C Sparks
Biographic Data
| ID | 11257 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C Sparks |
| GIVEN NAMES | C |
| FAMILY NAME | Sparks |
| SIGNATURE | SPARKS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | RMIT University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7340-1540 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 120 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
‘A Good Healthy Game’: A Colonial History of Netball in Papua New Guinea
The existing literature on Pacific history has centred on the history of men, whether as colonizers or colonized. In this article the focus is on the history of netball, which enables a discussion of the roles of women in Pacific sports history. Despite the popularity of the game, the history of netball in the Pacific remains largely unexamined. In this context, the article breaks new ground by focusing on two interconnected elements of the growt…
Hey, you’re a woman, I hear we haven’t been supporting you: Jazz, gender and strategies for success since “#MeToo
Purpose In this article, I examine the strategies for success practised by women and other gender minority jazz musicians in Melbourne. Research has established that jazz is dominated by men, with women experiencing marginalization and exclusion in education and venues. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on interviews with women and other gender minority jazz musicians I identify strategies for success that have emerged since #MeToo. Findings In…
Just like being back in Ethiopia’: Gender, ethnicity, and belonging in Footscray
Gender and Political Leadership in Samoa: Fiame Naomi Mata‘afa and the 2021 Election
Gender equality in STEMM: The Legitimisation of Existing Inequalities Through “Resistance Talk
Purpose Despite some recent progress, gender inequality remains a persistent problem in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) organisations. This article seeks to better understand resistance to gender equality (GE) in this context with the aim of shedding light on the workplace-based impediments to equality and unlocking remediation opportunities. Design/methodology/approach The article draws on in-depth interviews w…
This is Australia, not Ethiopia: Immigrant Ethiopian Women's Negotiation of the Gendered Division of Domestic Work in Melbourne, Australia
Focusing on Ethiopian women in Melbourne Australia, in this article, we address the under-researched yet significant issue of navigating the division of domestic labour in the context of migration. We analyse data derived from a larger project based on 40 interviews with Ethiopian immigrant women to explore their perspectives on housework and how they seek to negotiate this in their households in a social context that differs from that in their s…
Being in science and at the same time being a woman is difficult’: Academic women's experiences of gender inequalities in STEM academia in Ethiopia
If someone, somewhere had a plan’: Disavowal in the gender-equality resistance talk of STEMM leaders
Barriers to gender equality in STEMM: Do Leaders Have the Gender Competence for Change
Purpose Science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) workplaces worldwide remain stubbornly resistant to gender equality initiatives. Leaders are vital to driving change, but the extent to which their capabilities lead to change remains unknown. This article examines STEMM leaders' gender competence to achieving transformative changes in gender inequality. Design/methodology/approach This article examines the capability of S…
Like pouring fuel on a fire: Perspectives on family and domestic violence among Ethiopian women in Melbourne
In this article, we analyse how domestic violence (DV) is understood and experienced among immigrant Ethiopian women in Melbourne, as well as the different conditions that contribute to their experiences of abuse and their responses to it. To do this, we draw on 20 interviews with participants, 7 of whom experienced intimate partner violence. Demonstrating that immigrant Ethiopian women find themselves in a social context with a set of values and…
Tomorrow’s Woman
The election of Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa as the first female prime minister of Sāmoa has been widely heralded as a critical juncture, especially for women, that will change the nature of Sāmoan politics. In this Comment piece we endorse the observation that Fiamē’s success is remarkable and her election as prime minister significant. But we also caution against the somewhat idealistic and naïve assumption that her prime ministership will be a radical…
Relationality and Economic Empowerment: The Role of Men in Supporting and Undermining Women’s Pathways
Within development projects, empowerment is often construed in narrow terms, and increasingly in relation to economic empowerment. Feminist scholars have recently argued the need to bring back a more encompassing view of empowerment, which pays greater attention to relationality and changes in consciousness. In this article, we focus on one aspect of relationality – women’s relationships with men. Drawing on three case studies of women’s business…
Australian aid in Papua New Guinea: Men’s views on pay disparities, power imbalances and written products in the development sector
This article explores the frustrations of men – both ‘local’ and ‘international’ – who work in the development sector in Papua New Guinea. It explores the views of men not because they are the only ones to express such dissatisfaction, but because their perspectives have not been documented, other than in informal conversations as occur over drinks or messaging platforms. These multiple narratives show how a combination of pay variations, differe…
Institutional betrayal and sexual harassment in STEM institutions: Evidence from science and technology universities of Ethiopia
In this paper, we examine the experiences of female students and academics to understand the factors that underpin the persistence of sexual harassment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) institutions. We draw on data from interviews and focus group discussions with female students and academics who participated in a study that focuses on gender inequality in science and technology universities in Ethiopia. Drawing on the c…
Navigating the neighbourhood: Gender, place and agency in children’s mobility
Children have an intrinsic right to urban space. Yet children’s perspectives and agency are largely absent from research and public policy on issues that concern them. Common conceptualisations of children as vulnerable, incompetent, or unruly designate their marginalised status in the city. When gender is added, the deficit approach is reinforced. In this paper, we draw from theoretical and methodological approaches that affirm children’s agency…
Two different worlds’: Papua New Guinean women working in development in Port Moresby
This article examines the lives of Port Moresby women who work in the development sector of Papua New Guinea. In particular, it demonstrates how development discourse structures the very fabric of working relationships within this sector in Port Moresby. Underpinned by neocolonial geographies in which those in the global north rescue those in the global south, these discourses produce workplaces in which Papua New Guinean women are seen as lackin…
Naming Rights? Analysing Child Surname Disputes in Australian Courts Through a Gendered Lens
The New Port Moresby: Gender, Space, and Belonging in Urban Papua New Guinea
Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa: Sāmoa’s First Female Deputy Prime Minister
In March 2016, Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa was the first woman appointed to the position of deputy prime minister of Sāmoa. Following in the tradition of Pacific Islands Portraits, we provide a short life history of Fiamē, including her lineage, education and political career. Drawing on a mixture of oral history interviews and newspapers, we explore key themes central to Pacific politics, including gender, but also, title, political parties, the role o…
Gender, political representation and symbolic capital: How some women politicians succeed
Increasing women’s representation in national legislatures has become a priority for international organisations and aid donors in recent decades. Existing studies emphasise structural barriers, whether economic, cultural or religious, that inhibit women’s participation in the public sphere. Little attention is paid to women who defy these barriers to win election in contexts that are hostile to their presence. This article addresses this gap. Us…
We’re not very good at soccer’: Gender, space and competence in a Victorian primary school
This paper draws on findings from a pilot project conducted at an inner city primary school in Melbourne, Australia. Inviting grade six girls and boys (aged eleven and twelve) to focus on spaces of their schoolground, we learned about the ways in which gender, age, ethnicity, language ability and sporting competence influenced active play and belonging. Informed by the understanding that schoolgrounds, gender and active play are socially construc…
Getting comfortable: Gender, class and belonging in the ‘new’ Port Moresby
Port Moresby is consistently represented as a place that is dangerous for women. While recent transformations in the city have benefited some more than others, developments in the city are allowing for the creation of new ‘spatial texts’ in a place notorious for constraining women. In this article, I explore feminist geographer Linda McDowell’s idea that the city is a place in which the active, independent woman comes into her own. Drawing on foc…
Abbott’s ‘budget crisis’, Cald women’s loss? Service providers explore the impact of funding cuts
Women have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts to services following the 2008 global financial crisis. Using a feminist intersectional analysis of austerity measures applied to family violence (FV) services in Victoria, Australia, including 11 service provider interviews, we find that: the Australian government drew on global narratives of austerity in constructing a 'budget crisis', with subsequent cuts to funds addressing FV; budge…
Transformations of Gender in Melanesia
Despite the plethora of research on gender and the many projects designed to improve their status in the Pacific region, women continue to be disadvantaged and marginalised in social, economic and political spheres. How are we to understand this and what does it mean for researchers, policy-makers and development practitioners
Emerging women leaders’ views on political participation in Melanesia
Existing explanations for why women do not get elected to parliament in Melanesia emphasize structural barriers to participation, including prohibitive costs and patriarchal norms. They are largely silent, however, on why those women who do conform to the profile of the “archetypal candidate,” and thus have the best chance of overcoming these barriers, choose not to run. Drawing on an extensive qualitative dataset, including forty in-depth interv…
Transformations of Gender in Melanesia
Despite the plethora of research on gender and the many projects designed to improve their status in the Pacific region, women continue to be disadvantaged and marginalised in social, economic and political spheres. How are we to understand this and what does it mean for researchers, policy-makers and development practitioners
Gender Trouble in Town: Educated Women Eluding Male Domination, Gender Violence and Marriage in PNG
Following Zimmer-Tamakoshi's observations about educated Pacific women not wanting to marry their countrymen, I examine educated Papua New Guinean women's perspectives on marrying Papua New Guinean men. Women in this group avoid marriage because they fear such relationships will destroy their career prospects, compromise their economic and decision-making independence and force them to grapple with male jealousy and violence in the domestic realm…
An Oceanic revolution? Stella and the construction of new femininities in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific
In August 2012, a new magazine for women was released in Papua New Guinea ( PNG ). Entitled Stella , the magazine provides an ideal opportunity to analyse shifting constructions of gender among educated, employed women in PNG and elsewhere in the Pacific. Drawing on interviews, surveys and readers’ letters, this article discusses Papua New Guinean women who, because they display ‘modern attributes’, are maligned and discredited as ‘inauthentic’. …
That was Then, but This is Now: Historical Perspectives on Intercountry Adoption and Domestic Child Adoption in Australian Public Policy
This paper brings historical perspectives to bear on the ambivalent and contradictory position of adoption in Australian public policy. It examines the divergent histories of Australian domestic and intercountry adoption (ICA) since the mid-1970s and the impact of these histories on adoption policy in Australia. It identifies tendencies in contemporary ICA to repeat elements of pre-reform era domestic adoption. In particular, it is argued that th…
Brambuk living cultural centre: Indigenous culture and the production of place
The article examines the production of tourist space in relation to Brambuk, an Aboriginal cultural centre in Victoria, Australia. In doing so, it draws on Tim Edensor’s discussion of heterogeneous and enclavic spaces, and the narratives of staff and visitors at the cultural centre. The article demonstrates the positive outcomes of heterogeneous space and the limitations of enclavic space for indigenous people seeking to represent themselves with…
Institutional betrayal and sexual harassment in STEM institutions: Evidence from science and technology universities of Ethiopia
In this paper, we examine the experiences of female students and academics to understand the factors that underpin the persistence of sexual harassment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) institutions. We draw on data from interviews and focus group discussions with female students and academics who participated in a study that focuses on gender inequality in science and technology universities in Ethiopia. Drawing on the c…
Navigating the neighbourhood: Gender, place and agency in children’s mobility
Children have an intrinsic right to urban space. Yet children’s perspectives and agency are largely absent from research and public policy on issues that concern them. Common conceptualisations of children as vulnerable, incompetent, or unruly designate their marginalised status in the city. When gender is added, the deficit approach is reinforced. In this paper, we draw from theoretical and methodological approaches that affirm children’s agency…
Two different worlds’: Papua New Guinean women working in development in Port Moresby
This article examines the lives of Port Moresby women who work in the development sector of Papua New Guinea. In particular, it demonstrates how development discourse structures the very fabric of working relationships within this sector in Port Moresby. Underpinned by neocolonial geographies in which those in the global north rescue those in the global south, these discourses produce workplaces in which Papua New Guinean women are seen as lackin…
Getting a GRiP: Examining the Outcomes of a Pilot Program to Support Graduate Research Students in Writing for Publication
This article addresses an under-researched area of graduate studies: the role of writing groups in developing the research and publication potential of university graduates. Drawing on focus group discussions with participants from a pilot program conducted in the Arts Faculty at Monash University in Australia, the authors investigate the outcomes of graduate participation in writing groups through reference to three key themes: demystification, …
We’re not very good at soccer’: Gender, space and competence in a Victorian primary school
This paper draws on findings from a pilot project conducted at an inner city primary school in Melbourne, Australia. Inviting grade six girls and boys (aged eleven and twelve) to focus on spaces of their schoolground, we learned about the ways in which gender, age, ethnicity, language ability and sporting competence influenced active play and belonging. Informed by the understanding that schoolgrounds, gender and active play are socially construc…
Getting comfortable: Gender, class and belonging in the ‘new’ Port Moresby
Port Moresby is consistently represented as a place that is dangerous for women. While recent transformations in the city have benefited some more than others, developments in the city are allowing for the creation of new ‘spatial texts’ in a place notorious for constraining women. In this article, I explore feminist geographer Linda McDowell’s idea that the city is a place in which the active, independent woman comes into her own. Drawing on foc…
Emerging women leaders’ views on political participation in Melanesia
Existing explanations for why women do not get elected to parliament in Melanesia emphasize structural barriers to participation, including prohibitive costs and patriarchal norms. They are largely silent, however, on why those women who do conform to the profile of the “archetypal candidate,” and thus have the best chance of overcoming these barriers, choose not to run. Drawing on an extensive qualitative dataset, including forty in-depth interv…
Gender, political representation and symbolic capital: How some women politicians succeed
Increasing women’s representation in national legislatures has become a priority for international organisations and aid donors in recent decades. Existing studies emphasise structural barriers, whether economic, cultural or religious, that inhibit women’s participation in the public sphere. Little attention is paid to women who defy these barriers to win election in contexts that are hostile to their presence. This article addresses this gap. Us…
The barriers that only you can see’: African Australian women thriving in tertiary education despite the odds
This qualitative study argues the need to recognise the increasing numbers of new African women migrants who have come to Australia with tertiary qualifications, but who are not necessarily refugees. These women are enrolling in and successfully completing university study. At the same time, the study makes clear the limits of conceptualising African Australian women’s experiences of education through a singular focus on struggle, disengagement a…
If someone, somewhere had a plan’: Disavowal in the gender-equality resistance talk of STEMM leaders
Barriers to gender equality in STEMM: Do Leaders Have the Gender Competence for Change
Purpose Science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) workplaces worldwide remain stubbornly resistant to gender equality initiatives. Leaders are vital to driving change, but the extent to which their capabilities lead to change remains unknown. This article examines STEMM leaders' gender competence to achieving transformative changes in gender inequality. Design/methodology/approach This article examines the capability of S…
Australian aid in Papua New Guinea: Men’s views on pay disparities, power imbalances and written products in the development sector
This article explores the frustrations of men – both ‘local’ and ‘international’ – who work in the development sector in Papua New Guinea. It explores the views of men not because they are the only ones to express such dissatisfaction, but because their perspectives have not been documented, other than in informal conversations as occur over drinks or messaging platforms. These multiple narratives show how a combination of pay variations, differe…
Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa: Sāmoa’s First Female Deputy Prime Minister
In March 2016, Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa was the first woman appointed to the position of deputy prime minister of Sāmoa. Following in the tradition of Pacific Islands Portraits, we provide a short life history of Fiamē, including her lineage, education and political career. Drawing on a mixture of oral history interviews and newspapers, we explore key themes central to Pacific politics, including gender, but also, title, political parties, the role o…
Abbott’s ‘budget crisis’, Cald women’s loss? Service providers explore the impact of funding cuts
Women have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts to services following the 2008 global financial crisis. Using a feminist intersectional analysis of austerity measures applied to family violence (FV) services in Victoria, Australia, including 11 service provider interviews, we find that: the Australian government drew on global narratives of austerity in constructing a 'budget crisis', with subsequent cuts to funds addressing FV; budge…
Gains and losses: African Australian women and higher education
This article argues that African women migrants in Australia are increasingly enrolling in and successfully completing tertiary study, usually at high emotional and financial cost. While this qualitative study has shown that both refugee-background and non-refugee African Australian women's enrolment in higher education is enabling new forms of participation and belonging in resettlement, it continues to challenge the women's more traditional cul…
Vocation, vocation: A study of prisoner education for women
This article addresses the education of women in prison in relation to an emerging area of research and policy concern: vocational training. Using interviews with women prisoners in Victoria, it investigates why inmate women participate in education programmes, what education programmes the women would like to see implemented and what barriers exist in terms of women’s participation in education. Demonstrating the disparity between stated governm…
Whites Out
This article describes Papua New Guinea's relationship with Australia, it's own quest for identity, and the way Papua New Guineans view white Australians
Being in science and at the same time being a woman is difficult’: Academic women's experiences of gender inequalities in STEM academia in Ethiopia
Like pouring fuel on a fire: Perspectives on family and domestic violence among Ethiopian women in Melbourne
In this article, we analyse how domestic violence (DV) is understood and experienced among immigrant Ethiopian women in Melbourne, as well as the different conditions that contribute to their experiences of abuse and their responses to it. To do this, we draw on 20 interviews with participants, 7 of whom experienced intimate partner violence. Demonstrating that immigrant Ethiopian women find themselves in a social context with a set of values and…
Tomorrow’s Woman
The election of Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa as the first female prime minister of Sāmoa has been widely heralded as a critical juncture, especially for women, that will change the nature of Sāmoan politics. In this Comment piece we endorse the observation that Fiamē’s success is remarkable and her election as prime minister significant. But we also caution against the somewhat idealistic and naïve assumption that her prime ministership will be a radical…
Home on ‘the block’: Rethinking aboriginal emplacement
Brambuk living cultural centre: Indigenous culture and the production of place
The article examines the production of tourist space in relation to Brambuk, an Aboriginal cultural centre in Victoria, Australia. In doing so, it draws on Tim Edensor's discussion of heterogeneous and enclavic spaces, and the narratives of staff and visitors at the cultural centre. The article demonstrates the positive outcomes of heterogeneous space and the limitations of enclavic space for indigenous people seeking to represent themselves with…
Brambuk living cultural centre: Indigenous culture and the production of place
The article examines the production of tourist space in relation to Brambuk, an Aboriginal cultural centre in Victoria, Australia. In doing so, it draws on Tim Edensor’s discussion of heterogeneous and enclavic spaces, and the narratives of staff and visitors at the cultural centre. The article demonstrates the positive outcomes of heterogeneous space and the limitations of enclavic space for indigenous people seeking to represent themselves with…
Rethinking emplacement, displacement and indigeneity: Radiance, Auntie Rita and don't take your love to town
(2002). Rethinking emplacement, displacement and indigeneity: Radiance, Auntie Rita and don't take your love to town. Journal of Australian Studies: Vol. 26, Country, pp. 93-103
Documenting Redfern: Representing home and Aboriginality on the Block
(2003). Documenting Redfern: Representing home and Aboriginality on the Block. Continuum: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 33-50
Vocation, vocation: A study of prisoner education for women
This article addresses the education of women in prison in relation to an emerging area of research and policy concern: vocational training. Using interviews with women prisoners in Victoria, it investigates why inmate women participate in education programmes, what education programmes the women would like to see implemented and what barriers exist in terms of women’s participation in education. Demonstrating the disparity between stated governm…
Whites Out
This article describes Papua New Guinea's relationship with Australia, it's own quest for identity, and the way Papua New Guineans view white Australians
Family Man: The Papua New Guinean Children of D. Carleton Gajdusek
The name Carleton Gajdusek is familiar to many scholars and those otherwise interested in Pacific anthropology and history. Yet while much has been written about Gajdusek's work on kuru and his achievements in science, little is known about his unusual family life. Addressing this gap, this article examines Gajdusek's adoption of sixteen Papua New Guinean children from among the Fore and Anga peoples. These children form part of Gajdusek's large …
Getting a GRiP: Examining the Outcomes of a Pilot Program to Support Graduate Research Students in Writing for Publication
This article addresses an under-researched area of graduate studies: the role of writing groups in developing the research and publication potential of university graduates. Drawing on focus group discussions with participants from a pilot program conducted in the Arts Faculty at Monash University in Australia, the authors investigate the outcomes of graduate participation in writing groups through reference to three key themes: demystification, …
Carleton's Kids: The Papua New Guinean Children of D. Carleton Gajdusek
Over his lifetime, the medical researcher and Nobel Prize winner Carleton Gajdusek ‘adopted’ 38 children from Papua New Guinea and Micronesia who came to live at his home in the US and were schooled at Gajdusek's expense. Drawing on interviews with ten of the now adult ‘adoptees’ living in PNG, other informants, and published and unpublished documentary sources, this paper reflects on the children's experience of family life in Gajdusek's home an…
That was Then, but This is Now: Historical Perspectives on Intercountry Adoption and Domestic Child Adoption in Australian Public Policy
This paper brings historical perspectives to bear on the ambivalent and contradictory position of adoption in Australian public policy. It examines the divergent histories of Australian domestic and intercountry adoption (ICA) since the mid-1970s and the impact of these histories on adoption policy in Australia. It identifies tendencies in contemporary ICA to repeat elements of pre-reform era domestic adoption. In particular, it is argued that th…
Villagers and the City: Melanesian Experiences of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Gender Trouble in Town: Educated Women Eluding Male Domination, Gender Violence and Marriage in PNG
Following Zimmer-Tamakoshi's observations about educated Pacific women not wanting to marry their countrymen, I examine educated Papua New Guinean women's perspectives on marrying Papua New Guinean men. Women in this group avoid marriage because they fear such relationships will destroy their career prospects, compromise their economic and decision-making independence and force them to grapple with male jealousy and violence in the domestic realm…
The barriers that only you can see’: African Australian women thriving in tertiary education despite the odds
This qualitative study argues the need to recognise the increasing numbers of new African women migrants who have come to Australia with tertiary qualifications, but who are not necessarily refugees. These women are enrolling in and successfully completing university study. At the same time, the study makes clear the limits of conceptualising African Australian women’s experiences of education through a singular focus on struggle, disengagement a…
An Oceanic revolution? Stella and the construction of new femininities in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific
In August 2012, a new magazine for women was released in Papua New Guinea ( PNG ). Entitled Stella , the magazine provides an ideal opportunity to analyse shifting constructions of gender among educated, employed women in PNG and elsewhere in the Pacific. Drawing on interviews, surveys and readers’ letters, this article discusses Papua New Guinean women who, because they display ‘modern attributes’, are maligned and discredited as ‘inauthentic’. …
Gains and losses: African Australian women and higher education
This article argues that African women migrants in Australia are increasingly enrolling in and successfully completing tertiary study, usually at high emotional and financial cost. While this qualitative study has shown that both refugee-background and non-refugee African Australian women's enrolment in higher education is enabling new forms of participation and belonging in resettlement, it continues to challenge the women's more traditional cul…
Emerging women leaders’ views on political participation in Melanesia
Existing explanations for why women do not get elected to parliament in Melanesia emphasize structural barriers to participation, including prohibitive costs and patriarchal norms. They are largely silent, however, on why those women who do conform to the profile of the “archetypal candidate,” and thus have the best chance of overcoming these barriers, choose not to run. Drawing on an extensive qualitative dataset, including forty in-depth interv…
Getting comfortable: Gender, class and belonging in the ‘new’ Port Moresby
Port Moresby is consistently represented as a place that is dangerous for women. While recent transformations in the city have benefited some more than others, developments in the city are allowing for the creation of new ‘spatial texts’ in a place notorious for constraining women. In this article, I explore feminist geographer Linda McDowell’s idea that the city is a place in which the active, independent woman comes into her own. Drawing on foc…
Abbott’s ‘budget crisis’, Cald women’s loss? Service providers explore the impact of funding cuts
Women have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts to services following the 2008 global financial crisis. Using a feminist intersectional analysis of austerity measures applied to family violence (FV) services in Victoria, Australia, including 11 service provider interviews, we find that: the Australian government drew on global narratives of austerity in constructing a 'budget crisis', with subsequent cuts to funds addressing FV; budge…
Transformations of Gender in Melanesia
Despite the plethora of research on gender and the many projects designed to improve their status in the Pacific region, women continue to be disadvantaged and marginalised in social, economic and political spheres. How are we to understand this and what does it mean for researchers, policy-makers and development practitioners
We’re not very good at soccer’: Gender, space and competence in a Victorian primary school
This paper draws on findings from a pilot project conducted at an inner city primary school in Melbourne, Australia. Inviting grade six girls and boys (aged eleven and twelve) to focus on spaces of their schoolground, we learned about the ways in which gender, age, ethnicity, language ability and sporting competence influenced active play and belonging. Informed by the understanding that schoolgrounds, gender and active play are socially construc…
Gender, political representation and symbolic capital: How some women politicians succeed
Increasing women’s representation in national legislatures has become a priority for international organisations and aid donors in recent decades. Existing studies emphasise structural barriers, whether economic, cultural or religious, that inhibit women’s participation in the public sphere. Little attention is paid to women who defy these barriers to win election in contexts that are hostile to their presence. This article addresses this gap. Us…
Navigating the neighbourhood: Gender, place and agency in children’s mobility
Children have an intrinsic right to urban space. Yet children’s perspectives and agency are largely absent from research and public policy on issues that concern them. Common conceptualisations of children as vulnerable, incompetent, or unruly designate their marginalised status in the city. When gender is added, the deficit approach is reinforced. In this paper, we draw from theoretical and methodological approaches that affirm children’s agency…
Two different worlds’: Papua New Guinean women working in development in Port Moresby
This article examines the lives of Port Moresby women who work in the development sector of Papua New Guinea. In particular, it demonstrates how development discourse structures the very fabric of working relationships within this sector in Port Moresby. Underpinned by neocolonial geographies in which those in the global north rescue those in the global south, these discourses produce workplaces in which Papua New Guinean women are seen as lackin…
Naming Rights? Analysing Child Surname Disputes in Australian Courts Through a Gendered Lens
Sociology (34 works) · Gender Studies (26 works) · Political science (26 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Ethnology (9 works) · History (9 works)