Ohjae Gowen

Welcome! I am a sociologist studying family dynamics, social stratification, demography, gender, and labor markets. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. In Fall 2024, I will be joining Singapore Management University as an Assistant Professor of Sociology.

My research agenda is driven by a broad question of how the responsibility of childrearing is unevenly distributed across different stakeholders in a society—such as families, the state, and the market. In particular, why is the labor of childrearing unequally shared between mothers and fathers, and what are the wider implications of these gendered family roles on social inequality and demographic behaviors? 

In my research, I often bring great attention to men's work and household labor behaviors; although men’s behavioral changes following parenthood are less extensive than those of women, it is precisely this limited change among men that contributes to the gendered consequences of parenthood. To answer the substantive questions of my research agenda, I apply and develop advanced quantitative methods and use large-scale longitudinal data. My empirical work has primarily focused on the United States, and I plan to expand my regional focus to include South Korea and other Asian countries. My recent papers have appeared in Social Forces, Sociological Science, and European Sociological Review.

Before coming to Harvard, I received my BA and MA from Seoul National University, both in sociology.