Research interests

All aspects of gender and the labour market, including women's career choices and constraints; gender roles and gender equality; the division of domestic labour and childcare; atypical working, flexible working arrangements and new ways of working; the quality of part-time work; motherhood, fatherhood and social class differences; work-life balance, work-life conflict and wellbeing; also the employment transitions of military veterans. I am interested in supervising research students with these or related research areas.

Academic profile

I joined the Institute for Employment Research in February 2009. I use both qualitative and quantitative data in my research, focusing specifically on working time, work flexibility, gender issues within the labour market and work and family issues, as well as employment among military veterans and their partners. Since joining IER, I have led on a variety of projects in these and related areas, including recent work on self-employment among military veterans, employment barriers for military spouses and partners, a literature review on family-friendly policies, workforce issues among educational psychologists, among others. I have supervised research students examining work-life balance issues for women in Nigeria; the career progression of hospitality workers in Malaysia; and formal and informal flexible working arrangements within the finance sector in the UK. Current students are examining ICT usage and its impact on work-life enrichment; a skills training programme among Chinese women; and the use of emotional labour among frontline benefit workers in the UK.

Current and recent projects

• Identification of factors affecting successful outcomes in the DDU-GKY Indian skills programme for unemployed young people. Funded by ESRC. Project Start Date: 3/10/2018 - Project End Date: 02/10/2020 [details]
• Public engagement research for the SPF UK Population Laboratory. With Peter Elias and Erika Kispeter. Funded by ESRC. Project Start Date: 01/11/2018 - Project End Date: 31/05/2020 [details]
• Study on the wider benefits of completing a degree. With Wil Hunt, Heike Behle, David Owen, Beate Baldauf, Daria Luchinskaya and Gaby Atfield. Funded by Department for Education. Project Start Date: 22/10/2018 - Project End Date: 30/06/2021 [details]
• What motivates employers to offer family-friendly policies? With Beate Baldauf. Funded by the Government Equalities Office. Project start date: 18/06/2018 - Project End Date: 25/06/2018 [details]
• Research on job quality and the purpose of work. With Chris Warhurst (PI) and Sally Wright. Funded by the CIPD. Project start date: 03/2017-06/ 2017. [details]

All projects

Selected publications

Warren, T. and Lyonette, C. and the Women's Budget Group. (2021). 'Carrying the work burden of the Covid-19 pandemic: working class women in the UK'.

Sarkar, S., Chakravorty, B. and Lyonette, C, (2020). "Social Identity and Aspiration - Double Jeopardy or Intersectionality? Evidence from Rural India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 724, Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Beck, V., Fuertes, V., Kamerāde, D., Lyonette, C. and Warren, T. (2020) ‘Working Lives' in M. Parker (ed.) Life after Covid: the other side of the crisis. Bristol University Press.

Warren, T. and Lyonette, C. (2020) 'Ungrateful slaves? An examination of job quality and job satisfaction for male part-time workers in the UK';. British Journal of Sociology 71 (2): 382-402.

Lyonette, C. and Baldauf, B. (2019) Family-friendly working policies and practices: Motivations, influences and impacts for employers. London: Government Equalities Office. (full report)

Lyonette, C. and Baldauf, B. (2019) Family-friendly working policies and practices: Motivations, influences and impacts for employers. London: Government Equalities Office. (summary report)

Lyonette, C., Atfield, G., Baldauf, B. and Owen, D. (2019) Research on the educational psychologist workforce: research report. Department for Education (March).

Lyonette, C., Barnes, S-A, Kispeter, E., Fisher, N. and Newell, K. (2018, June) 'Military spousal/partner employment: Identifying the barriers and support required', Army Families Federation. [view report]

Warren, T. and Lyonette, C. (2018) ‘Good, bad and very bad part-time jobs for women? Re-examining the importance of occupational class since the ‘great recession’ in Britain’. Work, Employment and Society. Vol. 32(4) 747–767.

Lyonette, C., Barnes, S-A., Owen, D., Fisher, N., Newell, K., Kapur, R. and Wing, M. (2018) Self-employment among the Armed Forces Community. Forces in Mind Trust.

Lyonette, C., Hunt, W. and Baldauf, B. (2017) Occupations and skills of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Graduates. British Academy.

Warhurst, C., Wright, S. and Lyonette, C. (2017) CIPD Research Services: Job Quality Study. Report 1 – Thematic Literature Review. CIPD.

Lewis, S., Anderson, D., Lyonette, C., Payne, N. and Wood, S. (2017) ‘Public sector austerity cuts in the UK and the changing discourse of work-life balance'. Work, Employment and Society, 31 (4): 586-604.

Lyonette, C. (2015) ‘Part-time work, work-life balance and gender equality’, The Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 37 (3): 321-333. The abstract is available.

Warren, T. and Lyonette, C. (2015) ‘The quality of part-time work’, in Felstead, A., Gallie, D. and Green, F. (eds) Unequal Britain at Work, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

All publications

All conference presentations

Professional membership

• British Psychological Society (1994 to date)
• British Sociological Association (2010 to date)
• European Sociological Association (2011 to date)

Other professional activities

• Member of the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology Work-life balance Working Group (2009 to date)
• Elected editorial board member for Work, Employment and Society (January 2011- January 2014)
• Elected Associate board member for Work, Employment and Society (January 2017- December 2019).