Louise M. Roth Ph.D.

Research Interests

Gender, organizations, law, reproduction, and the family.
Louise Roth's book Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on Wall Street, was published by Princeton University Press in 2006. This book, along with 7 journal articles, present the findings of research comparing men and women with very similar qualifications and work experience who started careers on Wall Street in the early 1990s. Roth interviewed 76 men and women at the height of the bull market, finding that subtle gender discrimination was facilitated by Wall Street’s highly variable pay system. This resulted in lower average earnings for women and a greater likelihood of derailment in women’s career paths. Despite this, some women were able to be very successful and their experiences suggest avenues for improving women’s opportunities in high-paying male-dominated occupations.  Roth's work on gender equity on Wall Street has been reviewed by many business journalists
Roth is currently conducting research on how physician compensation systems affect gender inequality in medicine. She also has an NSF grant for research on how malpractice and the health insurance system influence maternity care, including the rate of cesarean delivery. Cesareans may be an example of “defensive medicine” (medical practices designed to avert the future possibility of malpractice suits, rather than to benefit the patient). Roth takes an organizational approach and analyzes state-level and over-time variation in c-section rates.  Louise Roth is also the PI of an inter-university team that will conduct a survey of maternity support workers (doulas, childbirth educators, and labor and delivery nurses).  In the future, she intends to examine cross-national differences in physician reward systems, malpractice and reimbursement effects on cesareans, and maternity support work, with a focus on comparing the United States to her native Canada.
Roth also blogs for the Huffington Post and on her own website, http://www.louiseroth.com/, on issues including gender equity, work-family balance, health care, and birth. You can also follow her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/louiseroth).

Representative Publications

    * Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on Wall Street. Princeton University Press (2006).
    * “Gendered Jobs: Negotiating Opportunity and Recognition.” Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. 2, 1: 17-30 (2009).
    * Lubold, Amanda M. and Louise Marie Roth. In press. “The Context for Breastfeeding: The Impact of Workplace Practices on Breastfeeding Experiences and Disparities among Women.”  In Breastfeeding and Feminism: New Ways Forward for Public Health.