First announcement and call for papers

The Gender and Child Welfare Network, which is an international group of researchers and practitioners, hosted its fourth conference on 15th June, 2011 in conjunction with the Child and Family Research Centre and the Masters in Social Work Programme at NUIG.

The network has organized three successful conferences previously on the relationship between gender and child welfare. This conference focused specifically on the relationship between gender, child protection and family support and explored the following questions:

• How are relationships within families and relationships with professionals influenced by gender?
• How can we move on from what is now the well-established pattern of focusing on mothers in order to ensure the protection and support of children?
• What models of engaging fathers are there available to learn from?
• How can we develop gender sensitive practice around domestic violence?
• How can we ensure that supporting families protects children and challenges gender inequalities?

Keynote speakers included:

Norah Gibbons (Director of Advocacy, Barnardos):
Gender, child protection and welfare

Dr Jonathan Scourfield (Cardiff University):
Engaging fathers: Does training make a difference?

Dr Stephanie Holt (Trinity College Dublin):
Mothering and Domestic Violence