Syracuse Sun

Kristy Buzard, an associate professor of economics at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is set to further her research on invisible labor and the gender wage gap as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Alongside her colleagues Laura Gee from Tufts University and Olga Stoddard from Brigham Young University, Buzard will delve into how women disproportionately shoulder mental and economic burdens compared to men.

The team’s residency was delayed due to child care concerns for Gee and Stoddard but is expected to commence in spring or early summer 2025. Their research focuses on "invisible tasks" such as scheduling medical appointments, arranging child care, and planning extracurricular activities—tasks that preliminary findings suggest are more frequently managed by women.

“There have been several times when one of my co-authors has been presenting the paper and they have to pause because their child’s school is calling,” said Buzard. “Our research strives to understand the disproportionate burden of the mental load that it seems women bear.”

Buzard, Gee, and Stoddard conducted a randomized control trial involving emails sent from fictitious parents in heterosexual relationships to school principals. The study aimed to quantify why principals often contact mothers over fathers even when both parents indicate unavailability. The results showed that mothers are 1.4 times more likely than fathers to be contacted by their child's school.

“These principals responded less strongly to the signals the moms were sending about being unavailable while largely not calling the men who say they’re unavailable,” Buzard noted.

During their residency at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Buzard hopes access to additional data will enhance their research. “The more that we as academics can do to be in touch with people on the policy front lines, the better our research is going to be,” she said.

One aspect of their study involves analyzing voicemails left by principals—approximately 17,000 out of 80,000 calls—to gauge sentiment based on whether a mother or father indicated unavailability. This analysis aims to uncover societal expectations regarding parental availability.

Buzard also addressed why progress in closing the gender wage gap has stagnated: “It closed over time and now it’s kind of stubbornly sitting there... A big part of the gap can be explained by motherhood.” She highlighted economic incentives for one parent (often mothers) stepping out of the workforce due to high childcare costs as contributing factors.

To fully understand this issue, Buzard emphasized examining career decisions influenced by anticipated parental demands: “We see twice as many women as men saying they thought hard about this when they chose their college major.”

By exploring these dynamics, Buzard's team aims not only to illuminate current disparities but also potentially influence future policies addressing gender-based economic inequalities.