Dr Mariam Abouelenin

Mariam’s research explores gender inequalities in employment, work, and family life with a specific focus on the Middle East and North Africa. A large portion of her work assesses how different forms of capital — economic, cultural, and social — intersect to influence power relations within families and labour market inequalities. Her PhD work provided insights into the mechanisms that maintain and (re)produce gender inequalities in contemporary Egypt during key life stages such as adolescence, marriage, and parenthood.

More recently, she has extended her research to include Western contexts, specifically examining the experiences of women and children within the family justice system in England. Her current ADR-ESRC UK funded work explores how teenage mothers interact with the family justice system. It investigates the patterns of their repeated court appearances and their risk of having parental rights terminated via adoption. This project utilises a new data-sharing collaboration between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), developed as part of the MoJ’s Data First Programme.

Mariam joined the School of Education, Communication & Society in 2024. Before this, she worked as a research associate at the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research.  

Research interests

• Life course
• Research methods
• Gender and work in MENA 
• Family and social justice 

PhD Supervision

Mariam is happy to co-supervise projects related to her research interests, especially those using quantitative methods