Patricia Lewis
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About Patricia
Lewis situates herself as a community-engaged Connecticut scholar who focuses on the intersections between housing and gender equity. Dr. Lewis obtained a Master of Public Health and a PhD in sociology from Emory University. In her dissertation, she examined how intimate partner violence intersects with housing insecurity in the lives of women living in poverty. Currently, she engages with community partners in Bridgeport to address housing affordability and equity issues, particularly in the area of public housing.
Contributions
In the News
Publications
Examines gaps in how the United States tracks femicide, arguing that inconsistent data collection makes it difficult to fully understand and prevent the killing of women and highlighting the need for a national surveillance system.
Investigates how COVID-19 stay-at-home orders affected violence against women, finding evidence that isolation, economic stress, and reduced access to support services increased risks for many women during the pandemic.
Tracks the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on “deaths of despair,” showing how the pandemic period was linked to increases in deaths related to suicide, drug overdoses, and alcohol use across the United States.
Serves to validate an index to measure Laws on Violence against women and girls. Presents as a concise, coherent, validated index to monitor the progress of nations on adopting comprehensive legislation to advance 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 5, to eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls.
Elaborates on gender norms and sexual consent in dating relationships: a qualitative study of university students in Vietnam. Explores this qualitative study and how university students in Vietnam perceived prevailing gender norms, and how these norms influenced men’s understanding of sexual consent in dating relationships. We found that, among university men in Hanoi, gender norms privileging men and growing expectations of premarital sex may be normalizing sexual coercion in dating relationships.
Mentions how financial support from nonresident fathers can help lower the risk of some forms of childhood housing insecurity. Discusses father's support is not protective against the most severe forms of housing instability, namely eviction and homelessness. Explains relying on child support alone is not sufficient to ameliorate the housing instability crisis that low-income mothers and children face in the U.S.