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This chapter provides an exciting opportunity to advance our knowledge of equality and diversity of students in higher education (HE). My main reason for choosing this topic is personal interest.

Critical race theory (CRT) and the social identity theory were used as analytical tools in understanding equality and diversity of students in higher education.

Managing equality and diversity of students in higher education can be done through the tournament conception, trial conception, leveling conception, remedy conception, and job-interview conception. The primary intrinsic limit to equality of opportunity of students in higher education institutions (HEIs) is the persistence of irreducible differences between families in their economic, social, and cultural resources. Policy can partly compensate for economic differences but can scarcely eliminate the potency of the family in cultural capital and social networks. Students from advantaged social groups enjoy more access to elite universities through the influence of policies. Disadvantaged students from social groups are excluded from accessing top HEIs. Students in elite universities enjoy more advanced educational opportunities than those in nonelite universities, and they are more advantaged to be placed in the job market.

Student pedagogic (content knowledge) and formative (evaluation) opportunities in HEIs may not be achieved when equality and diversity is dissociated from its academic content and reduced to access for the sake of access. Universities are expected to develop a repertoire of lecturing methods to enable students to learn (Gudmundsdottir, 1990, p. 47). Students constrained by financial considerations, or not given a choice, are not in a position to achieve equality and diversity in their choices of the benefits offered by HEIs as the constrains may limit them from having the necessary resources. Differences between the students’ contexts of learning may also place limit to their performance ability because of the differentiated contextual background. Recruit of students to universities should include students from diverse contextual backgrounds. In addition, universities ought to integrate diversity management with their admission policies and other strategic choices. The chapter focuses only on equality and diversity for students in HEIs. Again, it is limited by relying on the researcher’s experiences and literature review only. In addition, interviews with students and staff at universities were not done because literature reviewed gave more information from researches based on findings of other scholars.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) should engage students and listen to their needs for equality and diversity to be realized. Debate continues about the best strategies for the management of discrimination that comes in many forms depending on the perceptions of the individuals affected.

This article considers how the persistence of race inequalities can be addressed in the field of regeneration. Race has been a consistent feature in inner urban areas yet there is little to suggest contemporary means of regeneration has taken this on board.

The article is based on a series of qualitative, semi‐structured interviews that were undertaken as part of ongoing work associated with the implementation of the Equality Standard for Local Government in England.

An emergent set of relations between equality, social inclusion and community cohesion is evident. As a result, aspects of inequality continue to lie at the heart of public sector intervention policies such as regeneration.

The article suggests that while there may be methods of management to help ensure good equality principles, it is the role of local democratic and political processes to eradicate such practice.

The findings are important to public sector management. Continued work on Equality Standard for Local Government should take on board the findings of this article.

The article adds knowledge to how, in the field of regeneration, the characteristics of institutional racism can be locked into the practices and organizational cultures of public sector agencies.

The concept of equality in employment is an elusive one, since it is difficult to visualise the state that would be described with such a concept. Most often, its meaning is taken as self‐ evident and therefore left undefined. (See, for instance, the papers submitted to the Subcommittee on Economic Growth and Stabilisation of the Joint Committees of the Congress of the United States, 1977). Difficulties in attempting to define equality in employment arise from at least four distinct sources: One set of problems stems from the fact that it is hard to envision equality in employment in the overall context of a society that is based on inequality. Utopian thinkers have therefore, traditionally handled the problem of inequality in employment for any given group by equalising all work in its evaluation, and to some degree, in its allocation. (For a modern version that is extremely well thought through see LeGuin, 1974). I will assume that for the purposes of this paper a complete restructuring of society along the lines of overall equality is outside the realm of the possible given the current context and I will therefore not pursue this thought here further.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to consider “equality mainstreaming” as an international policy and to explore some of the implications this raises for public management.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The methodology is based on literature review looking at the way gender mainstreaming practices have developed a wider application to equality mainstreaming. Examining the relationship between mainstreaming and evidence-based management, it comments on the challenges this poses for public management.

Findings – Equality mainstreaming and its implications have been largely absent from public management discourse despite the growth of equality mainstreaming in international policy.

Research limitations/Implications – Research in public management should address mainstreaming and its potential for social change.

Practical implications – This chapter brings this issue to the forefront in an effort to engage academics and public managers.

Social implications – This chapter raises theoretical questions about mainstreaming and social change in favor of equality. It is a starting point for further research on public management as a tool for shifting organizational and societal values.

Originality/Value – The chapter provides an overview of previous literature and policy development in this area and then moves on to explore the implications of extending mainstreaming as a concept to other policy areas and examines both challenges and opportunities raised by this approach for the management of values in public services.

The introduction highlights the historical gender gap in financial empowerment and how Fintech, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, has facilitated financial inclusion for women in India, offering digital solutions to overcome social restrictions. The objective of this chapter is to assess the impact of Fintech on sustainable women empowerment in India. The methodology involves surveying 230 women in Delhi NCR and analyzing factors such as financial literacy, decision-making, financial freedom, security, employability, career growth, and gender equality. The results indicate that Fintech has improved financial awareness and security for women, empowered them in financial decision-making, and fostered professional growth. The implications suggest that the Fintech industry plays a promising role in achieving gender equality by providing women with access to financial instruments, leading to increased economic contribution, personal confidence, and freedom. Fintech has the potential to reduce gender inequality and financial vulnerability at a macro level, empowering women to actively participate in the economy and contributing to sustained gender equality and economic growth.

Mental health care in England has been subject to a great deal of scrutiny in recent years for its equality of access, experience and outcome. Five years of the Delivering Race Equality programme produced momentum, learning and improvements. It is clear, though, that efforts need to consider a continuous quality improvement approach and consciously use all new initiatives to further drive more equal services. A current initiative in England is the care clusters model for mental health, along with associated moves to commission services on a payment by results basis. This paper examines these developments and the possible implications for supporting greater equality in mental health care.

Girls’ access to education has improved in many of the world's developing countries. These countries are striving to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) requiring them to provide gender equality, promote the empowerment of women, and establish universal primary education (UPE) by 2015. The success of UPE in achieving gender equality in enrollment in those countries able to institute it is encouraging. Where previously girls trailed boys in their ability to access education due to parent inability or reluctance to pay the costs, they are now entering primary schools in comparable numbers (UNESCO, 1999, 2006).

To understand the relationship of social justice ideas to the role of a public library and its organizational members, particularly in terms of how information services are developed to meet the needs of patrons. Additionally, this research also examines the relationship between public library organizational rhetoric and the social justice ideas used by organizational members.

Uses a single case study, mixed-method approach informed by Yin (2013) with semi-structured interviews of library staff, text analysis of organizational rhetoric (mission statement and strategic plan), observation of the library’s Board of Trustees and an emic-etic content analysis method developed in Dadlani and Todd (2014, 2016a, 2016b).

Some findings include that both utilitarian and egalitarian distributions of service were used, sometimes one replacing the other based on the supply-demand of the situation. In terms of what is meant by equality, there is a utilitarian idea to the use of resources, those geographically closer are given more benefits, at the same time, the library fulfills needs based on something like an equality of capabilities approach, where the basic functionings of the community are central. Unexpectedly, a tension was observed between the ideas of the library as an unbiased and neutral information conduit and the library as a community hub that also espouses particular cultural/public values. Importantly, it was found that social justice ideas, like equality, had significantly different meanings across members of the library staff, thereby highlighting the contestable nature of social justice concepts.

This research provides a methodological example of how the extant philosophical literature on social justice concepts can be used to analyze libraries. It also provides a structured approach to understanding the role of social justice in different forms of librarianship and may be applicable in other types of information intensive organizations (government agencies, corporate information centers, for example).

Issues of women’s education and empowerment of women have been incorporated in the framing of the role of women in international development from the 1970s, primarily as a response to the liberal feminist movement agenda of the time. This analysis examines the degree to which liberal feminism and liberal feminist theory is reflected in comparative education scholarship in the lead up to and beyond the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis first explores the underpinnings of liberal feminism, which constitutes the ideal embedded in development education for girls and women. It follows up with a reflection on the literature in the field of comparative education that reference liberal feminism framework and feminist theory in exploring educational issues and ways in which the theory is located in the research. Illustration of examples that demonstrate the limits of liberal feminism as a theoretical framework and barriers to the use of liberal feminist theory as an ideological guide are captured in the findings. The search is limited to the six dominant scholarly outlets in the field of comparative education; namely Comparative Education Review (CER), Comparative Education (CE), Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (Compare), Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education (Prospects), International Review of Education (IRE), and the International Journal of Educational Development (IJED). Only works that explicitly mention liberal feminism/liberal feminist perspectives are included in the analysis. This research contributes to the acknowledgement of the liberal feminist theory in development education and for the field of comparative education. It will also help with understanding the politics of ideology and representation in scholarship and development interventions.

The lived experience of HIV+ Black MSM (men who have sex with men) in the South exposes persistent racialized inequality. With the highest rates of HIV diagnosis in the country, Black MSM are made to feel unequal within the US LGBTQ community, thereby perpetuating long-standing inequalities between the groups. We argue that Whites' and Blacks' differing conceptions of racial equality serve to limit the extent to which comprehensive LGBTQ equality is possible as whiteness frames the LGBTQ experience in the United States. Examining how the country's racist story of nonaccess, representation, and exclusion has stymied coalition building to eliminate inequalities, findings reveal the structural impediments toward racial parity. Utilizing the case study of HIV+ Black MSM in the South, we examine the persistence of inequality amid the thrice interwoven intramarginalization of feeling excluded from sociopolitical spaces, having limited political representation, and engaging with racist body politics.