Amy Burnett Cross has been selected as one of the three to support her dissertation research on the influence of military policy on the sorting of women into occupations. Through this research, she is able to include her knowledge from 鶹Ƶ’s Program on Gender Analysis in Economics as well as her understanding that by bringing more insight from conservative institutions into her research realm, she could enhance the policy space of gender equity.
As she continues her career, Amy desires to conduct research that is directly applicable to policymakers, and through her research on this project, Amy has the chance to do thisin addition to engagingwith economic history and begin to invest more time in the historical arc of military policy and gender dynamics.
She has three focuses forher dissertation project: (1) evaluate the impact of lifting the ban on women in combat (in 2013) on civilian occupational desegregation; (2) measure the extent to which gender desegregation of the Army (in 1977) signaled a shift in the appropriate role of civilian women at work; and (3) assess whether the structure of the U.S. draft in WWI (in 1917) contributed to the development of the male breadwinner norm.
Amy’s work aims to provide evidence that policy changes can influence social norms constraining women’s work and occupational segregation, particularly in discovering how policies regarding women’s participation in the military go on to influence gender gaps in civilian labor market outcomes. In doing so, Amy also seeks to contribute to the research of information asymmetry as a cause for occupational segregation—does military gender desegregation function as a reduction of information asymmetry?
With the support and accommodation of her peers, professors, and advisor, Mary E. Hansen, Amy has been able to focus on her academic excellence and develop close friendships and bonds during her journey at 鶹Ƶ. In discussing her work in gender economics and the community at 鶹Ƶ, Amy offered, “鶹Ƶ attracts women economists and I have found some truly excellent ones here.”