Caitlyn Collins is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. She conducts cross-national qualitative research on gender inequality in the workplace and family life. She is broadly interested in the relationship between policy, culture, and social inequality.
Her current project is an interview study of 135 working mothers in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the United States. These four countries offer distinct policy approaches to reconciling work-family conflict. Collins examines how different ideals of gender, motherhood, and employment are embedded in these policies, and how they shape the daily lives of working mothers in each country. A book based on this research, Making Motherhood Work: How Women Manage Careers and Caregiving, was published in February 2019 with Princeton University Press.
Collins’ work is supported by the National Science Foundation, American Association of University Women, and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), among others. Her research appears in peer-reviewed journals including Gender & Society, Qualitative Sociology, and several edited books. This work has received press coverage in outlets including The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. She received her B.A. from Whitman College and her Ph.D. in Sociology from The University of Texas at Austin. Her next project is an ethnographic study of the market for childcare.