Valentina Tonei is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor with tenure) in Economics at the School of Economic, Social and Political Science of the University of Southampton (UK), Department of Economics. She is also a member of the Royal Economic Society Women's Committee. She received her PhD in Economics from the University of York (UK) in 2017.

Her main research interests include gender stereotypes, parental investments, children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development as well as the determinants of mothers’ and newborns’ health.