About Allison

Allison Daminger is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University in 2022. Her research focuses on how and why gender continues to shape individuals’ experiences at home and at work, even as support for gender-egalitarianism keeps growing.

Allison’s dissertation is about cognitive labor, or project management for the household. This work includes tasks like remembering when it’s time to schedule an oil change, deciding on a daycare center, and researching a new dishwasher. Based on more than 140 interviews, Allison finds that women in different-gender couples typically bear the brunt of the cognitive load. Yet even egalitarians are often content with this inequality because they see it as a function of personality or circumstance rather than of gender norms.

Allison has published two articles on cognitive labor in the American Sociological Review, and she is currently writing a book (under advance contract with Princeton University Press) on this topic. Her research has been recognized with four awards from the American Sociological Association. Allison has received funding support from the Weatherhead Initiative for Gender Inequality and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Ph.D. Fellowship in Inequality and Wealth Concentration, among other sources.

Allison is also passionate about translating academic research for readers outside the academy. She has written about gender inequality for The Guardian and The Behavioral Scientist, and her work has been featured in venues such as the New York Times, the BBC, and Psychology Today. She also writes a newsletter that offers a sociological take on parenting and family life.