Manlin Cai is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines how work, family, and migration processes intersect to shape social inequality. She has published nine peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Work and Occupations and Canadian Review of Sociology.

Manlin Cai’s research focuses on work, family, gender, and migration, particularly in Chinese and Canadian societies. Her current work is organized around two related lines of inquiry. The first line examines how work intersects with family dynamics to shape gender inequality. The second investigates inequality that immigrants encounter in work and family lives. Leveraging both quantitative and qualitative methods, her research analyzes large-scale nationally representative datasets alongside in-depth interviews.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

• Fuller, Sylvia, Manlin Cai, Richard Petts, Andrea Doucet, Anna Kurowska, Donna Lero, and Thordis Reimer. Online First. “Unpredictable Work Schedules and Gender Divisions of Domestic Labour.” Work and Occupations.
• Fuller, Sylvia, Manlin Cai, Andrea Doucet, and Siqi Qin. 2026. “Gender Divisions of Domestic Labour During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Did Increases in Father Involvement Persist through Later Stages?” Canadian Review of Sociology 63(1): e70018.
•  Cai, Manlin, Yue Qian, and Yang Hu. 2025. “The Efficiency Paradox: A Temporal Lens into Online Dating among Chinese Immigrants in Canada.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 42(8): 2167-2187.
•  Fuller, Sylvia, Manlin Cai, and Donna Lero. 2025. “The Work/Care Interface and Parents’ Mid-Pandemic Mental Health: Inequalities at the Intersection of Gender and High-Health-Risk Household Status.” Society and Mental Health 15(1): 75-93.
• Lui, Lake, Manlin Cai, and Yue Qian. 2024. “Comfortably ‘Western’: How Chinese International Students Imagine Canada.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 56(2): 157-176.
• Cai, Manlin and Yue Qian. 2023. “Digital Ethnic Enclaves: Mate Preferences and Platform Choices Among Chinese Immigrant Online Daters in Vancouver.” Canadian Review of Sociology 60(1): 130-153.
• Cai, Manlin. 2023. “For the Sake of Parents? Marriages of Convenience between Lesbians and Gay Men in China.” LGBTQ+ Family: An Interdisciplinary Journal 19(3): 211-227.
• Qin, Siqi, Manlin Cai, Sylvia Fuller, and Yue Qian. 2022. “Gender, Parenthood and Employment During COVID-19: An Immigrant-Native Born Comparison in Canada.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 54(3): 63-108.
• Qian, Yue, Yang Shen, and Manlin Cai. 2022. “Gendered Age Preferences for Potential Partners: A Mixed-Methods Study Among Online Daters in Shanghai.” Chinese Sociological Review 54(3): 304-331.

Writing for Public Engagement

•  Cai, Manlin, Sylvia Fuller, and Donna Lero. 2025. “Care/Work Policies for Managing Routine and Unpredictable Caregiving.” The Vanier Institute of the Family.
• Cai, Manlin and Yue Qian. 2023. “Chinese Immigrants Look to Digital Chinatowns to Find Love Online.” The Conversation.
•  Cai, Manlin. 2021. “Forget ‘Leftover Women.’ Let’s Talk About the Women Being Left Out.” Sixth Tone.

Featured Awards

• Canadian Population Society Student Paper Award
• Canadian Sociological Association Work, Professions, and Occupations Research Cluster Best Student Paper Award
• Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Congress Graduate Merit Award
• Four-year Doctoral Scholarship, the University of British Columbia
• Dean of Arts Graduate Student Research Award, the University of British Columbia