documents on gender equality in employment, gender-based violence and intimate citizenship, as well as the comparative analysis of the varied institutional and social structural environments under which these policies develop. Quing is contributing to the development of gender theory, especially in relation to intersectionality and to the theorisation of differences in gender regimes, as well as to more effective gender equality policies. There are partners in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey. The overall project is coordinated by Mieke Verloo in Vienna. The strand on 'intersectionality' and the Lancaster node are coordinated by Sylvia Walby at Lancaster. Dr Jo Armstrong and Dr Sofia Strid are researchers on the project.
