Naomi Gerstel
Distinguished University Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:
Connect with Naomi
About Naomi
Gerstel studies marriage, families, and work. She has spent recent years researching inequalities in job hours and schedules, addressing the limits of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the greediness of marriage and work, extended families, and most recently the unequal involvement of families in the lives of undergraduates. Unequal Time, (co-authored with Dan Clawson) is her recent award winning book that discusses the ways control over time is necessary for managing pervasive unpredictability, keeping a job and raising a family. But time, as well as control over it, are unequally distributed and determined to a significant degree by gender and class.
Contributions
In the News
Quoted by in "Mature, Free and Single: the Benefits of Being Single in Your Forties and Beyond," The Telegraph, July 3, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "Being Single Makes Your Happier, According to Science," Her, February 14, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "It's Better to be Single, According to Science," Business Insider, February 9, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "A New Book Confirms That Male Doctors Have It Really Good.," Slate, October 15, 2014.
Opinion: "Making Them Choose: Life without Paid Sick Leave in Massachusetts," Naomi Gerstel (with ), NPR: Cognoscenti, October 14, 2014.
Opinion: "Unpredictable Schedules Inflicted on Workers are Wrecking People’s Lives," Naomi Gerstel (with ), American Prospect, October 10, 2014.
Interviewed in "Is Health Care Just Another Chaotic, Low-wage Job?," NBC: In Plain Sight, October 8, 2014.
Opinion: "'Flexible' Schedules Aren’t Flexible at All. Let’s End the Always-on-Call Work Day," Naomi Gerstel (with ), The Guardian, September 15, 2014.
Publications
"Normal Unpredictability and the Chaos in Our Lives" Contexts 14, no. 4 (2015): 64-66.
Discusses the chaos and hardship in so many people’s lives that results not just from the hours they work but from the unpredictability of those hour and the inability to control them.
"Marriage and Social Connections: Building Block or Retreat?" (with ). Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (2015).
Argues marriage is a greedy institution by showing that single individuals are more likely to stay in touch with, provide help to, and receive help from parents, siblings, neighbors, and friends than the married. Suggests policy should acknowledge the social constraints associated with marriage and recognize that single individuals have greater involvement with the broader community.
"Unequal Time: Gender, Class, and Families in Employment Schedules" (with ) (Russell Sage Foundation, 2014).
Explores inequalities in work hours and schedules and the processes by which work time is mandated, negotiated, accepted and contested. Discusses normal unpredictability and flexibility and the web of time in which the schedules of one person shape the schedules of others in ways that exemplify and often exacerbate differences between men and women, the privileged and disadvantaged.
"Class Advantage and the Gender Divide: Flexibility on the Job and at Home" (with ). American Journal of Sociology 120, no. 2 (2014): 395-431.
Argues that those in class advantaged occupations obtain flexibility but use it in conventionally gendered ways while those in disadvantaged occupations gain little employee-based flexibility and, as a result, have more difficulty meeting conventional gendered expectations.
"Workplace Compliance With the Law: The Case of the Family and Medical Leave Act" (with ). Work and Occupations 41, no. 3 (2014): 277-304.
Analyzes low rates of compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and argues progress depends on revising, monitoring and enforcing the current law.
"Nuclear Family Values, Extended Family Lives: The Power of Race, Class, and Gender" (with ) (Routledge Press, 2012).
Discusses the growing importance of extended kinship, especially among women and men of color with few economic resources. Suggests the iconic status of nuclear families—mothers, fathers, young children-- in the press and public policy is a narrow, biased view that misses much of family life, especially the family experiences of women, racial/ethnic minorities, low wage workers and the poor for whom extended families are centrally important.