Family, Gender and Work

Combining research interests from both sociology and demography programs and drawing on strong links with the Women's Studies Program, a rich and varied set of course offerings are available to students interested in Family Studies and Gender Studies. The objectives of the training program are to acquaint students with diverse theoretical orientations and a wide range of methodological skills that will enable them to engage in empirical research. Courses are offered in historical and comparative research, theoretical traditions in family and gender studies, and a practicum in proposal writing and research development. The program has a strong emphasis on policy-related research as well as studies aimed at advancing basic knowledge.

The sociology of the family investigates the social, economic, and cultural forces that shape the organization of the kinship system and how families function in both developed and developing societies. In order to gain a full understanding of the various sources of family change, it is necessary to examine the worldwide transformation in family and kinship, including shifts in economic systems and the growth of the market economy, the development of nation states and welfare systems, changes in cultural and political values, as well as the influence of education and the mass media. Students of the family also are interested in how these large-scale changes impinge on the social organization of the life course, individual development, and social definitions of marriage, family and kinship.

Gender structures power, love, identity and life changes for individuals. It is a basic component of social institutions ranging from families to corporations to politics. The University of Pennsylvania provides an excellent setting to explore the rapidly developing sociology of gender. Gender Studies at Penn are listed with Family Studies because of the strong complementarity of faculty interest in these areas and not because Gender Studies are limited to family issues. Faculty in the Sociology Department have research and teaching interests in such areas as gender and paid work, gender and families, the social construction of gender, feminist theory, and feminist organizations. Penn's fine Women's Studies Program coordinates ongoing seminars that provide opportunities to meet with interested faculty from across the university.

Students are trained in complementary research strategies: comparative and historical data analysis, demographic techniques, ethnographic studies, qualitative interview, survey methods and analysis, use of secondary data sets, and evaluation research. Student-faculty collaboration on research projects is encouraged and graduate students usually have an opportunity to join ongoing research projects during the course of their training. A major objective of the Family - Gender, Work studies program is to ensure that students have an opportunity to present papers at professional meetings and gain publication experience during their graduate career.

Current faculty in the sociology department are listed below. In addition, a large number of courses are available to students with a concentration in family and gender studies through the Women's Studies Program, Anthropology, History, Economics, Law, Social Work and related disciplines.

Department Faculty with Interests in Family and Gender

Irma Elo
Aging and the Life Course, Medical Sociology, Family Sociology, Mathematical Demography

Frank Furstenburg
Family change; comparative research; policy studies on children and families; the sociology of fatherhood; urban and minority families

Richard Gelles
Education; child welfare and public policy; child welfare agencies and law enforcement; decision making in child welfare; violence and abuse protection and prevention; the social welfare system.

Emily Hannum
Social demography;Economic underpinnings of marriage decisions; Racial and ethnic patterns of family formation; Assortative mating; Family structure and child well-being; Social policies, social networks, and poverty

Jerry Jacobs
Women's careers; sex segregation at school and work; inequaility in earnings and working conditions; part-time work, the service economy

Kristen Harknett
Social demography; Economic underpinnings of marriage decisions;Racial and ethnic patterns of family formation; Assortative mating; Family structure and child well-being; Social policies, social networks, and poverty

Demie Kurz
Sociology of gender; sociology of the family; feminist sociological theory

Teresa Labov
Gender and language

Robin Leidner
Work and gender; feminist theory; the social organization of parenthood; qualitative research; service work

Samuel Preston
Family demography; the measure of family change

Herb Smith
Effects of demographic change on families

Last Modified: 11-Apr-2008
For updates, comments please contact: saunderc@ssc.upenn.edu