A Postgraduate research student in comparative social policy and advanced quantitative methods has won the 2016 Doctoral Researcher Prize (DRP). The prize is jointly awarded on an annual basis by the Journal of European Social Policy and ESPAnet, the European Social Policy Analysts network.
Social Sciences researcher Helen Kowalewska is the 12th person to win the prize, which was first awarded in 2006. As the DRP winner, her paper will be published in the first issue of the Journal in 2017.
Helen’s paper takes stock of the labour market activation policies of 22 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, evaluating the extent to which these policies support gender equality.
Entitled: “Beyond the ‘Train-First’/‘Work-First’ Dichotomy: How Welfare States Help or Hinder Maternal Employment”, it is based on detailed empirical analysis to determine policy configurations of 22 countries. It also makes the point that, after decades of feminist critique, a lot of academic analysis remains gender blind.
Commenting on her achievement, Helen said:
“I am delighted to have been awarded this prestigious prize. It not only gives me the valuable opportunity to be published in a top international journal, but increases the visibility of my work across the wider social policy academic community. Plus, the feedback I have received has vastly improved my PhD.
“I hope that, by exposing some of the gaps in the labour market and family policies for working mums, my research can contribute to shaping a more women friendly policy agenda in the future.”
Helen’s research is funded by the Doctoral Training College (DTC). She has recently written a blog post about her paper, which you can read here.
