Mara A. Yerkes is Full Professor of Comparative Social Policy in relation to Social Inequalities at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She is also Research Associate at the Center for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”, University of Konstanz, Germany. She obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 2006. Yerkes comparatively researches welfare states and industrial relations at national and local levels and how these relate to inequalities in work, care, communities and families. She particularly focuses on gender inequalities from an intersectional perspective. Yerkes is currently co-leading a project about on-call parenthood in relation to gender unequal careers and is involved in projects on financial vulnerability in retirement and inequalities in childcare access. She was awarded an ERC (European Research Council) Consolidator grant for her project CAPABLE (2018-2024) and led the CoGIS-NL project (COVID19 Gender (In)equality Survey Netherlands) for five years. She is a member of the longstanding International Network on Leave Policies and Research and is a former co-chair of the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAnet; 2019-2025) and former joint editor of Community, Work and Family (2019-2025). Yerkes has taught in several international settings and currently spans undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary coursework and thesis supervision.

Yerkes is the author of five books, including Transforming the Dutch Welfare State: Social Risks and Corporatist Reform (2011; Policy Press), and co-editor of The Transformation of Solidarity. Changing Risks and the Future of the Welfare State (2011; Amsterdam University Press), Social Policy and the Capability Approach (2019; Policy Press), Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Social Inequalities (Palgrave, 2022), and Social Policy in Changing European Societies: Research Agendas for the 21st Century (Edward Elgar, 2022). She has published a wide range of book chapters and articles, in journals such as Community, Work and Family; European Journal of Industrial Relations; Gender, Work and Organization; Journal of Comparative Welfare Studies; Journal of European Social Policy; Journal of Marriage and Family; Journal of Social Policy; Journal of Sociology; PlosOne; Policy and Politics; Social Policy and Administration; and Work, Employment and Society. She is also involved in multiple forms of public engagement, and regularly liaises with and advises on policy issues with the European Commission as well as national and local governments.