Professor Sarah Childs
BA(Sus), MA(York), PhD(Kingston)
Professor of Politics and Gender
Women's political participation and representation; British politics and political parties; attitudes and behaviour of women representatives; ceremony and ritual in Parliament; feminist and democratic theory.
| Office location: | 2.02, 34 Tyndalls Park Road |
| Postal address: | 10 Priory Road Clifton Bristol BS8 1TU |
Telephone: (0117) 331 0835 (Internal: 10835)
Fax: +44 (0)117 331 7500
Email: s.childs@bristol.ac.uk
Career
Part-time lecturer at Middlesex University, 1999-2000 and 1994-96; at London Guildhall University, 1999-2000; Lecturer at Middlesex University, 2001-03. Lecturer at Bristol from 2003, Senior Lecturer from 2005. Professor of Politics from 2009.
Research
My research centres on the relationships between sex, gender and politics. It is concerned, both theoretically and empirically, with questions of women's descriptive, symbolic and substantive representation.
I have written extensively on women's political representation in the UK since 1997, especially the feminization of British political parties, not least under New Labour, women's political recruitment to the House of Commons, and the substantive representation of women ('acting for' women). My latest book, Women and British Party Politics, was published in 2008 by Routledge.
Current research projects include a three year project on 'Gender and the Conservative Party' (funded by the ESRC) and 'Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament' (funded by the Leverhulme Trust).
List of publications (links to IRIS publications database)
Teaching
I am currently on research leave until 2010. When not on research leave, and in addition to introductory politics units, I teach a final year gender and politics unit. I am keen to supervise research students and post-doctoral students in women's political representation, broadly defined.