Research
My research focuses on gender inequality in family life. In much of my work, I ask a version of this question: as support for egalitarianism grows, why does gender continue to shape the benefits we enjoy and burdens we bear as members of a family?
Below are descriptions of a few of my ongoing or recently completed research projects.
What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life
Decades of sociological research shows that women in different-gender couples perform most housework and childcare, even when both partners are employed. But what counts as housework? In this project, I draw on 170+ interviews with members of different- and same-gender couples to identify and define “cognitive labor” as the work of anticipating household needs, identifying options for meeting those needs, deciding among the options, and monitoring the results. Such work is highly gendered, with women in different-gender couples doing more cognitive work overall—and more of the most invisible and least powerful forms of such work in particular. I use the case of cognitive labor to explore the question of why and how gender inequality persists, even as support for egalitarianism continues to grow. One key reason is that individuals understand cognitive labor as a reflection of their underlying self—a matter of who they are rather than simply what they do.
I have recently finished a book based on this project, coming in Fall 2025 from Princeton University Press. Two related articles have been published:
“The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor.” American Sociological Review, 2019.
“De-Gendered Processes, Gendered Outcomes: How Egalitarian Couples Make Sense of Non-Egalitarian Household Practices.” American Sociological Review, 2020.
Rethinking Marital Power
While we may be accustomed to thinking about power in the context of politics and business, power dynamics are also at play in our most intimate relationships. In a recently published paper, collaborator Jaclyn Wong and I explore the tension between the ideals of contemporary couples and sociological theories of marital power: the former center on collaboration and cooperation, but the latter emphasize independence and domination. We examine couples’ decision-making patterns as a window onto their power dynamics, identify the strategies and tactics they use to keep power differentials within reasonable bounds, and explore the ways gender inequality persists despite couples’ efforts at mutuality.
“The Myth of Mutuality: Decision-making, Marital Power, and the Persistence of Gender Inequality.” Gender & Society, 2024.
For an overview of this research geared at non-academics, see this post.
Dividing Labor, Multiplying Gratitude?
Several decades ago, sociologist Arlie Hochschild wrote about “economies of gratitude,” arguing that the things people are grateful to their spouses for reveal important insights about changing (or stagnant) gender norms and expectations. My collaborators Rachel Drapper, Kathleen McGinn, Mandi Nerenberg, and I are revisiting this concept using data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. What are people grateful for, what do they resent, and what does that tell us about how men’s and women’s expectations of one another have shifted in the past thirty years?