Gemma Williams
Prior to joining 探花直播鈥檚 Centre for Social Care, Health & Related Research (CSCHaRR), Gemma worked within the public sector and Higher Education in various research/evaluation positions. Her research & evaluation areas included: the effectiveness of accredited offender groupwork programmes, the experiences of women and BME offenders under probation supervision, and the impact of 探花直播鈥檚 Preventing Violent Extremism Strategy. Gemma also has knowledge of policy and process around issues such as sponsorship, governance and integrity, with a specific focus and expertise in research ethics (including NHS ethics).
Gemma joined CSCHaRR initially as Research Assistant in October 2017, before moving to Research Fellow in January 2020. She is currently undertaking her PhD (part time), focusing on menstrual equity and chronic health.
Gemma鈥檚 main research areas are 鈥榩eriod poverty鈥� and menstrual health. She has successfully led/co-lead a number of funded research projects within these areas, including:
- Situational analysis of girls鈥� experiences of menstruation in the UK and policy and programmatic responses to this (Plan International UK, 2022)
- 鈥楶eriods in a Pandemic: how UK period poverty initiatives are mitigating Covid-19 related challenges鈥� (ESRC/UKRI, 2020-2022)聽
- 鈥楲et鈥檚 Talk.Period鈥� menstruation learning briefs (Plan International UK, 2019)聽
- 鈥業nclusivity in Femtech: how women living with chronic health conditions use period tracking apps鈥� (Clue, 2019)
In recognition of her research and expertise around period poverty and menstrual health, Gemma was invited to be part of the Government Office for Equalities 鈥楶eriod Poverty Taskforce鈥� in 2019. The aim of the taskforce is to 鈥渢ackle stigma and education around periods, alongside accessibility of period products.鈥�
Gemma leads the 鈥楪ender Inclusivity in Research鈥� Special Interest Group, which is a is a cross-discipline, cross-BCU research group, aiming to create a more inclusive, intersectional and accessible research environment for all (Gender Inclusion in Research Special Interest Group - School of Health Sciences | 探花直播 (bcu.ac.uk). She also co-leads the HELS Faculty 鈥�Gender, Family & Health鈥� Research Cluster (Gender, Family and Health - School of Health Sciences | 探花直播 (bcu.ac.uk)).