RESEARCH NETWORK
OUR RESEARCH
Here you can find out more about our current workstreams and developing areas of interest or scroll down to access publications from theme researchers and case studies of completed projects. We would also love to hear ideas for how you could work with us and what research questions are important to you, so why not get in touch?
Our current work is divided into 6 interlinking work streams:​​
Maternal
Health
Reducing miscarriage and maternal morbidity and mortality using high quality clinical trials, innovative implementation research approaches, with the aim of influencing policymakers and healthcare practitioners to implement and scale up effective and sustainable solutions.
led by Prof Arri Coomarasamy
Barriers Within and Into Work
Achieving equality for women and girls in access to education and meaningful employment. Addressing issues in the labour market including access to decent jobs, earnings, and career progression, and how these are influenced by background and environmental factors.
led by Dr Christian Darko
Improving sexual and reproductive rights across the world through the identification and challenge of legal, political, cultural, social, and economic barriers and inequalities of access to health services and supporting the introduction of laws to protect reproductive autonomy.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
led by Dr Atina Krajewska
Understanding how citizenship and political systems are gendered, and learning lessons from women, particularly in African LMIC countries, who have mobilised to secure more equitable representation and stronger participation in public life and institutions.
Women's Political Rights & Participation
led by Dr Kate Skinner
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Developing novel quantitative approaches for the study of gender inequality, especially aspects that are hard to measure directly, such as sexual violence or inequality in home production. Using cutting edge tools for causal inference to understand what drives reductions in gender inequalities.
Quantitative Approaches to Gender Equality
led by Dr James Rockey
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​Alongside our established work streams above, we also have a number of developing research topics, listed below. We would be really excited to hear from researchers, stakeholders, existing or potential partnership organisations and funders who might be interested in working together on:
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Respectful maternity care
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Gender equality over the life-course
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Understanding ‘hard to observe’ aspects of gender inequality
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Changing attitudes to sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights (especially miscarriage and abortion) and service provision
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Women’s experiences of migration and incarceration
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Traditional, indigenous, and cultural knowledge and gender roles
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The changing role of technology in gender-based violence (in causation, reporting, access to justice or survivor support)
FUNDED PROJECTS
We offer small pots of funding once or twice a year to seed-corn fund innovative ideas (advertised in our newsletter and in Opportunities). Find out more about the most recent projects here.
In April 2023, Prof Heather Flowe launched a new report into domestic abuse and suicidality, which was commissioned by the West Midlands Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner and funded by the Home Office. The Gender Equality theme supported the report and its launch which saw police chiefs, officers, and charities and third sector organisations come together to commit to improvements for survivors of abuse. Click the image to download the report.
Welcome to Dr Rowland Seymour, who has joined the Gender Equality theme as part of the Quantitative Approaches to Gender Equality workstream. Rowland is interested in using modelling techniques to better understand human rights abuses and has recently been mapping FGM risk in the UK. This has led policy influence and questions tabled in Parliament. Rowland has also blogged about the work here. Rowland and colleagues are also organised a Data Science Sandpit on 21st April. The work was funded by University of Birmingham's School of Mathematics and data collection was supported by South Yorkshire Police. Click image to download.
In April 2022, we supported Dr Sandra Pertek and Dr Irina Kuznetsova with seed-corn funds to begin working with people fleeing the escalating war in Ukraine as an important extension of the well-established SEREDA project. Their report on this work, "Not a single safe place": The Ukrainian refugees at risk of violence, trafficking and exploitation, is available here to read and download.
We expect this small-scale project to lead to further important work on the experiences and ongoing dangers for women and children affected by war in Ukraine. Click the image to download the report.