The construction of masculinities and femininities in the Church of England:the case of the male clergy spouse

The ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of England in 1994 signified great change. The impact of the new priests was well documented, and their integration became the focus of much research in the following years. One important area of change was the altered dynamics of gender identity. New roles had opened up for women, but new identities had also emerged for men. While women priests were a new historical emergence, so too were clergy husbands. This paper will consider the historical construction of masculinities and femininities within the church and will go on to look at this in the context of clergy spouses, specifically focusing on men occupying this role. Some provisional findings, acting as work in progress, will be considered.

Learning from mother nature:exploiting a biological antioxidant for the melt stabilisation of polymers

An overview of the antioxidant role of the biologically active form of vitamin E, α-tocopherol, in polyolefins is discussed. The effect of the vitamin antioxidant on the melt and colour stability of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) is highlighted. It is shown that tocopherol is a highly effective antioxidant that results in superior melt stabilisation of polyolefins particularly when used at much lower concentration than that needed for conventional synthetic hindered phenol processing stabilisers. As with other hindered phenols,α-tocopherol imparts also some colour to the polymer but this is shown to be reduced drastically in the presence of other antioxidants, such as phosphites, or other additives, such as polyhydric alcohols.