Mignon Duffy’s primary research interests center around care work – the work of taking care of others, including children and those who are elderly, ill, or disabled. She is particularly interested in how the social organization of care intersects with gender, race, class, and other systems of inequality. Her first book, Making Care Count: One Hundred Years of Gender, Race, and Paid Care Work, is a testament to her diverse research methods, combining quantitative, historical, and interpretive approaches to analyze the emergence and organization of care work occupations in health care, education, child care, and social services.
She is a co-editor of Caring on the Clock: The Complexities and Contradictions of Paid Care, which collects cutting-edge research across a range of care work occupations. Her research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Gender & Society and Social Problems. Committed to connecting her research to policy, Duffy has worked in collaboration with policy organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, and the World Economic Forum.
Duffy was also the co-chair of the Carework Network, a national organization of care work researchers and advocates.
Selected Publications:
Mignon Duffy, Reagan Baughman and Kristin Smith. 2021. «The Flip Side of Turnover: Employment Transitions and Occupational Attachment among Low-Wage Care Workers in the United States.» Feminist Economics.
Mignon Duffy. 2020. «Driven by Inequalities: Exploring the Resurgence of Domestic Work in US Cities.» Sociological Forum 35(3): 608-627.
Mignon Duffy and Amy Armenia. 2019. Paid Care Work Around the Globe: A Comparative Analysis of 47 Countries. UN Women Discussion Paper. 2015 Mignon Duffy, Amy Armenia and Clare Stacey (editors). Caring on the Clock: The Complexities and Contradictions of Paid Care Work. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Mignon Duffy, Randy Albelda and Clare Hammonds. 2013. «Counting Care Work: The Empirical and Policy Applications of Care Theory.» Social Problems 60(2): 145-167.
