Ann Oakley

This article is about the sociologist and writer. For the sharpshooter, see Annie Oakley.

Ann Rosamund Oakley
Born	Ann Rosamund Titmuss (1944-01-17) 17 January 1944
Pen name	Rosamund Clay
Occupation	Professor and Founder-Director of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Bedford College, University of London
Genre	Fiction (novelist) and non-fiction sociology and feminism
Subject	Sociology and feminism
Notable works	The Men's Room (adapted for BBC television)
Relatives	Professor Richard Titmuss (father)
Literature portal

Ann Rosamund Oakley (née Titmuss; born 17 January 1944), is a distinguished British sociologist, feminist, and writer. She is Professor and Founder-Director of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London and in 2005 partially retired from full-time academic work to concentrate on her writing and especially new novels. Oakley is the only daughter of Professor Richard Titmuss and wrote a biography of her parents as well as editing some of his works for recent re-publication. Her mother Kathleen, née Miller, was a social worker.

She was educated at Somerville College, Oxford University taking her BA in 1965, having married fellow future academic Robin Oakley the previous year. In the next few years Oakley wrote scripts for children's television and wrote numerous short stories and had two novels rejected by publishers. Returning to formal education at Bedford College, University of London, she gained a PhD in 1969; the qualification was a study of women's attitudes to housework, from which several of her early books were ultimately derived. Much of her sociological research focused on medical sociology and women's health. She has also made important contributions to debates about sociological research methods.

Ann Oakley has written numerous academic works, many focusing on the lives and roles of women in society as well as several best-selling novels, of which the best-known is probably The Men's Room, which was adapted by Laura Lamson for BBC television in 1991, and which starred Harriet Walter and Bill Nighy. She has also written an early partial autobiography. She divides her life between living in London and in a rural house where she does most of her fiction writing. She is a mother and grandmother.

Publications

Non-fiction

File:TitmussGrave.jpeg

The grave of Ann Oakley's parents, Richard and Kay Titmuss, in Highgate Cemetery.

• (also translated into German, Dutch and Japanese).
• (Re-titled version of Housewife – 1974)

Reprinted as:

Fiction

• (televised)

External links

• Prof. Ann Oakley at Institute of Education
• Official website
• Ann Oakley at "Pioneers of Qualitative Research" from the Economic and Social Data Service