
Fields of Interest
Biography
Julie Brines (BSc, Western Washington University; AM, PhD, Harvard) is Associate Professor of Sociology. Her research examines the ways in which gender governs the division of labor and the production and distribution of key €œgoods€ in families, often with a focus on the consequences of these arrangements for family stability, and on how these consequences, in turn, are shaped by the legal or economic environments confronting couples. She is also interested in what underlies social change in couples' work and earnings arrangements. Her research combines interests in gender and sexualities, family relations, stratification, the economics of households, and the social psychology of close relationships.
Brines is the author of widely-cited papers on economic dependency, gender, and the division of housework, and (with Kara Joyner) the operating principles of durable cohabiting and marital unions. A recent paper, in collaboration with lead author Sabino Kornrich and Katrina Leupp, examines household task division and sexual frequency in marriage, and advances a new framework for understanding how enactments of gender through the work married men and women do also sculpt a couple's sex life. This research received international media attention, including coverage by allAfrica, the BBC, Ha'aretz, Reuters, Scientific American, TIME, TV Globo, and U.S. News and World Report. Brines has also been involved in research on income-driven disparities in the preventative health care that families provide to sons and daughters, on perceptions of fairness in marriage and the risk of divorce, and on patterns of nonstandard employment in dual-earner households. An ongoing project, with Brian Serafini, models the effects of unemployment, changing housing markets, and labor-sector dominance on marital disruption in the wake of the Great Recession.
Brines is an affiliate of the UW Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) and the UW Center for Statistics in the Social Sciences (CSSS). She is also a faculty fellow of the Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality, and periodically travels overseas to give talks or teach graduate seminars, including visits to France, Norway and a much-beloved Portugal.
Research
Research Advised
- Hiramori, Daiki. 2022. “Sexuality Stratification in Contemporary Japan: A Study in Sociology.” PhD dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Reisman, Andrea. 2018. "Gender Structures, Strategies, and Expectations during Nepal’s Labor Migration." Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Nolan IV, Daniel A. 2018. "Souvenirs and Travel Guides: The Cognitive Sociology of Grieving Public Figures." M.A. Thesis. Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Diefendorf, Sarah. 2018. "Evangelical Sexual Politics in Trump’s America." Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Leung, ManChui R. 2018. "Gender In Context: Immigrant Routes to Healthcare Access." Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Bruns, Angela N. 2017. "Consequences of Partner Incarceration for Women’s Employment." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Hiramori, Daiki. 2016. “Social-Institutional Structures That Matter: An Exploratory Analysis of Sexual/Gender Minority Status and Income in Japan.” MA thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Lui, Ching Wu Lake. 2015. "Moving Up or Staying Put? Mobility, Marriage and Gender in Transitional China." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Leupp, Katrina. 2014. "Benefits of the Balancing Act: Motherhood, Employment and Mental Health." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Tamaki, Emi. 2013. "The Gendered Effects of Marriage on Health in Japan: Structure, Role Expectations, and Outcomes." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Maroto, Michelle Lee. 2012. "The Scarring Effects of Bankruptcy: Cumulative Disadvantage across Credit and Labor Markets." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Litzler, Elizabeth. 2010. "Sex Segregation in Undergraduate Engineering Majors." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Ewert, Stephanie L. 2010. "The Determinants of Gender Inequality in Higher Education." PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.
- Lien, Catherine. 2023. "Understanding Egalitarian Trends Among Divorced Single Fathers' Households." In partial fulfillment of the Sociology Honors Program.
- Omar, Audrey. 2020. "The admiration of fathers: using factorial vignettes to explore differential assessments of parenting quality." M.A. Thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.