Professor Shireen Kanji
Professor - Human Resource Management

Summary

My research addresses inequalities in workplaces, in homes and their many interconnections. I am an expert in how inequalities relate to demographic issues.

Much of my research is situated where gender, work and social inequality intersect. My previous research has analysed gender inequality in organisations, working hours of men and women, the work-family interface, performance appraisal, career choices, self-employment and wellbeing.

Parents’ experiences at work. My research has examined, firstly, women’s participation and exit from work. Secondly, male breadwinners' working hours preferences and actual hours of work. Thirdly, the impact that the care grandparents provide to grandchildren has on the labour force participation of mothers in the UK. I have analysed how becoming a parent or partner differentially affects the transitions of men and women to self-employment and business ownership.

Occupations. I have studied the occupational aspirations of younger workers in relation to the gender mix of occupations and gendered self-concepts in mathematics, the long-lasting impact of precarious work on the wellbeing of younger workers in Germany. Research on occupations and inequality is based on women scientists in the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland and women’s changing occupational status in China (conducted for the Asian Development Bank).

Current research:

• Working hours and paid work participation of older men and women in Europe.
• The experiences of women bankers in Bangladesh.
• Young people's transitions from school to work in developing countries.

My work has been widely reported in national and international media in The FInancial Times, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Wirtschaftswoche, Time Magazine, The Daily Express, ITV News and BBC News. I have appearedtwice on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and on the BBC World Service.

I have undertaken consultancy work for international organisations. For example I was involved in an OECD project on how the school to work transition in Switzerland is gendered, an Asian Development Bank research project on women’s changing occupational status in China and several DFID projects on poverty in Russia. I have also undertaken consultancy work for private organisations including Starling Bank.

I am a Council Member of the British Society for Population Studies and serve on one of the ESRC Grant Assessment Panels. I have served as an evaluation member panel for the Portuguese and Swedish Social Research Councils.

I was a member of the editorial team of Work, Employment and Society from 2010-2013. I am currently on the Editorial Board of Industrial Relations Journal. I joined Brunel Business School in 2019, having previously held posts at the University of Birmingham, University of Leicester, Basel University and the University of Cambridge. I have taught courses on Leadership, Human Resource Management, Statistical Modelling, Research Methods, International Human Resource Management, the Sociology of the Family and Gender and Employment. At Brunel I have designed and tuaght a module on ethics, power and inequality in artificial intelligence in Brunel's new Masters in AI Strategy.

Prior to working in academia, I had a career in international finance

Qualifications

I have an undergraduate degree BSc(Econ) in Economics from London School of Economics, a masters degree in Development Economics from the University of Oxford and PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics

Responsibility

I am head of the HRM-OB Research Group and am the lead for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion area of expertise at Brunel Business School.