Global Women's Studies Research Cluster

Cluster Projects

Millennium Fund Project: Gender Equality and Economic Growth

Gender equality is an important element of the international policy environment concerned with reducing poverty and expanding human development and security. Yet the progress on gender equality has been slow and there is little exploration of the impactions of this on human development and economic growth. In this project an initial exploration of the links between gender equality and economic growth is undertaken particularly focusing on the links between gender equality in education and employment and economic growth. This research will lay the foundation for developing a complex model of the interaction between gender equality across the domains of rights, opportunities and voice and economic growth.

Funder: Millennium Fund, NUIG

Negotiating Non-Heterosexual Identity in Galway City

The NUIG Millennium Research Project was undertaken in 2008 and early 2009 in Galway city, Ireland. The project's overall aim was to investigate the social and cultural experience of LGB communities in Galway city. The main areas of investigation included: the 'coming out' experiences, gay scene and gay community in Galway, religious and sexual identification, attitudes to the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality, and social experience of homosexuality. Some of the preliminary findings suggest that religious and non-heterosexual sexual self-identification is a highly contentious process with participants rejecting the Catholic Church's authority based on its stand on homosexuality but also wider issues such as repression of women, sex-abuse scandals, accumulation of wealth and general economic standing of the Church.

Principal Investigator: Vesna Malesevic

Partnership with Teagasc’s Centre for Rural Economy (RERC)

Fostered by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Teagasc and the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2008, a research partnership has been developed between the Gender Research Cluster at the School of Political Science and Sociology, NUIG and Teagasc’s Rural Economy Research Centre (RERC).

As part of the unfolding processes of globalization, rural livelihoods are undergoing a dramatic transformation across the globe. From increasing industrialization and feminization of agriculture in the South to the shift to ’post-productivism’ in the North, women and men face new challenges in securing livelihoods. An unexplored area in this transition is the trends in women’s asset ownership and its implications for secure livelihoods, gender identities, and women’s leadership in rural governance. The Gender Empowerment and Globalisation Cluster is engaged in a project with Teagasc that focuses on research questions pertaining to women’s asset ownership in rural Ireland. Questions on women’s asset ownership are included in a broader project on joint farming/farm business ventures and have been included in a new farm survey to be undertaken in 2009. In 2008, Teagasc dedicated funding to a PhD project through its Walsh Fellowship Scheme, entitled “Investigating Women’s Subjectivities, Identities and Agency for Sustainable Rural Development”.

Funder: Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Scheme

Gender, Religion and the Politics of the Veil: An Irish Case Study

This Global Women’s Studies Programme postdoctoral research project analyses the reaction to the Islamic headscarf debate in Ireland. The project seeks to elucidate the arguments presented both in support and opposition of banning the veil from public schools and/or other public institutions in Ireland. Furthermore, the project examines the interaction between religious organisations and the state, taking into consideration Ireland’s particular religious history, and considers the potential benefits of religious pluralism, and the limits of the secular state, to manage multiculturalism. Towards this end, the project uses public and political discourse on the veil debate as a means to examine how gendered expressions of religiosity are perceived by Irish society and the extent to which religious institutions, particularly Islamic institutions, are engaged with the state to negotiate rights for their congregations. This project contributes to the larger question of whether tensions surrounding religious expression and affiliation can be mediated within nation-states through a pluralist approach that acknowledges religion as a legitimate identity marker and incorporates religious belief into political decision-making.

Researcher: Dr. Stacey Scriver Furlong

• Disclaimer
• Privacy
• Copyright
• Accessibility