Inequality: Eleanor Rathbone Social Justice Public Lecture series

Professor Kate Pickett: “The more unequal a society is, the more ill health and social problems it has”

The co-founder of The Equality Trust and co-author of the best-selling, The Spirit Level, Professor Kate Pickett, will open the 2014 Eleanor Rathbone Social Justice Public Lecture series on Wednesday (March 19).

Professor Pickett is Professor of Epidemiology in the University of York’s Department of Health Sciences, and her talk will explore the detrimental effect inequality has on all socio-economic groups within a population.

Divisive and socially corrosive

Introducing her seminar’s theme, Professor Pickett said: “The more unequal a society is, the more ill health and social problems it has. Inequality has always been regarded as divisive and socially corrosive. The data show that even small differences in inequality matter. Particularly important are effects mediated by social status, friendship and early childhood experience.

“Although the amount of inequality has its greatest effect on rates of problems among the poor, its influence extends to almost all income groups: too much inequality reduces levels of well-being among the vast majority of the population.”

As well as co-founding The Equality Trust, Professor Pickett is a commissioner for the Living Wage Commission and a member of the Children’s Society’s Campaign for Childhood Committee. She also sits on the Scientific Council of Inequality Watch and is a member of the Human Capital Research Working Group of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Her book, The Spirit Level – co-authored with Richard Wilkinson – was named 2012 Publication of the Year by the Political Studies Association and has been translated into 23 languages.

University of Liverpool Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Dr Stuart Wilks-Heeg said: “We are thrilled that Professor Pickett will be giving the first of this year’s Eleanor Rathbone Social Justice lectures. We could hardly have a more fitting speaker.

“Reducing inequality was at the heart of Eleanor Rathbone’s research and campaigning for more than 50 years, and 2014 marks the 90^th anniversary of her landmark book, The Disinherited Family.

Most influential book on inequality

“It is also the fifth anniversary of the publication of The Spirit Level, without doubt the most influential book on inequality in recent decades.”

Professor Kate Pickett – Inequality: the Enemy Between Us takes place in the Moot   Room, South Campus Teaching Hub on Wednesday March 19 from 5.30pm – 7.30pm, with a networking reception to follow.

The lecture is free and all are welcome to attend, but places are limited so please register here: http://www.uolevents.org/login.asp?recordid=236 if you would like to attend.