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PurposeThis article aims to explore the gendered dimensions of the heterogeneous path of non‐native graduates in nursing and medicine in the Portuguese National Health Service, including institutional factors like the process of credential recognition, the professional integration and internal labour market segmentation.Design/methodology/approachBiographical interviews with nurses and physicians (23 males and 35 females) from Spain and from some Eastern European countries who migrated to work in Portugal were conducted, and additionally semi‐structured interviews with 12 institutional participants to contextualise the experiential data.FindingsThe research highlights complex intersections between gender and the resources for action. Institutional conditions, like legal frameworks and the self‐regulatory mechanisms of the professions, and individual characteristics shape successful translation of foreign credentials into a new social and cultural context. The specific configurations may create gender traps that push women into low status professional segments and also new forms of inequality in the professions.Research limitations/implicationsThe development of successful professional action and agency in a socio‐culturally different health care labour market can be differentiated by gender, place of graduation and citizenship status. The factors identified in this small‐scale qualitative study would need further investigation.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight new demands for integration policies for foreign‐trained professionals, such as policies to promote equal opportunities for women and men in the workplace.Originality/valueThe article reinforces women as professional participants in the international migration process and examines the opportunities for successful integration.

PurposeThis article aims to address topical issues in the debate on gender (in)equality in higher education in Europe and beyond, and highlights future perspectives of research and practice.Design/methodology/approachIt is based on a conference report of the 5th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education that was hosted by Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, 28‐31 August 2007.FindingsNumber matters ("wore women into science"), but quality matters more: more women are needed in top positions in higher education, science, technology and engineering, and more female participation in higher education decision‐making processes. It is necessary to reveal gender biases of recent strategies in higher education. Exclusion happens also among women; an intersectional approach is therefore called for, which includes primary and secondary educations as well as labour market and careers in the academe.Practical implicationsEquality programmes have to consider the diversity of gender in higher education and to strengthen women's lobbying in European education and science politics.Originality/valueThis conference brought together about 350 participants from 56 countries. Thus, it provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge exchange with European scholars and beyond, which is reported in this paper.

Changing market conditions, new modes of labour and decreasing legitimisation of experts, as well as an increasing ratio of women, pose new challenges to the professions. These ongoing dynamics are especially visible in the health care system – a traditional professional field with strongly formalised rules governing entrance, initiation and career paths. In addition, this field is highly segregated according to sexes. How do the bove‐mentioned processes of change present themselves and what economic, social or structural factors cause them? What role does gender play within these processes? What potential lies in the re‐structuring processes of health care systems as far as a gender equal architecture and design of professions is concerned? These and other questions are addressed in this collection of papers. For the main part they grew out of a thematic focus event organised and coordinated by the editors for the 5th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA) Research Network Sociology of Professions that was held in 2001 in Helsinki. Inspired by the richness of the research results on professions and gender in health care systems in various European countries and new horizons which opened up from the comparative perspective in different countries, professions, and theoretical approaches, and finally motivated by very constructive ensuing discussions, we decided to continue the discussion with a publication.

In den nächsten Wochen und Monaten werden entscheidende Weichen für die Forschung und Forschungsförderung in Europa gestellt, und hierbei geht es auch um die Zukunft der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung. In diesem Artikel werden zentrale Entwicklungen vorgestellt. Wir konzentrieren uns auf die Herausforderungen und Chancen für die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsförderung und stellen in diesem Kontext auch das forschungspolitische Netzwerk Initiative for Science in Europe vor, das als interdisziplinäre Plattform interessante neue Handlungsoptionen für die Soziologie bietet. Weiter geht es um die Schlüsselthemen des nächsten Global Research Council, der sich mit der Umstellung der wissenschaftlichen Publikationen auf »open access« und mit der Entwicklung von Leitlinien zur Forschungsethik beschäftigen wird. European research and research funding are facing a number of important decisions with far reaching implications for the social sciences. This article introduces key issues of the European debate with a focus on the challenges and chances that future funding programmes create in the social sciences. Within this context, the network Initiative for Science in Europe is also introduced that provides new opportunities for sociology. Furthermore important are »open access« and »research integrity«, the key topics of the next Global Research Council.

Background: As health workforce policy is gaining momentum, data sources and monitoring systems have significantly improved in the European Union and internationally. Yet data remain poorly connected to policy-making and implementation and often do not adequately support integrated approaches. This brings the importance of governance and the need for innovation into play. Case: The present case study introduces a regional health workforce monitor in the German Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate and seeks to explore the capacity of monitoring to innovate health workforce governance. The monitor applies an approach from the European Network on Regional Labour Market Monitoring to the health workforce. The novel aspect of this model is an integrated, procedural approach that promotes a 'learning system' of governance based on three interconnected pillars: mixed methods and bottom-up data collection, strong stakeholder involvement with complex communication tools and shared decision- and policy-making. Selected empirical examples illustrate the approach and the tools focusing on two aspects: the connection between sectoral, occupational and mobility data to analyse skill/qualification mixes and the supply–demand matches and the connection between monitoring and stakeholder-driven policy. Conclusion: Regional health workforce monitoring can promote effective governance in high-income countries like Germany with overall high density of health workers but maldistribution of staff and skills. The regional stakeholder networks are cost-effective and easily accessible and might therefore be appealing also to low- and middle-income countries.

"Der Beitrag geht anhand empirischer Befunde aus dem DFG-Projekt 'Callcenter – organisationelle
Grenzstellen zwischen Neotaylorismus und Kundenorientierung' der
Frage nach, ob sich in diesem neuen Bereich flexibilisierter Dienstleistungsarbeit überkommene
Muster des Einsatzes von Frauenarbeit reproduzieren, ob Geschlechtergrenzen
zur Disposition stehen oder neu gezogen werden. Einerseits wird hier mutmaßliche
'Routine'-Arbeit ausdifferenziert und technikgestützt rationalisiert. Das spricht für eine
Fortdauer traditioneller Abwertungsprozesse von Frauenarbeit im Namen der Flexibilität.
Andererseits aber sind in den Callcentern empirisch vielfältige und flexible Neu-
Kombinationen von betrieblichen Einsatzmustern und Belegschaften zu beobachten.
Segmentierungslinien verlaufen eher entlang der Verfügbarkeit und 'Flexibilität' der Arbeitskräfte
als entlang des Geschlechts; Teilzeit arbeitende Berufsrückkehrerinnen konzentrieren
sich in den Callcentern mit minder attraktiven Arbeitsbedingungen, aber
Frauen partizipieren auch an den angereicherten und anspruchsvollen Beratungs-
Dienstleistungen." (Autorenreferat)

PurposeThis article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in Russia.Design/methodology/approachIt is based on qualitative methodology, referring to interview material, and discourse analysis of the Russian textbooks used in social care education. It addresses three dimensions of gender: labour market policies and women's work/low wages; identity constructions of the social workers; and the discourse of gender in teaching material and textbooks.FindingsThe research shows that, by setting up inadequate wage policies for social workers, the state has reinforced the societal assumption of cheap women's labour. In addition, power relations in social work practice reinforce social inequalities. The ideology of a specific female work‐capacity is reproduced in social work, as in other forms of care work.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight that gender differences are represented as biologically materialised substances, while social conditions of their construction are not taken into account. Single mothers are often portrayed as immoral or unfortunate and considered dangerous for their own children and society as a whole.Practical implicationsIn the education and professional development of social workers, major emphasis needs to be given to anti‐discriminatory practice and critical thinking.Originality/valueThe lack of professionalisation of social work is explained in terms of gender inequality in the social order, which is mirrored in the conditions of labour market and therefore especially in "female work".

PurposeThe paper aims to argue that US colleges and universities resemble a "leaning tower" with ever expanding layers of administrators and managers who control and dominate university life. This set of institutional changes has altered the way that college administrators are recruited.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses recent developments in institutional theories of organisations to explain the changing environment facing US colleges and universities and the role that college administrators play in this environment. The paper matches data from a sample of administrative positions advertised in the 2004‐2005 Careers section of the Chronicle of Higher Education with web‐based data on incumbents subsequently hired for each position. These data are supplemented with aggregate statistics provided by the Chronicle and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).FindingsResults suggest that only a small number of administrative positions advertised involve academic appointments with tenure and that the educational qualifications advertised span a surprisingly wide spectrum of credentials other than academic PhD's. Ethnically underrepresented groups and women are most likely to hold jobs requiring PhD's while whites and men occupy most of the positions where qualifications are ambiguous or classic academic qualifications are not called for.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to discuss the growing distinctive labour market for college administrators while providing preliminary data on the diversity effects of this labour market.

Background Since the early 1980s all European countries have given priority to reforming the management of health services. A distinctive feature of these reforms has also been the drive to co-opt professionals themselves into the management of services, taking on full time or part time (hybrid) management or leadership roles. However, although these trends are well documented in the literature, our understanding of the nature and impact of reforms and how they are re-shaping the relationship between medicine and management remains limited. Most studies have tended to be nationally specific, located within a single discipline and focused primarily on describing new management practices. This article serves as an Introduction to a special issue of BMC Health Services Research which seeks to address these concerns. It builds on the work of a European Union funded COST Action (ISO903) which ran between 2009 and 2013, focusing specifically on the changing relationship between medicine and management in a European context.