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Research in Gender

Gender inequalities have been persistent and pervasive in all economies. Until recently, the importance of gender inequalities was not well-appreciated in economic theory or policies. Today, gender-equitable approaches to economic policy-making are becoming increasingly common. In 2015, with the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations declared achieving gender equality as a central goal in economic development outcomes to be achieved by 2030.

Commitment to Gender Equality

We are one of a handful of Ph.D.-granting economics departments in the world with a core strength in feminist economics. We use gender as a central category of analysis alongside, class and race.

TOPICS OF RESEARCH

Our feminist economics research focuses on theory, empirical work and economic policy, addressing the causes and consequences of gender inequalities in economic life and development of economic policies that aim to eradicate gender inequalities. Topics include

  • Gender and macroeconomics
  • Gender and international trade
  • Gender differences in income and time poverty
  • The interface of paid and unpaid work
  • Gender differences in labor market behaviors and outcomes
  • Causes and consequences of violence against women
  • Care policies
  • Role of institutions in promoting gender equality

COURSE WORK THROUGH A GENDER LENS

Since 1995 we have offered undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to study economics through a gender lens.

Undergraduate and Master's Level

  • Feminist Economics
    • ECON 5170/6170
  • Gender, Development, and Globalization 
    • ECON 5560/6560/GNDR 5560 
  • Political Economy of Race/Ethnicity, Gender and Class
    • ECON 2040/GNDR 2040

Ph.D. Field Courses

  • Labor/Gender I
    • ECON 7150
  • Labor/Gender II
    • ECON 7180

 

Faculty Focusing on Gender Equality

We would love to hear from you! Our faculty would be happy to share more about their current projects.

Diksha Arora

Diksha Arora

Diksha Arora's current research focuses on the relationship between climate change, macro policy and gender disparities in access to decent work in Latin America. She has also conducted research examining gendered time poverty and its impact on household income and resilience to climate change, and gender-based constraints to adoption of climate-smart practices. 

Besides academic research, she has worked with local- and national-level policymakers in several Latin American countries to promote uptake of gender considerations in their local development programs and climate-change adaptation policies. She has also worked with several international organizations such as the World Bank, FAO and CGIAR. Most recently, her work with World Bank and Canada Caribbean Resilience Fund helped promote gender mainstreaming in disaster risk management policies in Caribbean countries.

 

 

gunseli berik

Günseli Berik

Günseli Berik’s research examines gender inequalities in livelihood and well-being outcomes—earnings, working conditions, training, population sex ratios, time use in the household. Her empirical research has focused on Turkey, Taiwan, Korea, Bangladesh, the US, and Utah. In recent research she examines aggregate well-being measures that incorporate unpaid work and the environment; street harassment in South Asia; and the feminist project in economics. She served as editor of the journal Feminist Economics between 2010 and 2017. 

 

 

haimanti bhattacharya

Haimanti Bhattacharya

Haimanti Bhattacharya's research falls under the broad rubric of applied microeconomics and has three specific themes: environment, resource & food, psychology & economics, and gender. Her gender research examines different aspects of violence against women, including the relationship between engaging in paid work and spousal violence. She has also engaged with interdisciplinary research teams to examine perceptions and implications of sexual violence against women. The main geographic focus of her research is India.

 

pavitra govidan

Pavitra Govindan

 

Pavitra Govindan is a behavioral and experimental economist specializing in the topics of social norms and behavioral change, gender differences in self-promotion, and role of institutions in promoting gender diversity.  She has conducted lab experiments with university students, lab-in-the-field experiments in rural India, and online experiments on Qualtrics and Amazon Mechanical Turk. She has been a faculty member in the Economics department at the University of Utah since 2018.

 

 

eunice han

Eunice Han

Eunice Han is a labor economist, specializing in labor relations and educational policy. Her research focuses on workers’ well-being and inequality. Because the goals of labor unions are aligned with these topics, many of her studies examine the relationship between unions and labor market outcomes in both the private and public sectors. In particular, she is interested in understanding gender differences in employment, labor earnings, and other labor market conditions, as well as identifying tools to close the gender gap.

 

codrina rada

Codrina Rada

Codrina Rada is a macroeconomist with an interest in issues of growth and income distribution. She uses theoretical and empirical tools to study trends in income inequality in modern economies and the effect of rising inequality on economic activity within the context of global economic integration. Her gender research uses computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework to examine the impacts of gender inequality on food security in Mozambique and Ethiopia.

 

catherine ruetschlin

Catherine Ruetschlin

Catherine Ruetschlin studies labor market inequalities and public policy. Her current research is focused on markets for childcare and the labor market for childcare workers. In 2021 and 2022, she worked with Utah’s Department of Workforce Services Office of Child Care to evaluate access to and affordability of childcare services across the state. She also contributed to a forthcoming interdisciplinary study with the US Department of Veterans Affairs examining the labor market challenges facing female veterans. Catherine has taught at the University of Utah since 2018.  

 

 

codrina rada

Sarah Small

Sarah Small’s research falls under the broad umbrella of feminist economics. Her current research focuses on a variety of topics including intrahousehold bargaining, care work, the occupational crowding hypothesis, and history of feminist economic thought. Much of her work aims to understand how households allocate unpaid labor in the United States, especially within couples facing differences in income, union membership, and business ownership. She also studies how economics courses can be made more inviting to women. Before joining the University of Utah in 2022, she was a Feminist Economics Fellow and a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. 

 

 

Current PhD Student Research

 Dissertations in Progress

phd student

Yazgi Genc

Local child care markets and women in Utah

phd student

Aashima Sinha

Three Essays on Micro- and Macro-Economic Implications of Care Work through a Gender Lens

phd students

Chimedlkham Zorigtbaatar

Three Essays on Gendering, Gender Division of Domestic Labor and Labor Market Outcomes in Mongolia. 

 

Latest Department Publications

Utah 2021 Child Care Market Rate Study

Author: Catherine Ruetschlin and Yazgi Genc

Published: Utah Department of Workforce Services Office of Child Care

The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Economics

Author: Günseli Berik and Ebru Kongar (PhD, 2003, U of Utah)

Published: Routledge International Handbooks, 2021

Gender norms and intra-household allocation of labor in Mozambique: a CGE application to household  and agricultural economics

Authors: Diksha Arora and Codrina Rada

Published: Agricultural Economics, 2020

The Effects of Teachers' Unions on the Gender Pay Gap among US Public School Teachers

Authors: Eunice Han

Published: Industrial Relations A Journal of Economy and Society,2020

What is Eve Teasing? A Mixed Methods Study of Sexual Harassment of Young Women in the Rural Indian Context

Authors: Haimanti Bhattacharya with Sharon Talboys, Manmeet Kaur, Jim VanDerslice, Lisa Gren, and Steve Alder

Published: Sage Open, 2017

A Gendered Model of the Peasant Household: Time Poverty and Farm Production in Rural Mozambique

Authors: Diksha Arora (Ph.D. 2016, U of Utah) and Codrina Rada

Published: Feminist Economics, 2017

Rape Myth Acceptance among College Students in the United States, Japan and India

Author: Haimanti Bhattacharya et. al.

Published: Sage Open, 2016

Spousal Violence and Women's Employment in India 

Author: Haimanti Bhattacharya

Published: Feminist Economics, 2015

Utah's Labor Market for Child Care Professionals

Author: Catherine Ruetschlin

Forthcoming: Utah Department of Workforce Services Office of Child Care

The Cost of Quality Childcare in Utah

Author: Catherine Ruetschlin

Forthcoming: Utah Department of Workforce Services Office of Child Care

The gender gap in labor market self-promotion: discrimination, beliefs, and norms: An experiment 

Author: Pavitra Govindan

Forthcoming: Working Paper

Do Meritocracies Increase Females Selecting Into Male-dominated Environments?

Author: Pavitra Govindan

Forthcoming: Working Paper

 

Selected Recent Publications from Alumni

Adem Elveren

Ph.D. 2008, Associate Professor at Fitchburg State University

Militarization and Gender Inequality: Exploring the Impact 

Co-author: Valentine M. Moghadam

Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 2022

Özge Özay

Ph.D. 2010, Assistant Professor, Fitchburg State University

Expanding Understanding of Poverty: Time Poverty Revealed Time-Use Data

Harnessing Time-Use Data for Evidence-based Policy, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Platform for Action: A Resource for Data Analysis, United Nations ESCAP, 2021

 

Nursel Aydiner-Avsar

Ph.D. 2011, Associate professor  at Akdeniz University

The Gender Impact of Unemployment on Mental Health: A Micro Analysis for the United States

Forum for Social Economics, 2021

 

 Chiara Piovani 

Ph.D. 2011, Associate Professor, University of Denver

Gender and Development Programme

Work Time Matters for Mental Health: A Gender Analysis of Paid and Unpaid Labor

Review of Radical Polical Economics, 2021

Diksha Arora

Ph.D. 2016, PostDoctoral Fellow, Colorado State University

Gender norms and intrahousehold allocation of labor in Mozambique: A CGE application to household and agricultural economics

Agricultural Economics, 2020

 

Jacqueline Strenio

Ph.D. 2018, Assistant Professor of Economics at Norwich University

Time Heals All Wounds? A Capabilities Approach for Intimate Partner Violence

Feminist Economics, 2020

Emel Memis 

Ph.D. 2007, Associate Professor, Ankara University

“Changes in Global Trade Patterns and Women’s Employment in Manufacturing, 1995-2011”

Feminist Economics, 2018

Özge Izdes

Ph.D. 2011, Assistant Professor, Istanbul University

Engendering Welfare States: How Fa(i)r are Scandinavian Welfare States

Journal of Economic and Social Thought, 2017

Yunsun Huh

Ph.D. 2011, Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

“Gender Empowerment and Educational Attainment of US Immigrants and their Home-Country Counterparts”

Feminist Economics, 2017

 

Ebru Kongar

Ph.D. 2003, Associate Professor at Dickinson College

Gender and Time Use in a Global Context

Co-Author: Rachel Connelly

Palgrave, 2017

 

Last Updated: 9/4/24