Academy Fellow

JANEEN BAXTER is Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellow in the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Queensland. The Centre is focused on research and interventions targeted at reducing the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage over the life course. Janeen's research focuses on family dynamics and social disadvantage, gender inequality in families and households and the links between paid and unpaid work. Other research interests include changing patterns and experiences of marriage in Australia and trends in attitudes to gender. She has been a Hallsworth Visiting Fellow at the University of Manchester, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wisconsin and a former member and Chair of the External Reference Group for the Households, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) project. She is currently a member of the CEDA Council.

• ARC Professorial Fellow, School of Social Science and Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland (2009-2014)
• Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (2014-)
• ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellow (2024-2029)

ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship, 2024

Election to National Academy of Sciences, 2025

Baxter, J., Hewitt, B., & Haynes, M. (2008). Life course transitions and housework: Marriage, parenthood and time on housework. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70 259-272.

Baxter, J., Buchler, S., Perales, F., & Western, M. (2014). A life-changing event: First births and men's and women's attitudes to mothering and gender divisions of labor. Social Forces, 93(3) 989-1014. doi:10.1093/sf/sou103

Ruppanner, L., Perales, F. and Baxter, J. (2018). Harried and Unhealthy? Parenthood, Time Pressure, and Mental Health. Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (2) 308-326 doi:10.1111/jomf.12531

Lersch, P., and Baxter, J. (2020). Parental Separation during Childhood and Adult Children’s Wealth.  Social Forces, 99 (3) 1176-1208 doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa021

Baxter, J., Lam, J., Lee, R., Povey, J., and Zubrick S. (Eds.). (2022). Family dynamics over the life course: Foundations, turning points and outcomes. Dordrecht: Springer. 

Steinbring, R., Perales, F., Lam, J., and Baxter, J. (2024). Characteristics of Male-breadwinner, Female-breadwinner and Equal-earner Households in Australia: The Role of Couple-level Human Capital. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 26 (2): 133-163. doi.org/10.14264/f39e3d0

Venables, J., Povey, P., Kolesnikova, I., Thompson, K., Boman, M., Richmond, J., Healy, K., Baxter, J., Thwaite I., Hussain A. (2024). Children in Out-of-Home Care’s Right to Family and Cultural Connection: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australian Children’s Perspectives. Child Abuse & Neglect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.107009

Campbell, A., Kuskoff, E., Baxter, J. and Loxton, D. (2025). The Road to Unfreedom: Violence and Multidimensional Poverty among Young Australian Women. Violence against Women. 10.1177/10778012251347607

Baxter, J., Campbell, A., Lee, R., and Lloyd, M. (2025). COVID19 and Gender Gaps in Paid and Unpaid Work. In Sanchez-Mira, N., Insaurato, V., and Rubery, J. (eds). Women in Turbulent Times. Routledge, London.