Dr Ellie Lee is Reader in Social Policy at the University of Kent. Elllie’s 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. Her longest standing research area is abortion policy and service provision and more recently she has developed research projects about parenting. Her 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.

She is the Director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies based in SSPSSR  and regularly discusses her research in the media and other public forums. She is a Director of the Institute of Ideas, and in her spare time she co-ordinates Pro Choice Forum. She published Abortion, Motherhood and Mental Health: Medicalizing Reproduction in the U.S. and Britain (Aldine Transaction) and has articles in journals including Sociology of Health and Illness, Health, Risk and Society and Reproductive Health Matters.