Emily Yarrow

“I’ve always had an interest in inequality, specifically in organisations. I have a corporate background, and my entire previous education was in management and in business. Prior to my PhD, I really saw how women continue to be disadvantaged in organizations, in a multitude of ways, and that's something that I feel passionate about. I’d like to contribute to positive change and contribute to understandings of how to make organisations more equitable, as well as inclusive.”

“Several years ago, my PhD looked at the effects of the REF on women's academic careers, I mean that’s so pertinent, even today as we speak and as the REF results come out tomorrow. As a follow-on from that research, my colleague Professor Julie Davies at University College London (UCL) and I carried out research looking at work that women were involved in, in terms of impact, with impact being an increasingly important element of the Research REF that's increasing over time and that we anticipate will further increase. What we found is that women are significantly underrepresented in terms of impact case studies, but also that their work around impact appears to be not only undervalued, but that it's also underfunded and under supported in comparison to their male peers. We analysed 395 REF impact cases for business and management studies and found that only 25 per cent were led by women, of which 54 per cent were sole authored; women management scholars were disproportionately under-represented in leading impact cases and this pattern still appears to continue in many parts of the sector. Of course, that's something that warrants further investigation.

As such, we call for university leaders to be proactive in addressing barriers that fail to support or recognize women's leadership of research impact. You can read more about this research here. And in terms of the Covid 19 project, we already know that homeworking, hybrid-working, the various lockdowns, home-schooling, have all had not only a negative effect on pretty much everyone in society, but women in particular and people who have care responsibilities, for example, as well. The Covid-19 project that I'm working on with Professor Matthew Brannan, is a Newcastle University Business School funded project where we're looking at workers in hospitality and retail, specifically their return to work after having had Covid-19. That’s also an area where we know that women are, in certain elements of that sector, overrepresented. So, we're interested in exploring what that return to work looks like after a potentially life-threatening illness, and what that means for people in the longer term in terms of their employment, but also in terms of labour market policy and we're currently carrying out the interviews for that. Essentially, the strand that runs through my work is this inherent, and indeed fervent interest, in how inequalities not only are maintained in society but further perpetuated despite legislative changes and despite wider societal awareness of inequality, as well. I’m interested in bringing people’s lived experiences of organisational life and inequality to the fore to drive positive social change.”

“There are potentially huge financial, as well as health and wellbeing consequences for many people, as well as significant ableist rhetoric around easing of restrictions.” As part of her role as an editor on the editorial board for the academic journal Gender, Networking and Organization, Emily is also involved in a gender network, which aims to tackle intersectional inequalities in higher education, governance and evaluation by encouraging global and more inclusive collaborations. Emily told me how those collaborations could look like in the future. “This gender network is a brand-new network that's just been launched a couple of months ago. The idea is to bring scholars from around the world together – so not just from Europe or North America or Australasia, but really from all around the world –, to create synergies and understandings as to what the impact of research, evaluation and governance in higher education around the world look like. The network is really starting to grow and aims to be globally inclusive. For the Gender, Work and Organization Conference, which is occurring later this year, both online and in Bogota in Colombia, the first aim is really to have sort of a Roundtable session, an open discussion to try and better understand what some of the key issues are that women are facing around the world in terms of their lived experiences of higher education, and indeed research evaluation. Because of an increased appetite from universities around the world in evaluation and indeed rankings, we are seeing this global trend toward an increased use of metrics, an increased state appetite in several regions for research evaluation as well. About the future and the future of work in the academy, we know that this is something that's going to become increasingly important so we're starting those conversations with the hope of beginning several research projects, as well as providing rich and diverse insights into how to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion.“