Research in focus: Yue Qian

Name:

Yue Qian

My pronouns:

she/her

Title:

Associate Professor

Faculty/Department/Unit:

Arts/Sociology

Location:

Vancouver

Year I started working at UBC:

2016

Provide an overview of your research in 75 words or less:

My research will address the pressing question: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the course of gender progress? I examine inequality at the intersection of gender, family and work. My work explores: how couple dynamics in intimate relationships reflect and shape gender inequality in broader society, and how social and mental health inequalities manifested and evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What first motivated you (or motivates you) to conduct your research?

I grew up in Wuhan (the initial COVID-19 epicenter), so I felt deeply connected to this city. As a researcher, I felt that the least I could do to help people in my hometown was to understand their pandemic experiences. I was fortunate to obtain grant support to conduct this research, along with my fantastic collaborators Drs. Wen Fan and Amy Hanser.

What do you hope will change as a result of this research?

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic was especially pronounced for women and has been referred to as a 'she-cession'. In particular, the dramatic changes to mothers’ employment have stirred broad concern that the “pandemic threatens to wipe out decades of progress for working mothers.” I hope my research will shape evidence-based policies and initiatives to promote a gender-equitable COVID-19 recovery.

Are there any research collaborators you'd like to acknowledge and why?

I started my COVID-19 project focusing on Wuhan and later expanded it to various collaborative projects with researchers around the world, hoping to understand the social and mental health impacts of COVID-19. My main collaborators include Drs. Wen Fan (Boston College), Amy Hanser (UBC), Sylvia Fuller (UBC), Yang Hu (Lancaster), Jill Yavorsky (UNC Charlotte), Rebecca Glauber (UNH), Yu Xie (Princeton), Yongai Jin (Renmin University of China), and Cary Wu (York), among others.

Learn more:

https://sociology.ubc.ca/profile/yue-qian/