Shaping a gender equality policy in higher education: which human capabilities matter?

Loots, Sonja; Walker, Melanie

doi:10.1080/09540253.2015.1045458

Cited by 56 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Although contextually different, the capabilities overlap significantly with those identified by Walker (2006) and Loots and Walker (2015) in the South African school and higher education contexts respectively. The only two capabilities which featured in both the abovementioned 2015 and 2006 studies and were not explicitly mentioned by the current participants are capabilities for bodily integrity, safety and bodily health; and independence/autonomy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…The list includes autonomy, knowledge, social relations, respect and recognition, aspiration, voice, bodily integrity and bodily health, as well as emotional integrity and emotions. In higher education, Loots and Walker (2015) identified four core capability themes for gender equality through longitudinal interaction with male and female students. These themes include having a voice; dignity and respect; safety and bodily integrity; and the value of higher education, the latter of which encompasses critical thinking, independence, and citizenship, among other things.…”

Section: The Capabilities Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating black womens participation, development and success in doctoral studies: A capabilities perspective

Loots

Ts’ephe

Walker

2016

SAJHE

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Although black women show an increased presence in doctoral study, the probability of intersecting gendered and racial disadvantage is often overlooked through relying on separate numerical transformation progress indicators for gender and race. To take a more active approach to furthering social justice for this marginalised group, we need to explore more holistic ways of mapping transformation. In this sense, we argue for the application of the capabilities approach as an evaluative framework which allows for an assessment of freedoms or capabilities students are able to make use of in pursuing the lives they have reason to value. Furthermore, factors impacting on students' capability formation are also considered, thus providing a multidimensional, ethically individualistic exploration of lives. The experiences of seven black women speak of barriers they have experienced throughout their doctoral journeys, but the data also create a sense of optimism as the potential of capability expansion is addressed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: The Capabilities Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating black womens participation, development and success in doctoral studies: A capabilities perspective

Loots

Ts’ephe

Walker

2016

SAJHE

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“…As Badat (2016) suggests, marginalised groups have largely been expected to assimilate into unwelcoming institutional cultures, to accept and tolerate stigma and continued forms of marginalisation as the price of entry (Badat 2016). A campus in which students are able to feel they belong requires us to find ways to challenge and stigmatise hetero patriarchal modes of thinking and cultures in institutions of higher learning (Loots and Walker 2015;Tabensky and Matthews 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ narratives on gender and sexuality in the project of social justice and belonging in higher education

Ngabaza

Shefer

Clowes

2018

SAJHE

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Student protests in South Africa over the last few years have re-energized the project of social justice in higher education. While emphasis has been on decolonizing the curriculum and the university spaces, there has also been a powerful mobilization around the lived experiences of students, including sexual and gendered practices of exclusion and othering. Students' activism and a growing body of research speak to continued practices of exclusion, marginalisation and injustice, not only in the classroom, but in everyday experiences of un/belonging on the basis of intersectional raced, classed, gendered, sexualised and other forms of social identity and difference. Efforts to understand the lived experiences of young people within diverse higher educational contexts are arguably especially important in this context and this article seeks to explore such experiences with a particular focus on the entanglement of gender and sexuality with student citizenship. The article draws on research with students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) who engaged in a participatory photovoice research project in a feminist research methodology module. Students were asked to take photos on and around campus that represented un/safe spaces for them and to write short narratives on these. In this article we apply a gendered lens to reveal the intersectional dynamics that shape students' experiences of un/belonging and un/safety on campus. The narratives and images generated by students in thinking about their sense of safety or unsafety on campus speak to a multiplicity of spaces, both symbolic and physical, that impact on experiences of belonging, either enhancing belonging or facilitating exclusion. Student narratives revealed the complex intersections between gender and sexuality in different locations, at different times, on and between campus (including, the campus bar, the sports field and commuter taxis), and how these operate in ways that validate Ngabaza, Shefer and Clowes Students' narratives on gender and sexuality 140 heteronormative gender and sexual identities and practices, while marginalising alternative, nonconforming genders and sexualities. Taking these narratives seriously means acknowledging ways in which gender, sexual and intersectional injustices limit students' ability to participate as equal citizens in a higher education context and flags the value of student voice in the project of social justice in higher education.

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“…None of these list-based approaches have addressed the question of measurement for national or international policy, and only Loots and Walker (2015) have developed a list which considers gender issues, but only in higher education. In the wider gender equality literature there are a number of list-based approaches (UNDP Gender Inequality index, OHPI Women's Empowerment in Education index, World Economic Forum Gender Gap, SIGI index), but these either do not address education, or take only aspects of the administrative data on gender parity in education as their education component.…”

Section: The Debate About Measuring Gender In Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative capability? Measuring the unmeasurable in education

Unterhalter

2016

Comparative Education

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Shaping a gender equality policy in higher education: which human capabilities matter?

Cited by 56 publications

References 34 publications

Evaluating black womens participation, development and success in doctoral studies: A capabilities perspective

Evaluating black womens participation, development and success in doctoral studies: A capabilities perspective

Students’ narratives on gender and sexuality in the project of social justice and belonging in higher education

Negative capability? Measuring the unmeasurable in education

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