Gender equality
UN Sustainable Development Goal (5)
Our work
Science, medicine and technology are being brought together to support women’s sport and exercise in an exciting new partnership between Manchester Metropolitan and the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) - the first of its kind. Launched in 2024, the new Centre of Excellence for Women in Sport will support women’s sport and exercise throughout the UK, and across the world, bringing leaders in sport, academia and industry together.
According to new research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports(March 2024), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must reconsider its framework on fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations as it does not protect fairness for female athletes. The IOC framework is not consistent with existing scientific and medical evidence and its recommendations need to be reviewed.
A new study (2024) led by scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Reading, University of Liverpool and King’s College London, discovered that the COVID-19 pandemic had a greater impact on boys’ mental health than girls, contrary to the findings of other studies.
Researchers have created the first repository of domestic homicide reviews in England, and a series of briefings and articles aimed to help policymakers and service providers (2022). The Homicide Abuse Learning Together (HALT) study analysed the findings and processes of 302 Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) as part of a research project - funded by the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) and led by Professor Khatidja Chantler at Manchester Metropolitan University. Films have also been created based on the experiences of current victim-survivors of domestic abuse and family members who have been bereaved by domestic homicide, as well as an anthology of poems with the Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Domestic Abuse : Safeguarding during the Covid-19 pandemic (DASC) investigates how the pandemic has affected policies and practices, with testimony from survivors. The study aims to inform new national approaches to protecting people from domestic abuse during pandemics and other emergencies (2020-2022).
Opportunities for football coaches to develop careers in the women’s game were offered at a specialist centre at Manchester Metropolitan University thanks to a renewed partnership developed in 2022. The partnership, with England Learning, offers support for women’s and girls’ football coaches at a Women’s High Performance Football Centre, based at the University’s city centre campus. The University is one of only ten centres across England that provide an educational and community-based hub to recruit, develop and deploy coaches to lead and inspire player development within the women’s and girls’ game.
Manchester Met is championing alternative routes into STEM careers for women through their Degree Apprenticeships, which are helping to tackle a global issue when it comes to the representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Manchester Metropolitan’s Force for Change report shows how degree apprenticeships are helping to attract more women into traditionally male-dominated industries, addressing skills shortages and closing the STEM gender gap.
Researchers from the Centre of Decent Work and Productivity have conducted extensive research into gender equality including projects on gender pay gaps in medicine, funded by the Department for Health and Social Care, and on the effects of menopause and in the workplace for the UK police service. They have also worked with the police around fertility loss and perinatal mental illness with their research featuring in the Wall Street Journal,
The Sylvia Pankhurst Centre works closely with GM4Women2028 whose charitable purpose is the promotion of equality and diversity for the benefit of the community in Greater Manchester. It aims to work towards a) eliminating discrimination on the grounds of sex; b) advancing the education of the public on the grounds of women and girls’ equality; c) conducting or commissioning research on women and girls’ equality issues and publishing the results to the public; d) facilitating dialogue and creating connections to address the diverse interests of women and girls.
We have worked with UNHCR Rwanda to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) for refugees with communication disabilities and increase ‘Communication Access’ in refugee communities. The research has informed the work of the Department for International Development (DfID), the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network and the International Communication Project. It was reported at the UN Conference of State Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It also underpinned the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)’s successful amendments to UK domestic abuse bill.
Research into community-led learning and pedagogies of conflict explored how the action group learning model for reducing gender-based violence in Letesma, South Africa, can be sustained and scaled up through collaborations with NGOs and social movements.
Research into abortion access has equipped organisations and activists working in conservative regimes including Ireland and Colombia to monitor and protect abortion access. The World Health Organisation and Abortion Rights Campaign used our frameworks to monitor the implementation of the Republic of Ireland’s first accessible abortion service after thirty years of prohibition. In February 2022, Dr Deirdre Duffy’s work on reproductive rights and accessibility to abortion was part of a global collective submission to Colombia’s Constitutional Court, which subsequently ruled that abortion should be decriminalised during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.