Northumbria professor leading gender equality debate

5th November 2014

Debate-leading research on gender equality from Northumbria University, Newcastle, has been presented to the UK Minister for Women and Equalities.

Professor Sharon Mavin, from the University’s Newcastle Business School, addressed MP Jo Swinson at a Government seminar on gender roles, representation and social policy.

The multidisciplinary seminar focused on the way gender roles and constructions interrelate with areas of social policy concerning body image, violence against women and girls, educational aspirations and homophobic bullying. It also debated how research evidence and social policy are effectively aligned to address these.

Professor Mavin explained: “This was an excellent opportunity for the team toshowcase our research into how media constructions of female professionals, leaders and managers are gendered. We outlined the way in which headlines and images of female leaders reinforce gender stereotypes and highlighted how gender-blind business and management curricula, which presents the normative manager as a man, are outdated and do not reflect society or the study body.”

The research team were recently awarded a prestigious Seminar Series grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). They will use this to bring together leading scholars from business and media disciplines who can develop new research methodologies to challenge gendered media constructions.

This seminar series, ‘Challenging Gendered Media Mis(s)Representations of Women Professionals and Leaders’ is a collaborative project with Lancaster, Durham, Northumbria and Bradford Universities, which will run from October 2014 to June 2017.

The Findings will be used to further develop the research-informed teaching Northumbria is committed to, ensuring its students learn from the best academics with real-world experience.