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. Her research career has been recognised 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 day on which we highlight 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 is 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. 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 lifecourse, 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-3 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 lifecourse 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.

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You can find out more about CPC's women scientists at the forefront of Covid-19 research on our dedicated Covid-19 research web pages. Here you will find the latest links to all of our related research, publications and media coverage.

Further reading

Media
Women in Science Day: Celebrating Southampton's female scientists, Daily Echo, 11 February 2021
Belief and passion – key advice from women in science, University of Southampton News, 11 February 2021
Why the 'sandwich generation' is so stressed out, BBC Worklife, 29 January 2021.
Centre for Population Change wins ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize, Centre for Population Change News, 12 November 2020
Coronavirus lockdown caused sharp increase of insomnia in UK, The Guardian, 2 August 2020

CPC Publications
Changing living arrangements and family conflict in lockdown, CPC Policy Briefing 58, September 2020
Who’s been losing sleep during lockdown?, CPC Policy Briefing 55, July 2020
Lockdown strength or lockdown stress? The effects of pandemic restrictions on family relationships, Changing Populations. Issue 7, January 2021
Caring in the time of Covid-19, Changing Populations. Issue 6, June 2020
The generation game – is it fair? Changing Populations, Issue 5, January 2020
Social participation and health outcomes among carers in Great Britain, CPC Policy Briefing 47, April 2019
Informal caring in mid-life and its economic consequences, CPC Policy Briefing 46, April 2019
CPC Director launches House of Lords Select Committee report on tackling intergenerational unfairness, CPC News article on House of Lords Select Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision on ‘Tackling intergenerational unfairness’, April 2019
Who cares? Continuity and change in the prevalence of caring, and characteristics of informal carers, in England and Wales 2001- 2011, CPC Working Paper 68, August 2015

Publications
Changing living arrangements, family dynamics and stress during lockdown: evidence from four birth cohorts in the UK, SocArXiv, 8 September 2020
Sleepless in Lockdown: unpacking differences in sleep loss during the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, medRxiv, 21 July 2020
Informal care provision across multiple generations in China, Cambridge University Press, 25 April 2019
Caught in the middle in mid-life: provision of care across multiple generations, Ageing & Society, 8 February 2019
Intergenerational flows of support between parents and adult children in Britain, Ageing & Society, 2 November 2016

Posted 11/02/2021 12:22