Professor Caroline Gatrell FBAM, FAcSS

My research centres on work, family and health. From a socio-cultural perspective, I examine how working parents (both mothers and fathers) manage boundaries between paid work and their everyday lives.

In so doing I explore interconnections between gender, bodies and employment. In theorising the body work undertaken by women who are combining pregnancy/new motherhood and paid work, and drawing upon the sociological concept ‘abjection’ (or disgust), I have devised the term ‘Maternal Body Work’. This notion articulates mothers’ experiences of combining aspects of maternity (for example breastfeeding), with the comportment of their maternal bodies at work

I have, further, developed the concept 'Pregnant Presenteeism' to articulate tendencies among pregnant employees to continue working while unwell.

I am presently focusing on the topic of fathers, employment and the work-family interface, having gained a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2018 - 2019.

With Rt Rev Dr Nigel Peyton, I am also exploring the experiences of senior women in the Church of England, following policy changes whereby women clerics may be appointed to the role of Bishop.

.