Donna Bobbitt-Zeher CV

My research agenda primarily concerns gender and inequality, how gender inequality changes over time, and the consequences of these changes.  I use both quantitative and qualitative methods in my work, and draw on a race/class/gender perspective as well.   My scholarship focuses on three veins of gender inequality:  educational inequalities and labor market outcomes, workplace discrimination, and intimate partner violence.  Research in the first vein examines how broader social changes, particularly changes in women’s education, but also workforce participation, and family life, affect the gender income gap in the late 20th century.  My second area of research interest concerns workplace discrimination, especially processes of gender discrimination and pregnancy-related discrimination.  My third area of research focus concerns intimate partner violence.  During the last decades of the 20th century, reflecting broader societal changes in attitude, states and localities altered laws to address intimate partner violence.  Ongoing research in this vein considers the consequences of these changes. 

While the majority of my research has focused on these topics, my interests in societal change and its implications extend beyond issues of gender.  For example, some of my work examines contemporary issues related to changes in families, such as caregiving for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease and the implications of number of siblings for adolescents’ social skills.