Research

Research Interests

I came to the Academy from the 'other side', first as a private labour-management consultant to US organizations, then in non-profit management researching and developing programs in school-to-work, work-based training, welfare-to-work, and other policies affecting workforce capacity. Searching for policy solutions involved looking at other national systems, first and extensively in Germany. The importance of family in shaping individual life chances led to my current research on group differences in the division of paid and unpaid labour. I use historical comparative research to frame policy effects on the intersections of class, gender and other group differences in household labour and family outcomes, and currently assess these with quantitative analyses of large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets.

Current Research Projects

In Gender-Class Equality in the Political Economy, under contract with Routledge USA in its Gender Perspectives series, I trace the policy paths across Australia, East and West Germany, Spain, the UK, and the US and compare current gender-class intersections in education, employment hours, wages, and housework to argue how relative group equality accumulates over time, both historical time and across individuals’ lives.  The implication of these analyses is that policy should reorient from the risk intervention approach dominating welfare provision, to an approach of greater public investment to minimize group differences along the life course that vary the risk. 
The Gender Equality in Relationship Transitions Network  funded by the Leverhulme Trust is a collaborative project with colleagues from 10 countries to explore the impact of relative gender employment equality on family stability.  The next workshop is scheduled for 6 – 9 June 2010, where we will be joined by colleagues from Yale University’s CIQLE and University of Pompeu Fabra’s DEMSOC research units.

Some Past Research Grants

• 2008, £35,723 from the ESRC for comparing gender-class intersections in employment hours and relative wages in Australia, East and West Germany, Spain, the UK and the US. Working paper available at: http://www.lisproject.org/publications/liswps/522.pdf
• 2003, 17400 Euro from the Integrated Research Infrastructure in the Social Sciences (IRISS) for analysis of t he division of labour and fertility in Italy and Spain using the European Community Household Panel, Differdange, Luxembourg.
• 2000, $2,100 US from the Northwestern University Dean's discretionary funding for international comparative research, to support research at European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy.
• 2000, $9,000 US supporting comparative research on maternal labour supply using the Luxembourg Income Study, hosted at CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.

Research Supervision

I would welcome research students interested in any dimension of comparative policy effects on class, gender, and other group differentials in the division of labour in society, as well as family outcomes associated with these divisions. Inquiries can be sent to me via email at the above address.

Teaching

At the undergraduate level, I convene the third-year core course on Key Issues in Welfare Systems and give lectures on gender, family, and the state. At the postgraduate level, I am Director of Studies for the MA in Methods of Social Research and convene the four Faculty methods modules. I also convene the optional pg module on Gender and Family in a Global Society, and am working with colleagues to develop a new postgraduate module on Worlds of Work.

Publications

• Cooke, Lynn Prince & Janeen Baxter (In press). “Families in International Context: Comparing Institutional Effects across Western Societies,” commissioned decade review article for Journal of Marriage and Family 72(3):
• Cooke, Lynn Prince. (2010). “The Politics of Housework,” pp 59 – 78 in Dividing the Domestic: Men, Women, and Household Work in Cross-National Perspective, edited by Judith Treas and Sonja Drobnič. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press Series on Social Inequality.
• Cooke, Lynn Prince. (2009). “Gender Equity and Fertility in Italy and Spain.” Journal of Social Policy 38 (1): 123-140.
• 2007. “Persistent Policy Effects on Gender Equity in the Home: The Division of Domestic Tasks in Reunified Germany.” Journal of Marriage and Family 69: 930-950.
• 2007. “Policy Pathways to Gender Power: State-Level Effects on the Division of Housework.” Journal of Social Policy 36(2): 239-260.
• 2006. “‘Doing Gender’ in Context: Household Bargaining and the Risk of Divorce in Germany and the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 112(2): 442-472.
• 2006. "Le Sud revisité: équité de genres et fécondité en Italie et en Espagne.” Recherches et Prévisions 83: 61-78. (Paris : Caisse Nationale d'Allocations Familiales).
• 2006. “Policy, Preferences and Patriarchy: The Division of Domestic Labor in East Germany, West Germany and the United States.” Social Politics 13(1): 1-27.
• 2005. With Richard Breen. “The Persistence of the Gendered Division of Domestic Labour.” European Sociological Review 21(1): 43-57.
• 2004. “The Gendered Division of Labor and Family Outcomes in Germany.” Journal of Marriage and Family 66: 1246-1259.
• 2003. “A Comparison of Initial and Early Life Course Earnings of the German Secondary Education and Training System.” Economics of Education Review 22 (1): 79-88.

Memberships

I am currently on the editorial board of European Sociological Review and Journal of Marriage and Family, and a review panel member for the European Union Integrated Research Infrastructure in the Social Sciences (IRISS) grant program. I do ad hoc reviewing for American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Polity Press, Social Forces, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and other journals and research groups. I am also a member of the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association RC 19 on Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy and RC28 on Social Stratification and Mobility; Council on Contemporary Families, Sociologists for Women in Society, UK Social Policy Association, and the US National Council on Family Relations.

Links

• SA's Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy: http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/rc19.htm
• The DIW Home Page in Berlin , with links to the German SocioEconomic Panel: http://www.diw.de/english/sop/
• The Cross-National Equivalent File (US, Canada , Germany , and UK panel datasets) at Cornell University: http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/PAM/Research/Centers-Programs/German-Panel/Cross-National-Equivalent-File_CNEF.cfm