Kate Brockie

PhD student

The livelihood characteristics, opportunities, and aspirations of young women in Bangladesh

Biography

Career

• 2021 – Present: PhD Geography, University of Cambridge (ESRC DTP)
• 2020 – 2021: MPhil Geographical Research, University of Cambridge (ESRC DTP)
• 2020: Suitability Coordinator, Frontline
• 2015-2019: BA Liberal Arts: International Relations with Spanish and Study Abroad

Qualifications

• MPhil Geographical Research, University of Cambridge (2021)
• BA International Relations with Spanish, University of Exeter (2019)

Awards

• ESRC DTP 1+3 Knowledge Exchange Studentship in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (2020 – 2025)
• Liberal Arts Award (2019), University of Exeter
• Dean’s Award for Exceptional Academic Performance (2019), University of Exeter

Research

This research seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of young Bangladeshi women’s characteristics, aspirations, and opportunities. In Bangladesh, 28.8 percent of young people are not in employment, education or training (NEET); 83 percent are young women. While existing research attempts to spotlight the determinants and implications of NEET status, uncounted forms of valuable work remain underexplored in the Bangladeshi context. So too are young women’s livelihood opportunities and aspirations insufficiently understood against the backdrop of international policy targeting NEET rates.

The PhD project applies a critical feminist and intersectional political economy perspective, employing a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach. Quantitative analysis will identify the characteristics of young women both inside and outside the NEET category, complemented with qualitative fieldwork elucidating the socio-spatial dynamics in Bangladesh that shape young women’s aspirations and agency.

External activities

• Co-Convenor, ReWorking Work: Labour and Livelihoods in the Global South, Philomathia Social Sciences Research Symposium, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge (2022)
• Member, Decent Work and Youth Livelihoods Research Group (2020 – Present)
• Member, Gender and Working Lives Reading Group (2020 – Present)
• Secretary, Pembroke College Graduate Parlour (2021 – 2022)
• Environmental Officer, Pembroke College Graduate Parlour (2020 – 2021)