As part of this year’s ESRC Festival of Social Science, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies will explore recent research on the occupational aspirations of boys and girls of different ethnic groups.

Panellists with expertise in education, women’s rights and race equality will offer their perspective on the barriers that may prevent those from minority ethnic groups achieving their aspirations and will invite discussion with the audience on their reflections and on ways forward.

Our guests will be treated to a special debut screening of two animations we’ve developed for children, which focus on the ways boys and girls continue to express highly gendered preferences about their future jobs. The animation screening will be followed by a discussion of the challenges in changing the stereotypes and expectations surrounding ‘male’ and ‘female’ work among youth, and different approaches to this.

Omar Khan, Director, Runnymede, the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank.
Heidi Mirza, Professor Emerita, UCL, is a black feminist professor of race equality and women’s rights, and author of works on education and race and gender inequality.
Samantha Parsons, Research Associate, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL, works on adult basic skills, disability and socioeconomic disadvantage.
Lucinda Platt, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology, London School of Economics, and works on ethnicity, migration and inequality.
Esohe Uwadiae, former Education Officer, LSESU, a 2017 LSE Law Graduate. She currently works as a Senior Faculty Administrator for Regent’s University London.
Nik Miller, Chief Executive, Bridge Group, has previously worked in the USA, at the University of Warwick, and was most recently Head of Corporate and Alumni Relations at the University of York.