Rachel Horton

Email:
r.e.horton@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
100
Job title:
Associate Professor

Responsibilities:

School Academic Disability Representative
Coordinates the annual student negotiation competition
Co-Director of Widening Participation

Areas of interest

Discrimination Law
Health Care Law
Employment Law
Gender and Law

Teaching

Rachel is module convenor for Contract Law and the Writing Credit Pro Bono and Placement Module. She also teaches on the following modules:

Employment Law
Medical Law
Equality Law
Contract Law

Background

Rachel joined the Law School in 2005 having previously practiced as a solicitor specialising in employment and discrimination law. Her research interests are in equality and non-discrimination law, particularly in relation to health and access to health care and to employment. She is currently part of a team working on an AHRC funded project, JustAge, which explores the intersection between age and healthcare justice in order to help determine how healthcare resources can be allocated in a way that avoids unfair discrimination between population groups: JustAge – Towards a Just, Stage-of-Life sensitive Allocation of Healthcare Resources — Ethox Centre

Rachel is the UK gender equality law expert for the European Equality in Law Network - a network of legal experts from 35 countries providing information to the European Commission on gender equality and non-discrimination issues. Previously, she has also acted as the Specialist Advisor on the Equality Act 2010 to the Women and Equalities Committee of the House of Commons.

Academic qualifications

BA (Oxford), MPhil (Oxford), LLM (Middlesex), PhD (Middlesex), Solicitor (non-practicing)

Conference papers

‘Gender Equality in Access to Healthcare’ presented at the EQUALS conference – Challenging Health Inequalities in a Digitalised World: Transdisciplinary Perspectives – at the University of Utrecht, 24 February 2026
(with Professor Tamara Hervey) ‘Tackling Gender Discrimination and Inequality in Access to Healthcare: scoping possibilities and opportunities for EU law’ presented at the annual legal seminar of the European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, 28 November 2025
‘Falling between the gaps – quality part time work in the UK’ presented at the Labour Law Research Network, Bangkok, 1 July 2025
‘Health Inequalities and Equality Law’ presented at the Berkeley Centre for Comparative Equality Law Conference, Bengalaru, July
‘Exceptionality and Equality’ – a paper presented at ‘A Community of Healthcare Lawyers; a symposium in honour of Professor Chris Newdick’ University of Reading, April 2022; ‘Assisted Dying and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ presented at the Society of Legal Scholars Conference (online) 1 September 2020.
'Work and Care in the EU - a case for regulation?' presented at the Work and Family Research Network conference, New York, 20 June 2014

Publications

Hervey, T. and Horton, R. (2026) ‘Tackling Gender Discrimination and Inequality in Access to Healthcare: scoping possibilities and opportunities for EU law’ (Brussels, European Commission)
Horton R. and Box, G. (2023) ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and the Gender Pay Gap in the UK – Beyond the Law’ in Hamilton, F. and Griffiths, E. (eds.) The Evolution of the Gender Pay Gap – A Comparative Perspective (Routledge)