Alexandra Killewald is an American sociologist and demographer and a Professor at Harvard University. Her research has focused on American families and marriages.

Education

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Killewald received an MA in Sociology and an MA in Statistics from the University of Michigan in 2009, and a Ph.D in Public Policy and Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2011.

Work

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Killewald served as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Harvard University from 2012-15. From 2015-16 she held a named associate professorship, as the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, and as Professor starting in 2016. Killewald served on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Marriage and Family from 2015-16 and for Demography from 2013-16.

Research

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Killewald’s research calls into question a view of the family promoted by economist Gary Becker. Becker asserts that couples divide paid and unpaid labor in order to maximize household efficiency, with men spending more time in market work and women doing more household work. As a result, men’s wages are expected to increase when they marry. Killewald challenges this view, showing that women also experience wage gains when they marry, in contrast to the predictions of specialization,[1] and that women’s time in unpaid labor is not the result of tradeoffs with their husbands, but shaped by their own characteristics.[2] [3] [4]

In 2016, Killewald published an article in American Sociological Review, the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association[5] showing that if men are not employed full-time, this greatly increases their probability of divorce, but low income, per se, has no effect on divorce.[6] Killewald interpreted this to show that it is the failure to fulfill the social expectation of being a breadwinner that is threatening to marriage, not financial strain The finding was discussed in several news outlets, including CBS News,[7] Bloomberg,[8] and Today.[9]

Killeward is the co-author of Is American Science in Decline? with Yu Xie. This book assesses the state of American science, using systematic data from a large range of sources on science education and occupations in the U.S. over the past 70 years. It received positive reviews in Contemporary Sociology[10] and Science.[11]

Killewald's research has been featured prominently in the media, including Scientific American,[12] The Huffington Post[13], and The Atlantic[14]. Killeward's work has been cited in more than 652 other articles and books.[15]

Awards

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In 2016, Killewald received the Kahrl Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. In 2014, Killewald was presented the Article of the Year Award from the Sociology of the Family Section of the American Sociological Association.

Selected Bibliography

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Killewald, Alexandra and Javier García-Manglano. 2016. "Tethered Lives: A Couple-Based Perspective on the Consequences of Parenthood for Time Use, Occupation, and Wages." Social Science Research 60:266-282 [1]

Killewald, Alexandra. 2016. "Money, Work, and Marital Stability: Assessing Change in the Gendered Determinants of Divorce." American Sociological Review 81(4):696-719 [2]

Wood, Robert G., Quinn Moore, Andrew Clarkwest, and Alexandra Killewald. 2014. "The Long-Term Effects of Building Strong Families: A Program for Unmarried Parents." Journal of Marriage and Family 76(2):446-63.

Killewald, Alexandra and Jonathan Bearak. 2014. "Is the Motherhood Penalty Larger for Low-Wage Women? A Comment on Quantile Regression." American Sociological Review 79(2):350-7.

Killewald, Alexandra and Margaret Gough. 2013. "Does Specialization Explain Marriage Penalties and Premiums?" American Sociological Review 78(3):477-502.

Killewald, Alexandra. 2013. "A Reconsideration of the Fatherhood Premium: Marriage, Coresidence, Biology, and Fathers' Wages." American Sociological Review 78(1):96-116.

Killewald, Alexandrea. 2013. "Return to Being Black, Living in the Red: A Race Gap in Wealth That Goes Beyond Social Origins." Demography 50(4):1177-95.

Xie, Yu and Alexandra Killewald. 2012. Is American Science in Decline? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gough, Margaret and Alexandra Killewald. 2011. "Unemployment in Families: The Case of Housework." Journal of Marriage and Family 73(5):1085-1100.

Killewald, Alexandra. 2011. "Opting Out and Buying Out: Wives' Earnings and Housework Time." Journal of Marriage and Family 73(2):459-71.

Killewald, Alexandra and Margaret Gough. 2010."Money Isn't Everything: Wives' Earnings and Housework Time." Social Science Research 39(6):987-1003.

References

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  1. ^ Killewald, Alexandra, and Margaret Gough. 2013. Does specialization explain marriage penalties and premiums? American sociological review 78(3):477-502.
  2. ^ Killewald, Alexandra, & Gough, Margaret. 2010. Money isn’t everything: Wives’ earnings and housework time. Social Science Research, 39(6):987-1003.
  3. ^ Killewald, A. 2011. Opting out and buying out: Wives' earnings and housework time. Journal of Marriage and Family, 73(2):459-471.
  4. ^ 'Killewald, Alexandra and Javier García-Manglano. 2016. "Tethered Lives: A Couple-Based Perspective on the Consequences of Parenthood for Time Use, Occupation, and Wages." Social Science Research 60:266-282
  5. ^ http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/footnotes/julyaugust15/asr_0715.html
  6. ^ Killewald, Alexandra. 2016. "Money, Work, and Marital Stability: Assessing Change in the Gendered Determinants of Divorce." American Sociological Review 81(4):696-719
  7. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-leads-to-divorce-its-often-about-work/
  8. ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/beyond-brad-and-angelina-why-couples-get-divorced
  9. ^ http://www.today.com/health/household-chores-not-reason-why-many-marriages-split-after-all-t101239
  10. ^ http://csx.sagepub.com/content/42/6/790.short#
  11. ^ Jeffrey Mervis, What If the Science Pipeline Isn't Really Leaking?, Science, July 20, 2012
  12. ^ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/is-american-science-in-decline/
  13. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/men-without-full-time-jobs-are-more-likely-to-divorce-study-suggests_us_57a23200e4b0e1aac9144587
  14. ^ http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/it-pays-to-be-a-married-dad-whose-wife-doesnt-work-full-time/272666/
  15. ^ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_JSLxwgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao