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The purpose of this paper is to explore how biography influences professional and academic development. It aims to show how in different ways our experiences reflect the structures of society and that histories repeat themselves with different protagonists and different preys. It uses the author’s own biography to argue that in the author’s case, early influences of Irish migration shaped some of the decisions she made and her commitment to researching inequalities. The paper also asks how relevant are early life influences on the careers of equality and diversity academics?

This paper uses a biographical method that draws on a personal history of migration and relates these to historical moments to show the interconnection between the self and wider macro events.

The findings of the paper show the relevance and interconnection of biography with the macro and political context. The paper explores how an academic's personal biography[1] and the multi-layered relationship between the self and the wider macro historical context have influenced her research development. It does this by using her personal stories of being part of an Irish community and shows how everyday interactions may lead to a sense of being an outsider, of being other. History is used to show the multiple borders that Irish and other migrants experience, from biographic and diasporic borders, to violence and conflict and finally to work borders including the link with the author's research work. The paper argues that while the targets of discrimination may change over time, contemporary events can intensify the devaluation and othering of particular migrant groups.

Each biography has a unique element but the paper shows how individual biographies are connected and interrelated with the macro level of analysis.

This chapter provides comparative insights into the context of equality and diversity in the United States and the United Kingdom. It argues that there is a real danger that progressive initiatives in combatting racism in both countries may have stalled and indeed may be slipping backwards. The chapter focuses on one sector, the healthcare sector, where service delivery is local but where in both countries there is huge reliance on an international workforce through migration. Despite huge differences in the US and UK healthcare systems, it is found that the pattern of migration with respect to both highly qualified professional workers (e.g. physicians) and middle and lower ranked workers is similar. The resilience of racial disadvantage is exposed in the context of a range diversity management initiatives.

The recent interest in women returning to, or increasing their, labour market participation has largely ignored the skills and aspirations of women themselves. This article is based on a survey of mothers of young children in a fairly prosperous part of the South East of the UK. Research findings indicate that women lack confidence about their ability to return to economic activity, have a high demand for training, and expect to be frustrated in their career aspirations if training is not available. Childcare provision, flexible working hours and training would enable them to increase their participation in work. Constraints operate on the level of entry to the labour market and prevent women achieving their full potential. The discussion considers the forces which can facilitate or impede the full participation and development of women at work: occupational segregation, employer attitudes, the gender bias within organisations, Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), trade unions and changing labour market demands. The findings indicate important policy directions for employers, trade unions and TECs to utilise this human resource more effectively.

The purpose of this article is to explore the under‐representation of women in union leadership in Barbados. The article asks if there are specific conditions faced by women there or if the barriers for Barbadian women are the same or similar to those facing union women in developed countries.

The study was a small qualitative one. In‐depth interviews were carried out in 2007‐2008 with 17 women leaders from the two dominant general unions in Barbados, from two smaller female‐dominated unions and an international union federation.

The findings show that many of the barriers union women in developed countries face are also encountered in Barbados, including family and domestic and workplace/union. However, the paper shows that the local context of Barbados produces a locally specific version of oppressive gender relations that impact on union women and their ability to access leadership. In particular, the “male marginalisation thesis” holds purchase in the public mindset and has created a backlash against one of the major strategies for addressing women's under‐representation in unions – women's separate organising.

This was a small study based on one Caribbean island and the findings do not necessarily apply to the wider region. Nevertheless, it raises sufficient questions about gender relations in union in the Caribbean to warrant further investigation both by unions and academics.

There is little in the international literature on women and unions in the Caribbean region.

The influence of trade unions and the cross‐cutting of gender and ethnicity on career development is a neglected area of study. By drawing on research in four UK trade unions, this paper engages with the career impact of unions on black and minority ethnic women trade union activists. In particular, it explores the career impact of three key areas of analysis: the gendered and ethnicised order, union networks and the career indeterminacy of union women. The experience of the women in our study demonstrated how careers are constrained by a complex set of racist and gendered forms. Union networks are shown to be an important arena for union involvement and personal development. Such networks facilitate the development of personal resources to challenge injustice in the workplace but they also provide a range of knowledge and skills that provide greater degrees of freedom in the way that an individual's career may unfold.

Mainstream work on careers tends to be situated within an individualistic paradigm and against a North American/Western European context (although frequently unacknowledged). This paper throws new conceptual and contextual insights on the career concept through its exploration of careers in the Middle East. It draws on articles included in two special issues on career development in the Middle East published in Career Development International, and demonstrates how careers are intertwined with history, politics, organisational practices and structures as well as the individual self. Importantly it identifies the interconnectedness of the Middle East with the rest of the world and how this impacts on individual careers. Through this regional lens, the complexity and diversity of the career concept is brought into sharp focus.

This paper investigates the operation of the National Agreement in the general printing industry at a time when the future of such agreements is in doubt. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from union representatives, the paper provides insights into the workplace practices of pay, technology, flexibility and work intensification in the context of the National Agreement and local labour market factors. Set against a highly competitive, technologically dynamic environment, the paper demonstrates the general resilience of the National Agreement alongside a complex and uneven picture at the level of the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to review the Gender, Migration and Equality stream of the Industrial Relations in Europe 2007 (UREC) Conference, which took place in Athens, Greece.

This paper summarizes a paper delivered at the first plenary session and also papers presented at the stream.

The paper finds that all papers within the stream highlighted the fact that discrimination and prejudice still exist throughout Europe and these are endemic and institutionalised. Some progress has been made in some areas and industries but for the situation to really alter, people in power should acknowledge their role in reproducing discrimination.

The research papers selected show that equality discussions and debates took a prominent position in the IREC Conference, which is beneficial in terms of pushing forward an equality agenda to the mainstream.

This paper aims to examine the role and experiences of women working in the industrial relations (IR) academy and to explore the recent claim that the subject of industrial relations has “been very receptive to the contributions of feminist analysis”.

An examination is made of the liminal position of women IR scholars in the IR academy and their concern for feminist and gender analysis. Parallels are drawn with IR and trade unions, focusing mainly on Britain, which also occupy, simultaneously, insider and outsider spaces. This approach draws on the relevant literature and is then tested through a questionnaire survey of women scholars working in the field, the author included, together with interviews and interactive discussions about the findings.

Gender politics remain highly contested in the IR academy, with women and their work experiencing considerable marginalisation and exclusion. Nevertheless women IR scholars display a high level of commitment to the field, especially its emphasis on policy and practice. The conclusion is that so far, a “gender turn” has yet to occur in the field in the way that women's studies is claimed as being part of a new knowledge movement.

A limitation of the study is a relatively low response rate to the questionnaire, with a bias towards older, more senior women academics.

For probably the first time the role and experiences in the IR academy of women researchers/ academics are examined and published. The study reveals that the exclusion and sexism experienced there closely reflect the gender and diversity analyses in the IR field.