Joya Misra’s work focuses on gender inequality among advanced welfare states, where gender equality has made the most progress but also where national variation is most apparent. Her research analyzes this variation over time, considering how gender inequalities have changed over the last 25 years and the extent to which family and household dynamics contribute to this variation.

In her proposal entitled “Parenthood, Gender, and Earning Inequality in Advanced Welfare States,” she analyzed eighteen different advanced industrialized countries from 1985 through 2010 and considered how gendered cultural and policy contexts help explain variations between countries and over time. She argued that not only is the shape of gender inequality dynamic, but that the causes of gender pay gaps are also dynamic. Misra’s previous work examines policy impacts on poverty, income inequality and employment as well as carework, citizenship, and immigration in Europe. In 2010, Professor Misra won the Sociologists for Women in Society Feminist Mentoring Award. She is currently the editor of the journal Gender & Society, the top-ranked journal in gender studies worldwide.