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Since the second-wave feminism of the 1970s, women's rights and opportunities in education and employment have increased across the globe. But has equality - whether social, political, or legal - really been achieved? Miriam E. David, a well-known and influential feminist in higher education, celebrates the achievements of international feminists of the past 50 years and provides a critique of how the expansion of global higher education has masked their pioneering zeal and zest for knowledge.

Socio-cultural and political backgrounds and contexts -- Feminist research on gender and education -- Political changes on gender equality in education -- Feminist political campaigns on gender and violence -- Feminist waves about gender equalities and gender violence -- Changing political landscapes of feminism: waves and educational values? -- Challenging gender violence for children and young people through education -- Reflections on a feminist educational manifesto

In 'The State, The Family and Education', first published in 1980, Miriam David provides an entirely new analysis of the relationship of the state to the family and education. David explains how the state, through its educational policies, regulates family relationships with, and within, schools. This book provides a welcome analysis of educational policy from a socialist-feminist perspective, re-examining the ways in which women as parents, teachers and pupils are involved in the education system

Feminism, Gender and Universities demonstrates the positive and robust impacts that feminism has had on higher education, through the eyes and in the words of the participants in changing political and social processes. Drawing on the 'collective biography' of leading feminist scholars from around the world and current evidence relating to gender equality in education, this book employs methods including biographies, life histories, and narratives to show how the feminist project to transform women's lives in the direction of gender and social equality became an educational and pedagogical one. Through careful attention to the ways in which feminism has transformed feminist academic women's lives, the author explores the importance of education in changing socio-political contexts, raising questions about further changes that are necessary. Delving into the deeper and more 'hidden' echelons of education, the book examines the contested nature of current managerial or business approaches to university and education, revealing these to be incompatible with feminist thought. A plea for more careful attention to education and the ways in which the processes of knowledge-making influence (and are influenced by) gender and sexual relations, Feminism, Gender and Universities will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in gender, pedagogy and modern academic life.

The concept of evidence-based policy and practice has many origins but its relation to the growth of the social sciences is arguably the most important. The uses of the social sciences for both understanding and transforming social policies and political systems has come to be assumed – complex and problematic though these may be. The concept is also closely linked with the concepts of globalisation, technological developments, and the 'knowledge economy'. Thus the notions of 'evidence' and social science research have often been elided with political movements for social and economic change. In other contexts, these notions have been contextualised, so that 'evidence' and research are not deemed to be the same. Indeed, it is possible to argue that the notion of legal 'evidence' illustrates just how ideological it can be, how it can be used to marshal particular arguments and sustain a specific case rather than present it in a dispassionate manner.