Ohjae Gowen

I'm transitioning to a new position and will be joining the Department of Sociology at Seoul National University as an Assistant Professor in September 2025. In the meantime, you can reach me at ohjaegowen@gmail.com 

Welcome! I am a sociologist studying family dynamics, social stratification, demography, gender, and labor markets. 

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 am expanding 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.

I received my Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University in 2024 and was on the faculty at Singapore Management University before joining Seoul National University.