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Professor Tessa Wright

Tessa

Professor of Employment Relations Director of Research Ethics, SBM

Email: t.wright@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 7472
Room Number: Room 4.25f, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

Profile

Role:

Biography:

Tessa has been conducting research on equality and discrimination at work for many years. Her interest in equality and diversity started while working for the labour movement, as a researcher and editor at the Labour Research Department, and developed while undertaking EU-funded and commissioned research projects at the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University. She joined the staff of the School of Business and Management in 2011, having completed her PhD at the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity at Queen Mary.

Tessa’s research has focussed on the barriers to and levers for achieving equality and diversity in male-dominated sectors, particularly construction, transport and firefighting. She has recently completed an ESRC-funded project on advancing employment equality through public procurement, Buying Social Justice through Procurement, publishing the final report on the website in November 2023. She is continuing to promote the toolkit for including equality and diversity in procurement produced by the project. 

Teaching

Undergraduate:

  • BUS349: Gender at Work (not teaching in 2021-22)

Research

Research Interests:

Tessa’s research has covered the experience of women, ethnic minorities, migrant workers and lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in the labour market and workplace, as well as the intersection of multiple identities. She has published on the intersections of gender, sexuality and class in male-dominated work, in journals such as Work, Employment and Society and Gender, Work and Organization, and in a monograph, Gender and sexuality in male-dominated occupations: women working in construction and transport, published in 2016 by Palgrave Macmillan.

Tessa has undertaken research on trade union action to address inequality at work and has worked with a number of trade unions. She was commissioned by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) to write a report on The Impact of the Future of Work in Public Transport for Women examining women’s experiences in five cities in the Global South. With Sian Moore and Phil Taylor she researched and wrote a history to mark the centenary of the Fire Brigades Union, Fighting Fire: One hundred years of the Fire Brigades Union, published in 2018 by New Internationalist.

She has a continuing interest in gender and employment in transport and was invited to produce guidance and training for the Transport Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) on incorporating gender into transport project proposal. She is currently editing a book (with Lucy Budd and Stephen Ison) on Gender, Work and Transport to be published in Emerald’s Transport and Sustainability series in 2022.

She recently completed an ESRC-funded project "Buying social justice" through procurement: An examination of the use of public procurement for advancing employment equality in UK construction, with Hazel Conley, Katharina Sarter and Joyce Mamode. The project ran from 2021 to 2023, examining the use of public procurement for equality objectives by local authorities, housing associations and universities in England, Scotland and Wales. 

 

Centre and Group Membership:

 

Publications

Books

  • Wright, T., Budd, L. and Ison, S. (2022) Women, Work and Transport, Emerald Transport and Sustainability series Vol. 16.

  • Moore, S, Wright, T. and Taylor, P. (2018) Fighting Fire: One hundred years of the Fire Brigades Union, Oxford: New Internationalist.

  • Wright, T. (2016) Gender and sexuality in male-dominated occupations: women workers in construction and transport, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Wright, T. and Conley, H. (eds) (2011) Gower Handbook of Discrimination at Work, Farnham: Gower Publishing.

 

Journal articles

  • Wright, T. (2023) Using Procurement to Promote Workforce Diversity, Buildings & Cities, Commentaries, 22 August. 
  • Wright, T. (2023) ‘Existe-t-il un « avantage lesbien » dans les professions dominées par les hommes? Une analyse intersectionnelle’, Travail, Genre et Sociétés, 2023/1 (n° 49), pages 27 à 44. Translation from English by Marion Beaujard. Published online 12 April, DOI 10.3917/tgs.049.0027
  • Wright, T., Moore, S. and Taylor, P. (2022) ‘Union equality structures and the challenge of democratic legitimacy: the case of the Fire Brigades Union’, Work, Employment and Society, published online 1 April DOI: 10.1177/09500170211072796.

  • Sian, S., Wright, T, Agrizzi, D. and Alsalloom, A. (2020) ‘Negotiating gender constraints in international audit firms in Saudi Arabia: Exploring the interaction of gender and religion’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 84: 101103.

  • Wright, T. and Conley, H. (2020) ‘Advancing gender equality in the construction sector through public procurement: making effective use of responsive regulation’ Economic and Industrial Democracy, 41(4): 975-996 (Published online March 21, 2018)

  • Wright, T. (2019) ‘The gendered impacts of technological change for public transport workers in the Global South’, Research in Transportation Business & Management. Published online 19 November 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2019.100384

  • Healy, G., Tatli, A., Ipek, G., Ozturk, M., Seierstad, C. and Wright, T. (2019) ‘In the steps of Joan Acker:  A journey in researching inequality regimes and intersectional inequalities’, Gender, Work and Organization, 26: 12: 1749-1762. (First published online 22 May 2018)

  • Hudson, L., Moore, S., Tainsh, K., Taylor, P. and Wright, T. (2019), "‘The only way is Essex’: Gender, union and mobilisation among fire service control room staff", Work, Employment and Society, 33(1): 162-173.

  • Wright, T. (2016) ‘Women’s experience of workplace interactions in male-dominated work: the intersections of gender, sexuality and occupational group’, Gender, Work and Organization, 23: 3: 348-362.

  • Wright, T. (2015) ‘Can ‘social value’ requirements on public authorities be used in procurement to increase women’s participation in the UK construction industry?’ Public Money and Management, 35: 2: 135-40.

  • Wright, T. (2014) ‘Gender, sexuality and male-dominated work: the intersection of long-hours working and domestic life’, Work, Employment and Society, 28: 6: 985-1002

  • Wright, T. (2013) ‘Uncovering sexuality and gender: an intersectional examination of women's experience in UK construction,’ Construction Management and Economics, 31: 8: 832-844.

  • Moore, S. and Wright, T. (2012) ‘Shifting models of equality? Union Equality Reps in the public services,’ Industrial Relations Journal, 43: 5: 433-447.

  • Wright, T. (2011) ‘A “lesbian advantage?” Analysing the intersections of gender, sexuality and class in male-dominated work’, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 30: 8: 686 – 701.

  • Colgan, F. and Wright, T. (2011) ‘Lesbian, gay and bisexual equality in a modernising public sector 1997-2010: opportunities and threats’, Gender, Work and Organization, 18: 5: 548-570.

  • Moore, S., Wright, T. and Conley, H. (2011) ‘Addressing Discrimination in the Workplace on Multiple Grounds: The Experience of Trade Union Equality Representatives’: Research and Reports, Industrial Law Journal, 40: 4: 460-465.

  • Colgan, F., Creegan, C., McKearney, A. and Wright, T. (2009) ‘Equality and diversity in the public services: moving forward on lesbian, gay and bisexual equality?’ Human Resource Management Journal, 19: 3: 280-301.

 

Other publications

  • Wright T., Conley, H. and Sarter, E.K. (2024) ‘Using public procurement to promote equality in employment: assessment of the evidence from Australia, South Africa and the UK’, in Forson, Healy, Özturk and Tatli (eds) Handbook on Inequalities At Work, Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Wright, T., Conley, H., Mamode, J., and Sarter, E. K. (2023) Buying Social Justice Through Procurement: Report of project findings. Queen Mary University of London. November 2023 
  • McAndrew, F., Conley, H., Mamode, J., Sarter, E. K. and Wright, T. (2023) Buying social justice through procurement: an equality and diversity toolkit. Queen Mary University of London. October 2023  
  • Wright T. (2023) ‘The role of the state in promoting gender equality in public transport employment: evidence from the Global South’ in Conley and Koskinen Sandberg (eds) Handbook on Gender and Public Sector Employment, Edward Elgar Publishing: 50-63.
  • Kamau, A. & Wright, T. (2022) ‘Tackling gender-based violence and sexual harassment in the public transport sector: the role of key actors’, in Wright, T., Budd, L. and Ison, S. (Eds) Women, Work and Transport, Emerald Publishing.
  • Conley, H., Ahamed, M. & Wright, T. (2022) ‘Bullying and Harassment in the British Rail Sector: An Intersectional Analysis’, in Wright, T., Budd, L. and Ison, S. (Eds) Women, Work and Transport, Emerald Publishing.
  • Wright, T. (2018) ‘How to increase women’s representation in the construction sector: Evidence from a UK project’ in A. Bosch (Ed.), South African Board for People Practices Women’s Report 2018 (pp. 12-18). Rosebank, South Africa: SABPP.
  • Wright, T. (2016) ‘Why greater gender equality in male-dominated sectors is good for women and industry – and how to do it’, The Political Anthropologist, 11 October 2016.
  • Wright, T. (2016) ‘Why it’s important to get more women into “men’s” jobs’, Work in Progress, 7 September 2016.
  • Wright, T. (2014) 'More women into construction? Here’s how it’s done', Construction Manager, 9 September 2014.
  • Wright T. (2014) 'The Women into Construction Project: an assessment of a model for increasing women?s participation in construction? [PDF 2,831KB]', Centre for Research In Equality and Diversity, Queen Mary University of London, July 2014.   
  • Wright, T. and Conley, H. (2013) ‘It's better to 'gold-plate' equality law than protect institutional prejudice’, The Guardian Comment is Free, 16 September 2013.
  • Wright, T. (2013) 'Promoting employment equality through public procurement [PDF 811KB]': Report of a workshop held by the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity, Queen Mary, University of London, January 2013.
  • Moore, S., Wright, T. and H. Conley (2012) 'Addressing discrimination in the workplace on multiple grounds – the experience of trade union Equality Reps', Acas Research Paper 02/12.
  • Moore, S. And Wright, T. (2010) 'PCS Equality Representatives’ Training, Development & Support Programme': Final Evaluation Report, London: WLRI.
  • Wright, T. and Pollert, A. (2006) 'The Experience of Ethnic Minority Workers in the Hotel and Catering Industry: Routes to Support and Advice on Workplace Problems' – Final Report, Acas Research Paper 03/06, London: Acas.
  • Colgan, F., Creegan, C., McKearney, A. and Wright, T. (2006) 'Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual workers: equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace', London: COERC.

Grants, Contracts and Awards:

  • PI "Buying social justice" through procurement: An examination of the use of public procurement for advancing employment equality in UK construction, ESRC Standard grant, £453K (with Conley and Sarter) October 2021 – Sept 2023.

  • Consultancy for United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) to provide guidance and training for the Transport Division on incorporating gender into transport project proposals. Jan – April 2021.

  • Consultancy for Educational toolkits for fighting gender stereotypes, based on the example of the transport sector (contract awarded to PPMI Group by European Commission DG MOVE) 2020-2021.

  • The Impact of the Future of Work in Public Transport for Women, report for International Transport Workers Federation, October 2018.

  • Developing a Framework for Equality Bargaining in the Rail Sector, British Academy Small Grant, H. Conley (PI), T. Wright and S. Moore, 2013-14.

  • Discrimination in the workplace on multiple grounds – the experience  of trade union Equality Reps, 2011, S. Moore, T. Wright and H. Conley, funded by Acas and the TUC, £10,000.

 

Tessa’s impact activities can be viewed here: Case study: Mile End Institute Case Study: Global policy engagement to achieve equality and diversity in male-dominated sectors 

Supervision

Areas of Supervision Expertise:

Tessa currently supervises PhD students with interests in the areas of: equality and diversity in the labour market; gender and sexuality at work; the intersection of multiple identities at work; the experiences of migrant workers; occupational gender segregation and male-dominated work; trade unions and collective bargaining; discrimination and equality law; public procurement and equality. 

Current Doctoral Students:

Co-supervisor

  • Adesola Akomolafe, 'Career progression of women in accounting firms'
  • Matt Cook, 'Leadership in the fire service.'
  • Sreenita Mukherjee, 'Women, migration and architecture: A postcolonial feminist analysis of the experiences of female migrant architects from the Commonwealth, living and working in the UK.'
  • Harvir Sangha 'Hegemonic masculinity in financial services firms'

 

2nd Supervisor

  • Mursheda Begum, 'Improving gender and ethnic diversity in UK professions'
  • Gabriella Stringer, ‘The maternal body at work’ (collaborative studentship with Maternity Action)

PhD Supervision Completions:

  • Mark Bergfeld, ‘Solidarity, democracy and leadership: A comparative study of migrant worker activism and organising', Awarded 2019

Public Engagement

Tessa’s research on gender and work in transport has led to invitations to conduct research for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the European Commission DG MOVE and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) on Introducing a gendered approach to work in the transport sector.

Tessa’s ESRC project "Buying social justice" through procurement: An examination of the use of public procurement for advancing employment equality in UK construction, partners with around a dozen practitioner and stakeholder groups and will produce a procurement and equality toolkit.

Tessa’s impact activities can be viewed here: Case study: Mile End Institute Case Study: Global policy engagement to achieve equality and diversity in male-dominated sectors 

 

Membership of professional bodies

Affiliate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

British Sociological Association

European Sociological Association; Board member Research Network 14 Gender relations in the labour market and the welfare state

British Universities Industrial Relations Association

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