Engendering Change Niamh Maguire and John O'Brien

In this episode Niamh Maguire talks with Mairead Enright, Reader in Feminist Legal Studies at Birmingham Law School, about feminist legal theory and the Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project. They discuss the nature of feminist legal theory and the kinds of insights and perspectives it brings to the development and analysis of the law. Mairead, as Co-Director of the Northern/Irish Feminists Judgements Projects, and Co-Editor of the book of the same name, explains what feminist judgments are about and the types of techniques that they use to reinterpret judgments. Their discussion goes to the heart of what law is by highlighting that the content of law is always contingent on the specific social, economic and political contexts in which it is made and that legal judgments are never inevitable.

In our second episode, John O’Brien talks with Paul Ryan, Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in Maynooth University. We discuss his latest book: Male Sex Work in the Digital Age: Curated Lives. The discussion centres on the research of Professor Ryan, which emphasises listening to the voices of sex workers so that their experiences and needs can be heard. The talk covers background issues of migration, precarious and difficult employment for migrant workers in the mainstream economy, the housing crisis, and the transformation of the nature of sex work in the digital age.

Ho ho ho! Five of the regular podcast hosts from WIT got together to record a joint episode recommending some books, TV programmes, films, podcasts and tech that you (or a loved one) might enjoy over the Christmas period. Features Jenny O’Connor from The Nerve, Bruce Wardrop from Win Win, Niamh Maguire from Engendering Change, Tom Grinsell from WIT Talks Student Life and Rob O’Connor of The Machine.

A very Happy Christmas to all our listeners.

Recommendation Notes:

Bruce Wardrop


(Book) Atomic Habits – James Clear https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

(Podcast) Real Science of Sport https://twitter.com/sportsscipod

(Podcast) Where Is George Gibney? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p08njhrm


Niamh Maguire


(Book) Girl Woman Other – Bernadine Evaristo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41081373-girl-woman-other

(TV Show) - Rita https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/70285368


Tom Grinsell


(Documentary) The Wolfpack Insider [Tour de France 2020] https://youtu.be/NOEoqwi9Mls

(TV Show) Queen’s Gambit https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/80234304


Jenny O’Connor


(Book) Actress – Anne Enright https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45993330-actress

(Film) God’s Own Country https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5635086/

(Film) Only You https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81111212


Rob O’Connor


(Film) The Midnight Sky https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/80244645

(Tech) Nintendo Switch https://www.nintendo.com/switch/


Extra Notes:


Desert Island Discs, Bernadine Evaristo https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mrb1

Desert Island Discs, Anne Enright https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dpn1

In our first episode, Niamh Maguire talks with Professor, Senator and Barrister-At-Law Ivana Bacik about gender and the law, and the myriad ways in which law enforces and reinforces gender roles in society.  Is the law gender neutral? If, not, in what ways does the law enforce and reinforce stereotypical gender roles? What, if anything, has changed over the last two decades? Their discussion of the gendered nature of law touches on topical issues including the defence of provocation in criminal law, the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution, gender equality in the legal profession, the 5 C’s holding women back and the 3 G’s that push men forward, gender quotas for electoral candidates, the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2019, Maternity and Paternity Leave for Elected Politicians and a radical feminist analysis of recent changes to the Irish Prostitution law.

A trailer for our forthcoming podcast Engendering Change.