Members

Here are some examples of postgraduate students currently conducting research on gender at the University of Sheffield.

If you would like your details to be added to this page, please contact Jessica Baily.

email : j.baily@sheffield.ac.uk

You can also add details of your own research, or find out about other research projects on gender at the University of Sheffield, from the Gender Studies Database set up by the Centre for Gender Studies in Europe.

http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/gender/

Lucy Jones (School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics)

This research involves an investigation into how sexual identities are constructed in a lesbian community. Taking a Sociocultural Linguistics approach, the interaction of a small group of women is analysed in terms of their mutual negotiation of key ideologies surrounding gender and sexuality. After fifteen months of ethnography with the women in question, it has been possible to develop an understanding of the group-specific meaning behind particular styles and stances that the women take, and it is in this light that their discursive moments have been interpreted. It is found that the women construct an ideal or 'authentic' lesbian identity through their conversation and their stylistic choices, and jointly negotiate the meaning of this authenticity through the appropriation or rejection of particular positions. Typically, these positions reflect stereotypical notions of femininity, which is most often rejected as being antithetical to lesbian culture and experience. The women favour styles which they referto as 'dykey', those which reproduce ideologies of the 'butch lesbian', but also reflect the very specific Sociocultural context in which their identities are created.

email : lucy.jones@sheffield.ac.uk

Claire Jenkins (Sociological Studies)

Straddling the scalpel of identity: a critical consideration of the social context within which transsexual people cross normative sex and gender binaries.

When transsexual people transition medical and social research has identified that nearly half of their relationships with family end. This causes considerable psychological and social problems that need to be addressed. This research addresses these problems and extends the scope of previous research to include significant others. It seeks to identify the characteristics of those relationships that survive transition, the factors that cause relationships to break down and how can the resulting distress be diminished.

email : claire.e.jenkins@sheffield.ac.uk

Jo Ingold (Sociological Studies)

A conceptual and comparative analysis of how social security and social assistance benefits systems in OECD countries affect the labour market participation of partnered women, particularly those in non-working households.

This research will compare policy approaches to encouraging the labour market participation of non-working partnered women in the UK, Australia and Denmark. There is a wealth of comparative studies of welfare-to-work/activation policies, but this research focuses on a specific group of women whose non-participation in the labour market is gendered. One aspect of this is cross-couple dependence relating to access to benefits, in the context of gendered systems of social protection. Another aspect is caring (whether for children, spouses or other dependents) as a barrier to work. The research comprises case studies in Australia and Denmark, specifically elite interviews with policymakers and other stakeholders. The research is jointly funded by the ESRC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). As one of the aims is to inform UK Government policy, there is a focus on the policy transferability of Australian and Danish policies to the UK context.