Laura Lovett specializes in twentieth century U.S. women's history with special interests in the histories of childhood, youth movements, and the family. Her work has focused on pronatalism, reproductive regulation, eugenics, and ideals of the family, as well as the intersection of women's and children's history.

She is the author of Conceiving the Future: Pronatalism, Reproduction, and the Family, 1890-1938 and co-edited a critical collection entitled When we Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children's Classic and the Difference It Made that explores generational dialogues concerning gender roles and the place of children in the women's movement in a new collection of history written for the public. From 2008 to 2011, she was Director of the Five College Women's Studies Research Center. Lovett is currently researching the historical intersection of eugenics and housing policies in the United States and their implications for discriminatory housing practices, such as redlining and reverse redlining.