Researcher spotlight

CPC member Athina Vlachantoni celebrated for UN’s Women in Science Day

CPC member, Professor Athina Vlachantoni, is a Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton. In February, she was interviewed by the Southampton Daily Echo as part of the celebrations for the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Set up by the UN in 2015, 11 February marks the annual celebration of the critical role women and girls play in science and technology. The day also recognises that women and girls continue to be excluded from participating fully in science, with women making up less than 30 per cent of researchers worldwide. According to UNESCO data (2014 - 2016), only around 30 per cent of all female students select STEM-related fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in higher education. The aim of marking this day is to help achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, and further realise gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

This year’s theme for Women in Science Day was Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19. Many of our CPC researchers have changed their research focus since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, investigating what the pandemic restrictions have meant for UK families. Covid-19 lockdowns have seen families living in ways never before experienced. For some, more time together seems to have improved relationships between partners and with their children, providing a welcome positive outcome from the crisis. For others, the worry and uncertainty coupled with new caring responsibilities or living arrangements have caused stress, leading to lack of sleep and possible long-term physical and mental health implications.

Professor Vlachantoni has been at the forefront of many of these new studies as a member of CPC and the Centre for Research on Ageing at the University of Southampton. As we have seen earlier in this edition, her research examines the roles of those in the ‘sandwich generation’ - those supporting both children and parents – as well as unpaid carers and how we can support people through longer lives and the intergenerational exchanges that are happening as a result. Below we find out more about her career and what it means to be a woman in science.

Welcome Athina, can you please explain your role?

I am Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton. Gerontology is the study of ageing over the life course, and social policy is about individuals’ and families’ needs in society and how the welfare state can address them. My day-to-day work is a combination of teaching, research and administration. I teach postgraduate students and supervise PhD students.

I work alone and with colleagues to examine key research questions in several areas related to areas like informal care provision, health inequalities, pension protection among minority ethnic groups, intergenerational support and social care.

And I have a number of senior administrative roles, for example I am Director of Programmes for the Department of Gerontology, and also Director of a partnership between Southampton, Brighton and Portsmouth Universities, which awards MSc and PhD scholarships every year.

What do you love most about the work you do?

There are two bits of my work that I really like, and both of them have to do with working with other people. I love working with colleagues, for example in research. Being part of a research team means that the team collectively draws on different people’s strengths, and that’s really rewarding when we are successful. For example, one of the teams I work with was recently awarded a national prize by the Economic and Social Research Council, who fund much of our research, for the impact of our research work on society. This was one of the top three highlights of my career so far. Belonging to a team also helps when we are not successful, because we can reflect on what we can improve together, and come back stronger, whether it is an article or grant rejection. And I love working with students – literally every single time I teach, I am learning something new.

What is it like being a woman in science – and what has changed since you started?

I am a woman in social science, which I think is quite different from being a woman in the natural sciences. I have been part of all-women teams, and part of teams where I was the only woman. I genuinely think that individuals’ personalities and ways of working are more important than their gender.

I think probably the only difference, and it’s a big one, is that I have seen more women openly juggling their work with caring responsibilities, and being more vocal about their rights and challenges. Men do a lot of caring too, but they are less vocal about it, and I think that’s something that has been changing since I started.

I also think that social sciences are far less hierarchical than when I started, there is more space for established views to be challenged, and that’s a good thing.

What advice would you give to any young girl or woman looking to get into the field?

My key piece of advice would be to speak to people who are one step ahead in their career (as opposed to a decade ahead), in order to get different views about what is needed for that next step.

What are the costs and what are the benefits? This is especially important at key points of the life course when one’s career has to be juggled alongside other things, like investing in a relationship, trying for a family or caring for different people in one’s family.

This interview is an excerpt from an article in The Southern Daily Echo, published 11 February 2021.

International Women’s Day 2021

International Women’s Day is an annual celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, held annually on 8 March. The theme of the UN’s International Women’s Day for 2021 was “Choose to Challenge”, representing the need to challenge global gender bias and inequality.

At CPC, we are dedicated to empowering women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to achieve their goals and to highlight research that can improve the lives of women around the world.

From our female-led senior management team, to lobbying policymakers about issues that disproportionately affect women, we hope to balance gender inequality. Issues affecting women do not exist in a vacuum but impact all aspects of our society. By highlighting gender imbalances, we can ensure policymakers are equipped with the knowledge to improve society for everyone.

To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we focussed on the achievements of CPC Director, Professor Jane Falkingham OBE, and CPC’s migration strand joint co-ordinator, Professor Jackline Wahba OBE. Both have been recognised as Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), a prestigious award as part of the British honours system, recognising people who have made achievements in public life or who have committed themselves to serving and helping Britain. Jackline Wahba OBE is a Professor of Economics at the University of Southampton and one of the leading voices on the economics of migration. She was awarded an OBE for services to Economic Policy in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2020.

Professor Wahba has overcome gender barriers to lead in a male dominated subject. Through her ground-breaking research, she has highlighted the contribution of migrants, both in the destination country and also in their country of origin. Her work has been instrumental in shaping the narrative around the positive role of migrants and migration.

Since achieving her PhD in Economics from the University of Southampton, she has remained with the University throughout her academic career, building her scientific standing as well as that of the University’s economics department. Her cutting-edge research on the economics of migration has highlighted the value of skilled migrants to the UK and other nations alongside the vital role remittances play in the well-being of those ‘left behind’. Most recently, Professor Wahba has been working with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Universities UK (UUK), helping them to understand the post-study intentions of graduating international students. This work has helped to refine the measurement of international student migration in government statistics.

In 2020, Professor Wahba was part of a research team from CPC that won the ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize for Outstanding Public Policy Impact. The award recognised the Centre’s outstanding contributions to public policy which have improved estimates of the current and future population of the UK. These improvements have provided national and local policymakers, planners and businesses with better evidence for policies and services.

Since 2012, Professor Wahba has used her expertise as a member of the government’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The MAC is an independent public body that advises the government on migration issues and is sponsored by the Home Office. She has also advised national governments and international organisations, including the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation, the International Labour Organisation, the International Organisation for Migration, the European Training Foundation and the European Commission. She was also recently elected as a member of the Council of the Royal Economic Society.

As well as a professor for the University of Southampton, Jackie is a member of the ESRC Centre for Population Change, a research fellow of the Economic Research Forum (ERF), the Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM) and the IZA Institute of Labour Economics. She is also a member of the Expert Advisory Board for the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.

Jane Falkingham OBE is a Professor of Demography and International Social Policy at the University of Southampton. She is also Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton, and Director of the ESRC Centre for Population Change. She was awarded an OBE for services to Social Science in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2015.

Through her research, Professor Falkingham has changed the discourse on women and older people. Her work has actively highlighted the positive role women play in society as daughters, mothers, partners and employees, as well as demonstrating the often overlooked contribution of older people.

Her work pursues a multidisciplinary research agenda combining social policy and population studies, and spanning both developed and developing countries. Much of it focusses on the social policy implications of population ageing and demographic change, and what this means for the distribution of social and economic welfare.

As well as studying UK population, she is also involved in widereaching international research including projects on ageing and resilience in the slums of Nairobi, poverty and transition in Central Asia and on migration and the wellbeing of children and older people ‘left behind’ in China and South Africa.

Professor Falkingham’s career story is particularly inspiring given the gender and class barriers she has faced; she grew up in a single parent household in a deprived area and has gone on to have an esteemed career, holding leadership roles at a Russell Group university. She spent the first 21 years of her academic career at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She joined the University of Southampton in 2002 as a Professor, becoming Head of the School of Social Sciences in 2010 and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences in 2014. She is a part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Executive Committee as a member of the Economic and Social Research Council, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts. In 2018 she was elected President of the European Association of Population Studies (EAPS). She was President of the British Society for Population Studies between 2015 and 2017.

In 2020, Professor Falkingham and her team from CPC won the ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize for Outstanding Public Policy Impact. The award recognised her work as Director of CPC since 2009, and the Centre’s outstanding contributions to public policy. Much of the research undertaken as part of CPC focusses on issues affecting women – here is a selection of some our recent research:

Gender attitudes and practices among married and cohabiting parents

Compared to married counterparts, cohabitors tend to be more liberal in their attitudes towards gender roles. However, cohabiting households also tend to be less affluent and therefore they often have no choice in how they divide household responsibilities due to expensive childcare or employment conditions.

Teenage pregnancy

Declining rates of teenage pregnancies in England are related to local areas experiencing less youth unemployment, growing Black or South Asian teenage populations, more educational attainment, unaffordable housing, and a lack of available social housing.

Households where the woman is the sole earner are significantly poorer

The ESRC research project ‘Female Breadwinner Families in Europe’ has been shedding light on the economic characteristics of femalebreadwinner couples using data from the Luxembourg Income Study.

Estimating fertility

Fertility is the most important of the three components for determining global population change. Demographers have known for decades that the total fertility rate, a measure used to calculate the number of children a woman would have in her lifetime, has been declining around the world.

Furlough makes couples’ relationships stronger

The UK government’s furlough scheme has allowed many couples the time and flexibility for a better work-life balance, strengthening their relationships.

Covid-19 spells trouble for millions of couples as study finds unemployment damages relationships

Spells of unemployment can damage romantic relationships in both the short- and long- term, and are particularly disruptive for women.

Abortion as telemedicine consultation

During the Covid-19 epidemic, the UK government temporarily approved the use of medication abortion (that is, inducing an abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol pills) at home after a telephone or online consultation with a clinician. CPC researcher Heini Väisänen is part of the team of abortion research experts who have researched that the introduction of telemedicine has been beneficial and should be continued.