Isabel Tavora

Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management

Given that Isabel Tavora has built much of her research around comparative employment policy and gender equality in the workplace, it is little surprise that the impact of the pandemic on both home and working life has become a significant research area for her.

For instance, during the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020 she was part of a team at the Work and Equalities Institute which reviewed the potential impact of the pandemic from a gender perspective.

In particular the research focused on the special measures that were put in place by European governments to protect employment and to assist parents who were unable to work due to school and nursery closures. These arrangements were then examined in terms of the extent to which they supported gender equality.

As Isabel explains: "At the height of the pandemic there was a huge impact for women in terms of increased childcare and many governments introduced policies to support parents. We specifically looked at the impact of the pandemic on working parents, gender equality, flexible work and parental support."

Digital technologies

The pandemic has also had a huge impact on the way we work, and Isabel has also been working with colleagues on supporting a major new £6.5m research centre into the world of work funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) is exploring how new digital technologies are profoundly reshaping the world of work and will produce new evidence for policy makers, businesses, and unions on effective adoption of digital technology, the future of skills requirements and productivity.

Adds Isabel: "The centre will be an essential resource for those wanting to understand how new digital technologies are profoundly reshaping the world of work. Drawing on resources from different academic fields of study, Digit will provide theoretically informed, empirically innovative rigorous analysis and international insights into the impact of digitalisation on work."

Experience of work

Isabel is specifically looking at the impact of digitalisation on the experience of work and how, since the pandemic, hybrid working has become a very important part of this experience.

"We are interested in the equality implications of these digital transformations. Increased home working creates opportunities in future, but also creates risks. Men did become more involved in domestic responsibilities while working from home during the pandemic, but women continued to do a disproportionate share and there is a risk that traditional gender divisions will be reproduced in these new digital ways of working post-pandemic."

Workplace equality

Isabel has long been interested in workplace equality, a passion which dates back to her time working as a career counsellor in a job centre in her native Portugal.

It was while in this role that she became interested in pursuing an academic career, and after completing a Masters in International HR Management and Employment relations in London, she approached Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) about pursuing a PhD.

"I was aware of the academic literature of WEI colleagues such as Jill Rubery and I persuaded them to supervise me in my PhD which looked at the reasons for high female employment levels in the Portuguese workforce."

"Most southern European countries have very traditional gender roles in the workplace but Portugal was an outlier with very high levels of female employment. I was puzzled by this and wanted to understand why employment levels of women had increased to such high levels in a country with a traditional gender culture and without the supportive state policies that you would expect to find in countries with high female employment."

Athena SWAN

Isabel says she became interested in wider inequalities during her time as Chair of the AMBS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

The Athena SWAN Charter is designed to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women across a range of disciplines in higher education and research, and during her time in the role AMBS successfully applied for the Athena SWAN Bronze award which recognised the School's commitment to advancing gender equality.

AMBS worked on a number of initiatives from the creation and expansion of a carers' support fund to new guidelines for inclusive gender balanced events, as well as organising its own awareness-raising and information sessions.

"My experience as chair of this committee has also made me think about how diversity committee and staff networks can be a channel for voice for under-represented employees," adds Isabel.

"Such networks can really complement the role of unions as a voice forum because employees from certain groups might not have the same voice within organisations or even through unions, such as workers from ethnic minorities, particularly women. That is why we are also launching a research project to investigate whether and how staff networks can provide a voice for ethnic minority women."