Dr Ellie Lee

Reader in Social Policy

School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research

E.J.Lee@kent.ac.uk
01227 827526

Location:
Room 106
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Cornwallis North East
Canterbury , Kent, CT2 7NF

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I am a Reader of Social Policy at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. See the rest of the Social Policy team.

I have written numerous articles on health-related issues, including abortion, reproductive technologies, infant feeding, post-natal depression and men’s health. I am the author of Abortion, Motherhood, and Mental Health: Medicalizing Reproduction in the US and Britain (Aldine Transaction 2003) and my articles have appeared in journals including Sociology of Health and Illness, Health, Risk and Society and Reproductive Health Matters.

I am the Director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies, based in SSPSSR. I’m also the Co-ordinator of the Pro-Choice Forum, Director of the Institute of Ideas and I frequently discuss my research in the media, read more here or see my activity tab.

In 2007, I gave evidence to the parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee on women's need for abortion after the first trimester.

My research and teaching draws on constructionist theories of social problems and sociological concepts such as “risk consciousness” and “medicalisation” to analyse the evolution of family policy and health policy.

My longest standing research area is abortion policy and service provision and, more recently, I have developed research projects about parenting. My work explores why everyday issues, for example, how mothers feed their babies, turn into major preoccupations for policy makers and become heated topics of wider public debate.

Career

I joined SSPSSR as a member of staff in 2004, having researched my PhD thesis in the late 1990s as a student in the Centre for Women’s Studies in the school. From 2000 to 2004, I was a lecturer at Southampton University and then a research fellow there working on a study about teenage pregnancy and abortion.

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Publications

Abortion, Motherhood and Mental Health: Medicalizing Reproduction in the U.S. and Britain.^[23] New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2003.

Reviews

‘Lee’s readable and meticulously researched book offers a strikingly original perspective on a important and timely debate’. (Feminist Legal Studies)
‘This book will be of interest to sociologists of medicine as yet another finely detailed examination of the seemingly relentless march of medicalization.....Lee’s analysis cogently illustrates the power of cultural sanctioning to shape our understanding of life events’. (American Journal of Sociology)
‘Ellie Lee’s study on the medicalization of abortion and motherhood is an intriguing look at.....the selective designation of reproductive events as causes of metal illness.....beyond her focus on reproduction, Lee’s book is an essential read for those interested in how mental illness becomes located in common life events and the motives that fuel this process’. (Contemporary Sociology)
‘[This book] is ideal for students of societal change who recognize how medical terminology affects our conceptualization of reproduction and everyday life. It is also an important source of information about abortion and policy making in the Britain and the United States. It will add much to any professional library’ (Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health)
‘By contrasting post-abortion syndrome with postnatal depression, Ellie Lee provides a fascinating ad excellent interrogation of modern day abortion and motherhood within the United States and Britain’. (British Medical Journal. Three star rating out of possible three stars)

Journal articles

Lee, E. 2011. 'Breast-feeding advocacy, risk society and health moralism: a decade's scholarship'. Sociology Compass.
Lowe, P. and Lee. E. 2010. 'Under the Influence? The Construction of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in UK Newspapers'. Sociological Research On line 15 (4) 2.
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/15/4/2.html>
Lowe, P. and Lee, E. 2010. 'Advocating alcohol abstinence to pregnant women: Some observations about British policy'. Health, Risk and Society 12(4): 301-312.
Lee, E., Macvarish, J. and Bristow, J. 2010. 'Editorial: Risk, health and parenting culture'. Health, Risk and Society 12(4): 293-300.
Lee, E. and Ingham, R. 2010. 'Why do women present late for abortion'. Best Practice and Research in Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology 24: 479-489.
Lee, E. 2008. 'Living with risk in the age of 'intensive motherhood': Maternal identity and infant feeding'. Health, Risk and Society 10(5): 467-477.
Ingham, R., Lee, E., Clements, S.J. and Stone, N. 2008. 'Reasons for second trimester abortion in England and Wales. Reproductive Health Matters 16(31 Supplement): 18-29.
Lee, E. 2007. 'Health, morality, and infant feeding: British mother's experiences of formula milk use in the early weeks'. Sociology of Health and Illness 29(7): 1075-1090.
Lee, E. 2007. 'Infant feeding in risk society'. Health, Risk and Society 9(3): 295-309.
Lee, E. 2006. 'Medicalizing Motherhood'. Society 43(6): 47-49.
Lee, E. 2004. 'Young women, pregnancy and abortion in Britain: a discussion of law 'in practice''. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 18 (3): 283-304.
Lee, E. 2003. 'Tensions in the Regulation of Abortion in Britain'. Journal of Law and Society, 30 (4): 533-553.

Chapters in edited collections

Lee, E. 2011. ‘Infant feeding and the problems of policy’. In P. Liamputtong (ed.) Infant Feeding Practices: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Springer, New York. Pp. 77-94.
Lee, E. 2010. ‘Abortion in the Twentieth Century in England’. In H. Montgomery and L. Brockliss (eds) Children and Violence in the Western Tradition. Oxford, Oxbow Books. Pp. 97-104.
Lee, E. 2010. ‘Pathologising fatherhood: the case of male Post Natal Depression in Britain’. In S. Robertson and B. Gough (Eds) Men, Masculinities and Health: critical perspectives. Basingstoke, Palgrave. Pp. 161-177.
Lee, E. and Bristow, J. 2009. ‘Rules for Infant Feeding’. In S. Day Sclater, F. Ebtehaj, E. Jackson and M. Richards (eds). Regulating Autonomy, Sex reproduction and the family. Oxford and Portland, Hart. Pp. 73-92.
Lee, E. and Frayn, E. 2008. ‘The Feminization of Health’. In D. Wainwright (ed). A Sociology of Health. London, Sage. Pp. 115-132.
Lee, E. ‘Abortion’. In P. Cane and J. Conaghan (eds) The New Oxford Companion to Law. Oxford, OUP. Pp1-2.
Lee, E. 2007. ‘The abortion debate today’. In H. Biggs and K. Horsey (eds). Human Fertilisation and Embryology: Reproducing Regulation. London, Routledge Cavendish. Pp. 231-250.
Lee, E. 2005. ‘Women’s Need for Abortion in Britain’. In K. Wellings and A. Glasier (eds) Contraception and Contraceptive Use. London, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Press. Pp. 33-43.
Lee, E. 2003. 'Psychologising abortion: women's 'mental health' and the regulation of abortion in Britain'. In A. Morris and S. Nott (eds). 2003. Well Women: The Gendered Nature of Health Care Provision. Aldershot, Ashgate. Pp. 61-78.
Lee, E. and Jackson, E. 2002. 'Regulating the Pregnant Body'. In E. Lee and M. Evans (eds). Real Bodies. Basingstoke, Palgrave. Pp. 115-132.
Lee, E. 2001. 'Post-abortion syndrome: reinventing abortion as a social problem'. In J. Best (ed.). How Claims Spread, The Cross-National Diffusion of Social Problems. New York, Aldine de Gruyter. Pp. 39-68.
Lee, E. and David, H. 2001. 'Abortion and its Health Effects'. In J. Waller (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Gender. New York, Academic Press. Pp. 1-14.

Research reports

Lee, E. and Furedi, F. 2009. ‘Review of the effectiveness of the controls on infant formula and follow-on formula, Literature Review’ published by the Food Standards Agency (89 pages).
Ingham, R. and Lee, E. 2008. ‘Evaluation of Early Medical Abortion Pilot Sites’ published by the Department of Health (132 pages).
Ingham, R., Lee, E., Clements, S. and Stone, N. 2007. ‘Second Trimester abortions in England and Wales’ published by University of Southampton (73 pages).
Lee, E. and Furedi, F. 2005. ‘Mothers’ experience of, and attitudes to, the use of infant formula for feeding babies’ published by SSPSSR (93 pages).
Lee, E., Clements, S., Ingham R., and Stone, N. 2004. ‘A Matter of Choice? Explaining National Variation in Teenage Abortion and Motherhood’ published by Joseph Rowntree Foundation (68 pages, ISBN 1-85835-181-6).

Teaching resources

Teenage Sex: What Should Schools Teach Children? 2002. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Designer Babies: Where Should We Draw The Line? 2002. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Alternative Medicine: Should We Swallow It? 2002. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Abortion: Whose Right? 2002. London: Hodder and Stoughton
Compensation Crazy: Do We Blame and Claim Too Much? 2002. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Research interests

I began my research career in the late 1990s. Based in the Women’s Studies Centre at Kent University, I researched a PhD thesis that considered the development and effects of the claim made by those who oppose legal abortion that many women suffer from a “post abortion syndrome” after they terminate a pregnancy.

I was intrigued by this claim because it seemed to suggest that a moral argument (that abortion is wrong) had given way to an apparently medical argument (that abortion makes women ill). I wanted to know why this had happened and whether this sort of argument against abortion had influenced abortion law and policy-making.

I completed my PhD in 2000, but this work led me on a journey in the following couple of years that encompassed comparative analysis of the abortion issue in the US and Britain; an investigation of what has been termed “the syndrome society”; and a consideration of the ways in the emotional effects birth and the early stages of parenthood have been “medicalised’.

I became more and more influenced by social constructionist sociology, in particular by what has been termed “contextual constructionism”, and persuaded by the insights this approach offers for understanding social problems and the development of policy.

The outcome of this work and thinking was published in 2003 as Abortion, Motherhood and Mental Health: Medicalizing Reproduction in the U.S. and Britain (Aldine Transaction), but I have carried on thinking and writing about the issues discussed in it in the subsequent years. I have more recently researched and written about social problems including ‘late’ and ‘early’ abortion, assisted conception, maternal and paternal mental health, infant feeding, and alcohol and pregnancy.

Current

In 2007 I decided, in collaboration with colleagues in SSPSSR, to try and develop a research network concerned with the way “parenting” has been constructed as a social problem in Britain and in many other countries. This has turned into an energetic and energising project, leading us to establish the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies, based in SSPSSR in 2011.

My research for now will continue to focus on “parenting culture” and I am interested in initiating/collaborating on work about any of the following themes:

The medicalisation of parenthood
Risk consciousness and parenting culture
Gender and parenting: the “intensification” of fatherhood
The management of emotion in pregnancy and parenthood
The politics of parenting culture
The policing of pregnancy and reproductive choices
The moralisation of parenting practices.

Research projects

Assessing Child Welfare under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act: the new law (ESRC funded)

The research team includes Dr Ellie Lee, Professor Sally Sheldon and Dr Jan Macvarish from the University of Kent.

Infant feeding in the age of “intensive parenthood”

The first phase of this project involved a study of mothers' experiences of infant feeding (funded by IDFA). Read a summary of research findings here or the full report here.

The second phase comprised a conference held at the University of Kent in May 2007. Read more here.

The third phase (on-going) is a socio-cultural study of the historical evolution of the infant feeding problem.

Past research projects

The Construction of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) in British Newspapers (British Academy funded, with Pam Lowe, Aston University).

Outputs of the study to date include papers given at the British Sociological Association annual conference, the “Mother Wars” conference, and the ESRC seminar series Changing Parenting Culture, and articles published in Health, Risk and Society and Sociological Research Online.

Changing Parenting Culture (ESRC funded, seminar series)
Read more here.
'Late' abortion in England and Wales
Read more here.
‘A Matter of Choice? Influences on young women's decisions about abortion or motherhood’ (funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
Read more here.

Supervision

If you want to research any aspect of social or policy developments related to reproductive health, motherhood or parenting, and want to study at the University of Kent then get in touch.

I have built up experience through doing a number of studies about policy developments on these areas, and about people's experience of making choices about these aspects of their lives. This means I have a lot of experience in qualitative research.

Current

I teach the following modules: