Insights – the Understanding Society podcast

Our digital lives and our wellbeing

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:06:03 GMT

This episode looks at our increasingly digital lives and how they affect our wellbeing. Our guests this time are Dr. Daniel Wheatley, Reader in the Department of Management at the University of Birmingham, and Abigail Coxon, principal Economist at the Youth Futures Foundation.

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Breathing unequal air in the UK

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:24:30 GMT

In this episode, host Chris Coates looks at air pollution and in particular how common is it for immigrant populations to live in more polluted areas. His guests are Tobias Rüttenauer, Assistant Professor in Quantitative Social Sciences UCL and L’myah Sherae, Director of Enact Equality, a non-profit organisation which campaigns for racial justice and equality in the UK.

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Pets and life satisfaction

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:20:33 GMT

In this first episode of our new season, host Chris Coates looks at the link between pets and life satisfaction, and how it’s possible to put a monetary value on the benefit of having a cat or dog. His guests are Adelina Gschwandtner, a senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Kent, and Ashleigh Brown, Scientific and Policy Manager at RSPCA.

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Studying for a PhD at ISER

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:36:42 GMT

In this episode we’re looking at the some of the people who use the data we gather. Chris talks to Cara Booker, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research where Understanding Society is based, about studying for a PhD and what to do with the doctorate once you’ve got it.

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Families and benefit cuts

Tue, 20 May 2025 08:45:42 GMT

In this episode, we discuss how families are affected by benefit cuts and fluctuating incomes, with Gabriele Mari, assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Sara Ogilvie, Director of Policy, Rights and Advocacy at the Child Poverty Action Group.

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The housing crisis

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:59:32 GMT

The housing crisis – a simple question of too much demand and not enough supply, or is there more to it? With Rory Coulter, Associate Professor in Human Geography at University College London, and Kevin Garvey, Head of Member Relations at the National Housing Federation.

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Arts and wellbeing

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:38:22 GMT

What is the relationship between the arts and our mental health? Are they good for our mental health, or are happier people more likely to engage in the arts? The guests for this episode are Hei Wan (Karen) Mak, a senior research fellow in epidemiology and statistics at UCL and Nicky Goulder, CEO of Create, which puts on creative workshops in schools, day centres, prisons, and hospitals.

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Education and gender roles

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:31:50 GMT

Do education levels affect gender roles in UK households? Do men with degrees do more childcare and housework? With guests: Barbara Okun, Professor of Demography in the Sociology Department and Demography Division at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dr Sara Reis, Deputy Director and Head of Research and Policy at feminist economics think tank the Women’s Budget Group.

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Our future care needs

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 09:18:55 GMT

In our first episode of 2025, we look at the future care needs of an aging population in the UK, with Taha Bokhari and Abby Jitendra from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who have written a report about what our ageing population means for care, work, our benefits system and our communities.

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Job mobility and the gender pay gap

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 11:20:08 GMT

In this episode, we discuss the effects of parenthood on job mobility and what this means for the gender pay gap with Dr. Silvia Avram, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, and Alesha De Freitas, Head of Policy, Research and Advocacy (at time of recording) at the Fawcett Society.

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Being part of Understanding Society

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 09:19:36 GMT

In this episode, one of our participants, Neil, talks about what it’s been like to be part of Understanding Society right from the beginning. What does it mean for him, and what changes has he seen in life and society since joining our predecessor, the British Household Panel Survey, in 1991?

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Muslims, Covid, and mental health

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 12:05:12 GMT

In the first episode of a new series of Insights, Chris Coates discusses changes in the mental health of Muslims in the UK during the pandemic with Miqdad Asaria, Assistant Professor of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who has researched this, and Maaria Mahmood, Director of the Muslim Youth Helpline.

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Survey response rates during Covid

Fri, 31 May 2024 09:23:49 GMT

In this episode, we’re looking at methodology. Pablo Cabrera Alvarez, a Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, talks about survey response rates and what happened to Understanding Society during the Covid pandemic, when interviewers couldn’t get to see participants face to face.

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Housing and ageing

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 09:32:42 GMT

In a new episode of our quick-listen one-to-one podcasts, Dr Amy Clair from the Australian Centre for Housing Research talks to Chris Coates from Understanding Society about research which suggests that private renting can age you faster than being unemployed or smoking.

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Pregnancy and early childhood data

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:28:37 GMT

In a new episode of our one-to-one podcasts, Edith Aguirre, a senior research officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, talks to host Chris Coates about Understanding Society’s ‘PEACH’ file. This brings our data on children under 10 together with data on pregnancy and child development, to help researchers study family dynamics.

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Coastal communities

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:06:37 GMT

Emily Murray, Director of the new Centre for Coastal Communities at the University of Essex, joins host Chris Coates to talk about the work of the new centre, and her research into the challenges and opportunities of living by the sea

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Boomerang movers

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:33:19 GMT

Emily Grundy, a Professor in the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, and Toby Murray, from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, discuss the trend of ‘boomerang’ movers – adult children who move back in with their parents, and what it means for wellbeing

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Loneliness and mental health

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 09:29:48 GMT

What can data tell us about loneliness and its links with poorer mental health? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Discussing this with host Chris Coates are Ann-Marie Creaven from the University of Limerick, and Isabel Taylor from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

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Religion and mental health

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 10:37:02 GMT

Ozan Aksoy, Associate Professor in social science at the Social Research Institute at University College London, and Malcolm Brown, Director of Faith and Public Life at the Church of England, discuss research which shows that attending religious services more frequently was associated with higher wellbeing.

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Climate change: attitudes and policy

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:56:08 GMT

Ting Liu, a social statistics PhD student at the University of Manchester, who is investigating attitudes toward climate change risk and carbon emissions, and Helena Bennett, Head of Climate Policy at the Green Alliance think tank, discuss what data can tell us about how we think about climate change, and what’s next for government policy?

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Housing, wealth and inheritance

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 10:36:10 GMT

Rory Coulter from University College London and David Sturrock from the Institute for Fiscal Studies join Catherne to talk about housing, wealth and inheritance – what does research tell us, and what does it mean for government policy?

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Who answers panel surveys every time, and who doesn’t?

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 09:49:42 GMT

Nicole James, Survey Data Officer at Understanding Society, and a PhD Student in Survey Methodology at the Institute for Social and Economic Research says understanding survey attrition helps make sure our sample is representative. Her paper on the subject was published in the Survey Research Methods journal.

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Flexible working

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 09:32:54 GMT

Cara Booker, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Essex, discusses flexible working, and what it might mean for how men and women share childcare and housework

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How do we respond to government ‘stimulus payments’?

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 10:01:25 GMT

Insights is a podcast from Understanding Society, a study that captures life in the UK in the 21st century. Understanding Society is a longitudinal survey. Every year we ask each member of thousands of the same households across the UK about different aspects of their life. The Insights podcast explores how our data has been used, looking at what we found, what it tells us and what we can learn from it. This episode features Dr Paul Fisher, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Essex, and Associate Director of Understanding Society, talking about how governments can potentially boost the economy with stimulus payments.

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The cost of living crisis

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 12:55:44 GMT

Understanding Society is a longitudinal survey. Every year we ask each member of 1000s of the same households across the UK about different aspects of their life. In each episode of this series, we're exploring how our data has been used in a key area. We'll look at what we found, what it tells us, and what we can learn from it.

In this episode, we're looking at cost of living, who has been hit hardest? And what can government do about it? Here to discuss this are Hamish Low, the James Meade Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, and Rebecca McDonald, the chief economist of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which works to solve poverty in the UK.

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Our physical environment

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 17:27:57 GMT

Understanding Society is a longitudinal survey. Every year we ask each member of thousands of the same households across the UK about different aspects of their lives. In each episode of this series, we're exploring how our data has been used in a key area. We'll look at what we found, what it tells us and what we can learn from it.

In this episode, we're looking at how the physical environment in which you live can significantly affect your well being and in turn your life. Our guests are Dr. Sarah Knight from the University of York, Professor Brendan Burchell from Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Graham Duxbury, Chief Executive of Groundwork, a charity that seeks to empower communities through environmental action.

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Our ageing population

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 12:47:17 GMT

Welcome to Insights, a podcast from Understanding Society. The study that captures life in the UK in the 21st century, Understanding Society is a longitudinal survey. Every year we ask each member of thousands of the same households across the UK about different aspects of their lives.

In each episode of this series, we're exploring how our data has been used in a key area. We'll look at what we found, what it tells us and what we can learn from it. In this episode, we're discussing how the experience of ageing in England and other parts of the UK is changing, and for many worsening. Our guests this week are Dr. Matt Barnes, senior lecturer in sociology at City University London, Jemma Mouland, Deputy Director for Research Impact and Voice at the Centre for Ageing better, and Stephen Pudney, professor of econometrics at the University of Sheffield, and Understanding Society's topic champion for ageing and social policy.

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Working from home, commuting and transport policy

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 18:55:50 GMT

Understanding Society is a longitudinal survey. Every year we ask each member of thousands of the same households across the UK about key areas of their life.

In each episode of this series we’re exploring how our data has been used in a key area. We’ll look at what we found, what it tells us and what we can learn from it.

In this episode we’re looking at the tension between commuting and working from home – and how the two combined have affected and should continue to affect transport policy moving forward.

Here to discuss this are Dr Daniel Wheatley from the Department of Management at the University of Birmingham, Dr Kiron Chatterjee, Professor of Travel Behaviour at the University of the West of England and Pete Dyson, Principal Behavioural Scientist at the Department for Transport.

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Romance fraud

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:38:54 GMT

Understanding Society is a longitudinal survey that captures life in the UK in the 21st century. Every year we ask each member of thousands of the same households across the UK about different aspects of their life.

In each episode of our Insights podcast series we’re exploring how our data has been used in a key area. We’ll look at what we found, what it tells us and what we can learn from it.

In this episode we’re looking at romance fraud – where people are deceived for financial gain by someone they thought they were in a relationship with. Our guests this week are Dr David Buil-Gil (a Lecturer in Quantitative Criminology at the University of Manchester), Róisín Ryan-Flood (Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship at the University of Essex) and David Gillies (Prevent and Protect Fraud Officer for Essex Police).

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Inequality in the UK

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:00:52 GMT

In this episode series host, Catherine McDonald, is joined by Jeevun Sandher, an economist from King’s College London; Xiaowei Xu, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Mike Brewer, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Economist at the Resolution Foundation. They discuss the geographical inequalities in the UK, how government spending shapes inequality and poverty, and how the UK became such an unequal society.

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Understanding data processing

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:54:53 GMT

Once the survey data is collected, how does it become a dataset ready for researchers to use? Associate Director for Data, John Payne, talks about the processes needed to turn survey responses into anonymised data.

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Understanding weighting

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:50:12 GMT

Weighting is a vital part of population studies, allowing researchers to ensure that the data they use in analysis is representative. In this podcast Survey Statistician, Dr Olena Kaminska, explains why weights are important and how weights are created.

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Understanding data collection

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:46:26 GMT

One the sample is chose and the participants are ready, how does Understanding Society develop the survey that's going to be sent out. How are the questions chosen? Who gets to complete their survey online and who gets a face-to-face interview? In this podcast Director of Innovation, Professor Annette Jackle, talks about the development of data collection.

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Understanding survey participants

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:40:03 GMT

Our participants are a vital part of Understanding Society - without them there would be no study. In this episode Dr Violetta Parutis, Assistant Associate Director of Surveys, talks about how Understanding Society engages with participants, both during their annual interview and in sharing the wider research that comes from the Study data.

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Understanding interviewing

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:34:59 GMT

In this podcast Understanding Society's Associate Director for Surveys, Dr Jonathan Burton, explains the interview process. He talks about how face-to-face interviewing and online surveys work, and how Understanding Society is delivered in the field. As a household panel study, Understanding Society interviews everyone in a household - Jonathan about the different sample members and why interviewing everyone is so important.

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Understanding survey sampling

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:28:58 GMT

Who goes into the Understanding Society sample and why?

In this short podcast, Professor Peter Lynn, Director of Survey Methods, explains how the original sample for Understanding Society was selected and how the study ensures that the sample is representative of the UK population. He also talks about the sample for the Covid-19 survey and the role of boost samples in a longitudinal study.

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Building Understanding Society - from surveys to data

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 14:10:36 GMT

In this final episode of season 3 of our podcast series we take a closer look at Understanding Society itself. How do we turn survey responses into data for research? How do we select who takes part in the survey? And what makes household panel data so useful for researchers and policymakers? Series host, Catherine McDonald, talks to the people who design and implement Understanding Society - taking the survey from methodological testing, through fieldwork and data processing, to ending with the anonymised dataset.

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How have the pandemic related school closures affected our children?

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 10:00:10 GMT

In the sixth episode of our podcast series, we look at how the COVID19 school closures have affected our children – and their parents. Series host Catherine McDonald speaks to Professor Birgitta Rabe from the Institute for Social and Economic Research about her work comparing the mental health of those children who were invited to return to school in June 2020 with those who weren’t. Catherine’s second guest is Tom McBride, Director of Evidence at the Early Intervention Foundation, who explains why research such as this is so important for policy and practice.

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How are relationships - between couples and within families - changing?

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 10:00:35 GMT

In the fifth episode of our podcast series, we look take a look at how relationships are changing. Series host Catherine McDonald speaks to Professor Brienna Perelli-Harris, Understanding Society’s Topic Champion for Families, about her research on partnerships, marriage and fertility trends using our main dataset and our COVID19 survey. Catherine’s second guest is Dee Holmes, Senior Practice Consultant from the relationship support charity, Relate, who assesses the extent to which Brienna’s research is reflected in what she sees ‘on the ground’.

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Does volunteering make young people more likely to vote?

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 10:00:33 GMT

In the fourth episode of our podcast series, we look take a look at the role of social action in civic participation. Series host Catherine McDonald speaks to Dr Stuart Fox from Brunel University about his research looking at whether volunteering makes young people more likely to vote in their first election. Catherine then moves on to talk to Victoria Harkness, Head of Research and Evaluation at the National Citizen Service Trust about the Trust’s experience of young people and their levels of civic participation.

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Public health and the COVID-19 pandemic

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 10:00:01 GMT

In the third episode of our new podcast series, we take a look at the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Series host Catherine McDonald speaks to Professor Meena Kumari, Understanding Society’s Topic Champion for Health and Biomarker research and to David Finch, Assistant Director in the Healthy Lives directorate at The Health Foundation. Together they discuss Understanding Society’s COVID-19 survey and The Health Foundation’s COVID-19 Impact inquiry. They look at what the pandemic has highlighted with regard to the social determinants of health and they share their biggest fears as we move out of the initial clutches of COVID-19.

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Universal Credit: How is it faring as a benefit system?

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 10:00:04 GMT

With the topic area of income and expenditure for the second episode in our new podcast series, we take a look at Universal Credit – how it’s designed, how it compares to the old benefits legacy system and the effects it has on people’s lives. Series host Catherine McDonald speaks to Tom Waters, Senior Research Economist from the Institute for Fiscal Studies about research that used Understanding Society data to take a longitudinal look at Universal Credit. With first-hand experience of supporting people on Universal Credit, Kayley Hignell, Head of Policy for Families, Welfare and Work at Citizens Advice, responds to the research and shares her view on how one of the biggest benefit reforms in UK history is playing out.

You can read Tom’s research here via the Understanding Society publications library.

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Who carried the work burden during COVID-19?

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:00:54 GMT

In the first episode of our new podcast series, we look at employment and the experience of working-class women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Series host Catherine McDonald speaks to Professors Tracey Warren from Nottingham University Business School and Clare Lyonette from Warwick Institute for Employment about their project Carrying the Work Burden of the COVID-19 pandemic: working class women in the UK. Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women’s Budget Group and co-collaborator on the project also joins to explain the motivation for the research and the ways in which their findings are serving as vital evidence in the case of building back better with increased gender equality.

The research project’s website can be found here.

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Why sample size matters

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:04:46 GMT

Dr Olena Kaminska talks about why sample size matters when researching hard to reach sub-sections of the population and why Understanding Society offers not just great data but some innovative and original opportunities to research previously ignored groups.

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What makes a boomeranger? Moving back in with mum and dad

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:03:34 GMT

Anne Berrington talks about what makes young adults return to live with their parents.

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Just how much is a university degree worth?

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:02:19 GMT

Professor Adeline Delavande talks about research which uses the Understanding Society Innovation Panel to examine the perceptions of parents and children of the financial value of gaining a degree.

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Sexual orientation and poverty

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:01:03 GMT

Dr Noah Uhrig discusses ground-breaking new research commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation exploring the links between sexual orientation and poverty.

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Life satisfaction and ethnicity

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:59:25 GMT

Dr Gundi Knies talks about new research exploring the links between ethnicity, neighbourhoods and life satisfaction.

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Predictors of wellbeing

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:58:21 GMT

Jenny Chanfreau from NatCen discusses research undertaken for the Department of Health on predictors of well-being.

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Balancing the books: managing financial wellbeing in later life

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:57:00 GMT

David Hayes from the Personal Research Finance Centre at the University of Bristol talks about a joint programme of research with the International Longevity Centre UK which uses Understanding Society to look at the financial wellbeing of people in later life.

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Living with sight loss

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:55:46 GMT

NatCen analyst Chris Lord explains the benefits of utilising Understanding Society in third sector research projects such as this project by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

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Does how we live influence how we sleep?

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:54:31 GMT

Dr Graham Law from the University of Leeds talks about new research published in the Open Journal of Epidemiology which uses Understanding Society to examine the links between the composition of households and how well and how long we sleep.

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Getting online - are older people included

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:53:08 GMT

Are older people getting online and are they included? Age UK researcher Marcus Green looks at the evidence.

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Being a dad in 21st century Britain

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:51:41 GMT

Eloise Poole from NatCen talks about findings from the ESRC-funded study Fathers, work and families in twenty-first century Britain, which uses Understanding Society to explore fathers' role as breadwinners and parents in the UK and Europe.

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Being green - what we think and do when it comes to the environment

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:50:13 GMT

Professor Peter Lynn from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex talks about early findings from the ESRC funded project, The distribution and dynamics of UK citizens’ environmental attitudes, behaviours and actions.

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Can video gaming be good for young people?

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:45:52 GMT

Dr Andrew Przybylski from the Oxford Internet Institute talks about research on the effects of video gaming on children’s behaviour and development.

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Poverty triggers and household change

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:42:02 GMT

Professor Nick Buck, former Director of Understanding Society, discusses two pieces of research using the study to look at movements in and out of poverty and household change.

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White flight and the rise of UKIP

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:36:02 GMT

Professor Eric Kaufman from Birkbeck College, University of London, discusses his research making use of the BHPS and Understanding Society to look at White Flight and discusses what his findings tell us about the apparent rise of UKIP.

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Biomarkers and genetic data

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:31:52 GMT

Professors Michaela Benzeval and Meena Kumari give a short introduction to the Understanding Society biomarker and genetic data.

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Our health and the environment we live in

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 09:59:06 GMT

In this episode of the Understanding Society Podcast we are looking at the relationship between chronic stress markers, health, and deprived areas. Lucy Prior (University of Bristol) takes us through her research into this relationship between deprivation and negative health outcomes, and her use of Understanding Society data.

Topics Covered in This Episode:

The need for the paper.
How Lucy was using biomarkers to look at the mechanism that underlies the connection between deprivation and health through chronic stress.
What the ‘stress pathway’ is, and how your environment contributes to this stress pathway and ultimately affects your health.
The biological mechanism at work that links where you’re living and how that affects your health.
How Lucy linked geography with the data to look at levels of deprivation in different areas.
What constitutes a ‘deprived’ area?
The findings of the paper, and how physical health versus mental health are affected.
Were there any surprises in the study?
What would Lucy do differently if she were to tackle the study again? And her advice for anyone using the Understanding Society Study data in their research.

Guest contributor

Lucy Prior

Lucy is a Research Associate in Quantitative Methods in Education, currently working on an ESRC Standard grant on new school league table research and methods for measuring school performance. She is also interested in health geography, particularly in investigating relationships of neighbourhood deprivation with overall health and well-being, and the exploration of health pathways related to stress exposure. Her research draws on life-course and biosocial theories and employs quantitative techniques, such as multilevel modelling, to expose health and place relationships.

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The impact of working hours and job security on long term health

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 08:44:43 GMT

In this episode of the Understanding Society podcast, we explore the effect of our jobs and job security on our health and wellbeing. Our host Emma Houlton introduces two interviews. The first, with Professor Tarani Chandola (University of Manchester), focuses on the relationship between working hours and work-life balance and our health. The second conversation is with Dr Claire Niedzwiedz (University of Glasgow), who is studying the relationship between financial security and physical health.

Topics covered in this episode:

Who the researchers are, and what their studies have found
Are flexible working conditions really better for employees?
How does the blurring of boundaries between work and home life affect people?
The use of biomarkers from Understanding Society
Tarani Chandola talks about the challenges of collecting stress markers, and the correlates used in his study
Both researchers talk about the surprises they found during their studies, and how our assumptions about our work life measure up to their findings
Is the rise of working from home and freelancing a good thing?
How children play into work-related stress
The policy and research implications of these papers
Claire Niedzwiedz takes us through the effect of secure employment, unemployment, and the threat of unemployment, on physical health
How biomarkers change over time in response to these changes in job security

Guest contributors

Professor Tarani Chandola

Tarani Chandola is a Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Manchester. His research is primarily on the social determinants of health, focusing on health inequalities and psychosocial factors, and the analysis of longitudinal cohort studies. Much of his research is on the social determinants of health with a focus on stress at work, and its psychophysiological effects on health. He is a research leader on the topic of work and health, with two of his papers in the top 10 most cited studies on the topic of work stress. His h-index of 53 (Google Scholar, October 2018) and 44 (Scopus, October 2018) was achieved within 20 years of his DPhil from over 120 peer reviewed papers in peer reviewed journals. His research expertise spans different disciplines- population and public health, epidemiology, social statistics and sociology- and different methodological approaches. He has had leadership and advisory roles within international research organisations, government departments and academic bodies.

Tarani was the head of the Department of Social Statistics (2012-2014) at the University of Manchester and the director of the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (2014-2016). He is currently a co-director of two Economic and Social Research Council funded centres: the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM: www.ncrm.ac.uk) and the International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health (ICLS: www.ucl.ac.uk/icls). He also co-directs the SOC-B: the Social-Biological Centre for Biosocial Research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and is a member of the Economic and Social Research Council's Strategic Advisory Network.

Dr Claire Niedzwiedz

Claire Niedzwiedz's research focuses on understanding the social and political determinants of population health and health inequalities. She joined the Department of Sociology in July 2016 as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Quantitative Sociology, working with Professor David Stuckler. Claire is particularly interested in exploiting natural experiments which involve changes in the political environment and their impact on health and health inequalities.

Claire completed her PhD in Public Health at the University of Glasgow, which examined the relationship between welfare regimes and socioeconomic inequalities in wellbeing among older people across Europe. After completing her PhD she undertook postdoctoral research at the Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH) based at the University of Edinburgh. This research included studies examining inequalities in mental health, wellbeing and loneliness across Europe and ways in which these might be reduced. Claire also has a background in Physiology and previously worked for the NHS as a health analyst.

About Understanding Society

Understanding Society is the largest longitudinal study of its kind - around 40,000 households have contributed to the Study, and their data leads to research which informs policy, shaping the future of the UK.

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Gender Equality - the pay gap and beyond

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 17:14:27 GMT

In this first episode of Season 2 of the Understanding Society podcast we are talking to the four panellists from Understanding Society’s presentation and discussion of headline findings from their 2018/19 report. Fran Bennett (University of Oxford), Monica Costa Dias (Institute for Fiscal Studies), Sam Smethers (Fawcett Society), and Helen Wright (923jobs.com) explore findings and ideas surrounding the gender pay gap in the UK, and what can be done to close it.

Topics covered in this episode:

- Why does the gender pay gap still exist?

- The complicated factors and causes of the discrepancy in pay between men and women.

- Women’s attitude towards pay and career progression, including returning to work after having children.

- Monica Costa Dias outlines the key research and figures surrounding the gender pay gap in the UK.

- Fran Bennett talks about the effect of social security, Universal Credit in particular, on women in relationships and single mothers.

- How Universal Credit’s incentives and rebates can work against women looking to enter part-time work and pay for childcare.

- Helen Wright takes us through her experiences as a mother looking to enter part-time work and finding a lack of opportunities, which led to the founding of her part-time recruitment agency 923jobs.

- What changes can be made to the job market and working attitudes to close the pay gap.

- How changing and improving the physical and social infrastructure of the UK can make a huge difference for women.

The Panellists

Fran Bennett

Fran Bennett works in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford as a senior research and teaching fellow, with a focus on social policy. She is also an active member of the Women's Budget Group. Fran has a particular interest in social security policy, gender issues, and poverty, income distribution and participation.

She is also an independent consultant, and has written extensively on social policy issues for the UK government, NGOs, and others. With Prof Jonathan Bradshaw, she is one of the UK team of independent experts in the European Social Policy Network for the European Commission.

Fran chairs the editorial board of the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, having been a co-editor. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an associate of its international advisory group.

Monica Costa Dias

Monica is an Associate Director at the IFS and a Research Economist at the Centre for Economics and Finance, University of Porto. Her research interests are mainly on Labour Economics and the Economics of Education, with a focus on the determinants of individual and household choices, including human capital investments, labour supply and intra-household allocation of resources, and their consequences for inequality and the evaluation and design of tax and welfare policies

Sam Smethers

Sam joined the Fawcett Society in August 2015 as Chief Executive. Prior to that she was the Chief Executive of Grandparents Plus for over six years. Sam is no stranger to equalities and gender issues having worked for both the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. She also served as a Fawcett trustee between 2007 and 2010, was a trustee of Gingerbread for seven years and has nine years’ experience working in Parliament. Sam is passionate about equal representation, valuing and sharing care and closing the gender pay gap. She has made a big impact already and focused on creating a brilliant team, driving forward an intersectional approach to our work and devising an exciting programme to mark 100 years of women's suffrage.

Helen Wright

Prior to having children, Helen worked as a broadcast journalist for the BBC and ITV, followed by 18 months running her own media training company. She has a degree in History from Durham University, and a Diploma in Journalism from Cardiff University. After her career break Helen found herself surrounded by talented professional women who, like her, were having trouble getting back into the labor market due to a lack of flexible working positions. As a result, Helen founded 923jobs, a recruitment agency that specialises in placing high quality professionals into jobs with flexible hours.

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