Dr Catherine Hakim is a pioneering British social scientist and author. Currently, she is Professorial Research Fellow at Civitas, the London think tank. From 1993 to 2012, she was Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, then at the Centre for Policy Research in London and the WZB social science research institute in Berlin. She has published extensively, with over 100 papers published in British, European and American refereed academic journals and edited collections, four textbooks, and over a dozen books and monographs on the labour market, changing patterns of work, women’s employment, social attitudes, social and family policy, research design, and cross-national comparative research in all these areas. While at the London School of Economics, she developed preference theory and, more recently, a theory on the social and economic value of erotic capital (physical and social attractiveness) for men and women of all ages. She often contributes to TV and radio programmes, including Sky News, BBC Daily Politics and Woman’s Hour. She is currently writing a book on Sexual Politics.