Meet Gaby Deschamps, our new Browaldh Assistant Professor

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What inspired you to pursue a career in research?

 “I grew up in Mexico, a beautiful country with deep inequalities. As a young girl, I quickly realized the stark differences in women’s and men’s activities, expectations and lives, and I became quite passionate about the topic. 

At 18, I had no idea what I wanted to study. I enjoyed mathematics but also cared about social issues, so my father suggested economics as a way to combine the two. I studied at ITAM, in Mexico City, and the first few years were a struggle: I found the introductory classes abstract and hard to connect to the real world. It wasn't until I took more advanced courses, like development economics and other electives, that I started to see how economics could speak to the issues I cared about.

At that time, I didn't know that becoming an academic was a possible path. Most people around me became lawyers, doctors or consultants. It was one of my professors, Levent Ülkü, who introduced me to the idea and encouraged me to pursue a PhD. I went on to do my master's and PhD in economics at the London School of Economics, where I started working on family economics, gender and development, topics that have always been close to my heart."

What does your research focus on, and what drives your interest in these questions?

"My research focuses on understanding the causes of gender inequality, mostly in developing countries. I'm especially interested in what happens inside the family. Many important decisions are made within the household: who does the childcare and domestic work, and who stays in the labor market. These decisions shape women's economic independence and, ultimately, their wellbeing and safety.

What draws me to these questions is that they feel deeply personal. In so many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, women still do not have the same opportunities as men, and in many cases, they are not even safe in their own homes. I believe economics can make a real contribution, both by helping us understand the causes of these inequalities and by identifying policies that can reduce them.

More specifically, my research so far falls into two broad themes: intimate partner violence and how couples allocate their time. Without planning it, both have centered on the transition into motherhood, which brings big changes in household dynamics.

In my work on violence, I ask why mothers face a higher risk of violence from their partners: is it because some men become violent when they become fathers, or because mothers find it harder to leave abusive relationships? My paper "Motherhood and Violence" studies this question in Mexico.

My second line of research, joint with Amory Gethin, Camille Landais and Gabriel Leite-Mariante, focuses on time use. Together with the Centre for Time Use Research at UCL, we are building a new global database of time-use surveys covering more than 60 countries, which will be openly available to other researchers. In our first paper, we use it to study how the birth of a first child changes the way mothers and fathers spend their day, not only in paid work, but across all 24 hours."

How can your research help us better understand issues in society today?

"One insight from my work on intimate partner violence is the role of separation in shaping women's exposure to violence. I find that leaving an abusive partner is a strong protective factor for women. So whenever we see a change in the share of women reporting violence, it could reflect a change in men's behavior within couples, or a change in women's ability to leave. In Mexico, for example, my research suggests that mothers are more exposed to violence not because their partners are more violent, but because they are less likely to leave. This matters both for how we interpret the evidence and for designing effective policies.

Turning to time use: having a child transforms how mothers spend their day, while fathers' days change little. What surprised us is that much of this shift comes from housework, not only from caring for the baby. This suggests that policies to support mothers’ employment, which often focus on childcare, may also need to address the burden of everyday chores."

Is there anything within your field of research that we still know surprisingly little about?

“So much! Intimate partner violence is difficult to study, mainly because it happens in private. The data we have come either from administrative records, like police or hospital data, which capture only the tip of the iceberg, or from surveys in which women report their own experiences. Survey answers are very sensitive to how questions are asked and to how comfortable women feel talking about such a difficult topic. Although the literature has made a lot of progress in recent decades, it is still relatively young, and many questions remain open: why violence happens in the first place, how it evolves over time, and what can help women leave these relationships.”

What will you be working on here, and what are you most looking forward to?

"I am starting two new projects on intimate partner violence. The first is about prevention: together with Nilmini Herath, I am designing a research agenda on preventing violence among adolescent boys in South Africa. The second will look at the link between intimate partner violence and social isolation, and I am really excited to work on it with Sanna Bergvall. I will also continue my work on time use. I am particularly interested in understanding the huge differences across countries in how much time women spend on domestic work.

Above all, I am looking forward to joining this research community, working with new colleagues, and enjoying life in this beautiful country."

• Gaby Deschamps' research page
• Contact Gaby Deschamps