Helen Norman

Helen's research focuses on fathers and fatherhood, the gendered division of labour and gender inequalities in work, employment and family life.

Her ESRC-funded projects include exploring (i) What influences fathers' involvement in childcare from nine months to eleven years post-birth (2016-17); (ii) Whether and how fathers childcare involvement influences children's educational attainment at primary school - in collaboration with the Fatherhood Institute (2021-23); (iii) The transition to parenthood when working for a Small or Medium-sized enterprise (SME) (2022-25); and (iv) The impact of Covid-19 on early years childcare in England and Wales (2021-22). Helen has also collaborated on several funded international research projects on work and gender inequalities for the European Commission, the United Nation’s International Labour Office, the Korea Labour Institute and the European Trade Union Institute.

Helen is on the academic advisory board for Working Families and for the Department for Business and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as part of their evaluation of Shared Parental Leave, and she is on the editorial board for two academic journals: Work, Employment and Society (2023- ) and Families, Relationships and Societies (2021- ).