Kristin E. Smith

|Visiting Assoc Professor
Academic Appointments
  • Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology

  • Rockefeller Center Policy Research Shop Director

Kristin Smith's research focuses on gender inequality, earnings and employment, and work and family policy. She has researched labor force issues, including gender differences in job tenure and shifting determinants of women's labor supply and the consequences of those shifts. In addition, Smith has studied occupational variation in earnings, job retention and job flexibility, with a focus on care workers and STEM workers. Smith also studies family policy, including paid family and medical leave, examining inequity in access and impacts on labor supply decisions. Smith's expertise lies in examining trends in how work and family life interconnect, developing workforce policy recommendations, and applying a gender lens to her analysis. She has a broad background in demography and sociology, has extensive experience in survey design and implementation, and is proficient at quantitative data analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal data.

Contact

Blunt Alum Ctr, Room 301B
HB 6104

Sociology, Rockefeller Center

B.A. University of Vermont 1989 M.P.H. Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine 1993 Masters Certificate in Project Management, Georgetown University 2001 Ph.D. University of Maryland 2006

Selected Publications

  • Folbre, N., L. Gautham, and K. Smith. 2023. "Appendix 3. The relative earnings of human
    services workers in Washington state, King County, and Seattle: A market analysis." In the Wage
    Equity Study, Wage Equity for Non-profit Human Services Workers: A study of work and pay in
    Seattle and King County." Seattle, WA: University of Washington.

  • Folbre, N., L. Gautham, and K. Smith. 2023. "Gender Inequality, Bargaining, and Pay in Care
    Services in the U.S." ILR Review. 76(1):86-111, published online 25 Apr 2022

  • Duffy, M., R. Baughman, and K. Smith. 2021. "Employment Transitions and Occupational
    Mobility: Is Care Work Different?" Feminist Economics. 27:4, 62-89, DOI:
    10.1080/13545701.2021.1921239

  • Baughman, R., B. Stanley, and K. Smith. 2020. "Second Job Holding Among Direct Care Workers
    and Nurses: Implications for COVID Transmission in Long-Term Care." Medical Care Research
    and Review, published online 20 Nov 2020 doi: 10.1177/1077558720974129

+ View more

Byker, Tanya, Elena Patel, and K. Smith. 2023. "Fitting the Bill? Emergency Paid Leave and the
Families First Coronavirus Response Act" at Washington Center for Equitable Growth Webinar:
Paid leave and the pandemic: New Evidence from Families First and lessons for federal
policymakers.

Byker, Tanya, Elena Patel, and K. Smith. 2022. "Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Effect
on Paid Leave Taking During the Early Pandemic" at APPAM conference in Austin TX.

Smith, K. and S. Allen. 2022. "Social Inequality and the COVID-19 Pandemic." Paper presented
at the 2022 Eastern Sociological Society Meeting, Boston, Mass.

Smith, K., Elena Patel, and Tanya Byker. 2022. "COVID-19 and Paid Leave: Racial and Ethnic
Disparities. Invited Panelist on Panel, "Ensuring Racial Equity in Paid Family and Medical Leave"
at AU IWPR Care Economy Conference, The U.S. Care Infrastructure: From Promise to Reality.
Washington, DC.

"Report highlights continued pandemic inequalities for women throughout the state." Concord
Monitor. December 5, 2022

"Community Reacts to Draft Opinion Overturning Roe v. Wade." Dartmouth News. MAY 9 2022

"The pandemic forced millions of women out of the workforce—many have not returned."
Daily Hampshire Gazette NOV 8 2021

"Women recount sexual harassment at Upper Valley cleaning companies." Valley News NOV 7
2021

"Professor gender pay gap greater at Dartmouth than at peer institutions." The Dartmouth JUL
2 2021

"Episode 250: It's Like Climbing up a Mudslide: Pandemic Pushes Women Out of the
Workforce
." New England News Collaborative, Podcast. MAY 13 2021

Smith, K. and A. Tickamyer, eds. 2011.  Economic Restructuring and Family Well-Being in Rural America.  University Park, Penn State University Press.

Despite Gains, Closing Wage Gap Could Take Decades (NPR)

Workers Vote With Feet, Leave Home-Based Childcare (NPR)

Wives as Breadwinners: Wives' Share of Family Earnings Hits Historic High During the Second Year of the Great Recession Media coverage of the study: The Economist / New York Times Economix Blog / Time Magazine On-Line / Business Week / NPR