Rate My Professor Jennifer Tomlinson

Jennifer Tomlinson is Professor of Gender and Employment Relations in the Leeds University Business School, where she serves as Head of the People, Work and Employment Department and Faculty Lead for Athena Swan. She holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Leeds, an MA in Sociology (with distinction) from the same university, and a BA (Hons) in Arts and Social Studies from Leeds Metropolitan University. Following an ESRC postdoctoral research fellowship in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds (2003-2004) and a Lectureship in Sociology at the University of Manchester (2004-2005), she joined Leeds University Business School in 2005 and was promoted to her current professorial position in 2013. She is a CIPD academic member.

Her research examines patterns of gender and inequalities in work, economies, and societies, with specializations in occupational gender segregation, part-time work, flexible careers across the life course, and work-life balance. She utilizes qualitative methods, secondary analyses of surveys and official datasets, and cross-national investigations, contributing to employment relations, management, human resources, social policy, and intersectionality theory. Notable publications include 'Flexible careers across the life course: Advancing theory, research and practice' (Human Relations, 2018), 'Female part-time managers: networks and career mobility' (Work, Employment and Society, 2010), 'Structure, agency and career strategies of white women and black and minority ethnic individuals in the legal profession' (Human Relations, 2013), and 'Women's work-life balance trajectories in the UK' (British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 2006). Tomlinson led a report on women returners and occupational gender segregation for the Department for Trade and Industry, which informed the Women and Work Commission's 'Shaping a Fairer Future,' and co-authored 'Mapping advantage and disadvantage: diversity in the legal profession in England and Wales' (Solicitors Regulation Authority, 2017). She has supervised six PhD students to completion on topics such as work-life balance and equality in professions, and currently oversees researchers on gender talent management and pay gaps. She teaches modules including Gender and Equality at Work in Comparative Perspective and Human Resource Management.