Following a welcome and introduction from Professor Emma Rees, Director of IGS, Emma will be in conversation with Professor Ann Oakley, discussing: Housework: from sociology to science, and everything in between. Celebrating 50 years of pioneering sociologist Ann Oakley’s work

We then welcome Q&A to Ann from the audience

This will be followed by Troubling the ‘Waves’: What Shall We Do with Feminisms’ Favourite Metaphor? with Dr Dawn Llewellyn, Associate Professor of Religion and Gender, Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Gill Badrock, an IGS PhD student discusses ‘Same Only Different: Feminism’s Alternative Expression’, followed by Action for Change with Imarn Ayton, Black Lives Matter protest organiser

Q&A will be welcomed from the audience with Dawn, Gill, Imarn and Ann – facilitated by Prof Emma Rees

Ann Oakley is a writer and a sociologist. She has written both novels and many non-fiction books. Most of her life has been spent working in university research. She is best known for her work on sex and gender, housework, childbirth and social science.

She is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the UCL Social Research Institute, and until January 2005 was Director of the Social Science Research Unit (SSRU) at the Institute of Education, where she also headed the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre). She holds an honorary appointment as a Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford. In 2011 the British Sociological Association gave her one of their first Lifetime achievement Awards for her extraordinary contribution to the history of the development of sociology in Britain. She now works on research part-time, and spends the rest of it writing, swimming and spending time with her family and friends.

Her non-fiction publications include (among many more!): Forgotten Wives: How Women get Written Out of History (2021); The Ann Oakley Reader: Gender, Women and Social Science (2005); The Captured Womb: A History of the Medical Care of Pregnant Women; Taking it Like a Woman (1984); Women Confined: Towards a sociology of childbirth (1980); From Here to Maternity: Becoming a Mother (1979); Housewife (1974)and The Sociology of Housework (1974).

Dr Dawn Llewellyn is an Associate Professor in Religion and Gender at the University of Chester and has published on women’s religious reading practices, the relationship between religion and gender, feminist generations, research methodologies, and motherhood and voluntary childlessness. She is currently completing (contracted with Bloomsbury) Motherhood, Voluntary Childlessness, and Christianity: Narratives of Choice that explores Christian women’s reproductive choices to have children or to be childfree, and the impact this has on their religious, gendered identities.

Gill Badrock is a PhD student in the University’s Institute of Gender Studies. Gill is a mature student who is committed to making a difference. Her interdisciplinary project is the culmination of her experience as a feminist in navigating several careers, often working in male-dominated environments.

Imarn Ayton is a 30-year-old South Londoner who came to prominence during the Black Lives Matter protest on the 31st May 2020, further to organising several protests including Saturday 6th June with 20,000 people in attendance. Imarn has become motivational speaker and Racism ‘Thought Leader’ in the process and has been globally recognised due to extensive media coverage.

Emma Rees (she/her) is Professor, and Director of the Institute of Gender Studies, University of Chester. She is author of The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History (Bloomsbury); editor of Palgrave’s (Re)presenting Gender Series; and editor of the Routledge Companion to Gender, Sexuality, and Culture.

Open to staff, students and visitors of all genders.

This event is in-person only and will not be live streamed.