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Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute➞Postgraduate study

Ms Philippa Waterhouse 

Postgraduate Research Student

Ms Philippa Waterhouse's photo

Ms Philippa Waterhouse is Postgraduate Research Student within Social Sciences: Social Statistics & Demography at the University of Southampton.

Qualifications

Bsc Population Sciences

Msc Demography

I joined the Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Southampton in 2007 as a Sociology undergraduate. During my first year I was awarded a scholarship for ranking among the top three in the division. However discovering a passion for statistics I transferred to Population Sciences BSc in 2008. During this time I developed a keen interest in demography world demography, especially fertility and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa. My undergraduate dissertation ‘Stalling fertility in Rwanda; a quantitative analysis of the possible reasons behind the statistics’ was awarded the division of Social Statistics and Demography undergraduate dissertation prize.

In order to further my analytical skills I continued my studies at the University of Southampton by reading an MSc in Demography which was funded by the Population Investigation Council. For my MSc Dissertation I applied a mixed-methodology to investigate access to primary education in poor urban communities in Ghana. Firstly, access to primary education by rural, urban slum and urban non-slum residence was explored using the 2008 Ghanaian Demographic and Health Survey. Qualitative fieldwork was subsequently conducted in Agbogbloshie and Ga Mashie, two slums in Accra, Ghana, to investigate barriers to access. This dissertation was part of the EDULINK Urban Health and Poverty Project.

Research interests

Title: Work-family interface and maternal consequences: a case study of Accra, Ghana

Female labour force participation in Ghana is relatively high due to the increasing requirement of women to contribute to the household economy. The effect of fertility on female economic activity has long been debated. However, results from the Women’s Health Survey for Accra (WHSA) suggest that children only have a small short-term influence on female labour force participation in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA), with women returning to work soon after giving birth (Hill et al 2010). Therefore, this suggests that many mothers with young infants are experiencing multiple role responsibilities through being both workers and mothers. Yet, policy often only targets women in the developing world in either their role as generators of income or as the primary care-takers of children (Glick and Sahn 1998), failing to recognise the reality of female multiple roles and the possible consequences for mothers.
This research aims to gain a greater understanding of the circumstances of mothers of young infants in Accra. To date in-depth interviews and focus group discussions have been conducted with mothers in Accra in order to investigate role responsibilities, coping strategies and perceived implications for health and wellbeing. Future work includes the analysis of the Women’s Health Survey for Accra to quantitatively investigate the associations between maternal roles and mental wellbeing.

Supervisors: Professor Allan Hill and Dr Andrew Hinde

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) +3 studentship;
ESRC Advanced Quantitative Methods Award.

 

PopFest 2013 Committee Member

Social Statistics & Demography Student Representative (PhD students)

Postgraduate Teaching Assistant for Population and Society (DEMO 1003)

Ms Philippa Waterhouse
Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ UK
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