Louise M Roth

Interests

Research

Gender, Organizations, Medical Sociology, Reproduction, Law

Teaching

Gender, Family, Medical Sociology, Statistics

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Roth, L. M. (2021). The Business of Birth: Malpractice and Maternity Care in the United States. New York: NYU Press.
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  The Business of Birth examines the effects of malpractice and reproductive rights laws on maternity care practices in the U.S. from 1995 to 2015. It is a common public belief that ‘frivolous’ malpractice claims and women’s ‘choices’ shape hospital birth practices. In this book, mixed-method analyses of the effects of malpractice laws and reproductive rights laws demonstrate that this belief is incorrect. Reproductive Regimes carefully documents how there are interconnected systems of laws and policies, or legal ‘regimes,’ that influence birth practices in unexpected ways. When it comes to malpractice, the Standard of Care that defines malpractice is internal to the medical profession. This means that tort laws do not exert the external pressure that physicians believe they do, although professional associations, liability insurers, risk managers, and hospital legal counsel reinforce a fear of liability risk. This fear can encourage obstetricians to intervene into labor and birth with scientifically-unsupported technology or procedures with known risks. But reducing liability risk can encourage risky practices that promote organizational efficiency over patient safety. Reproductive Regimes also examines the implications of reproductive rights laws for maternity care practices, defining states that protect women’s reproductive rights as woman-centered and those that protect fetuses as fetus-centered. Reproductive Justice theory argues that pregnant women’s rights during childbirth are connected to laws governing the full-spectrum of reproduction. Woman-centered approaches to pregnancy and abortion promote choice, informed consent, and the right to bodily integrity when women give birth, while fetus-centered regimes limit women’s rights and choices during birth.

Chapters

• Heinz, E. M., & Roth, L. M. (2019). As Many as I Can Afford: Economic Constraint and Reproductive Justice in Uganda. In Transnational Perspectives of Sexual and Reproductive Rights(pp 191-212). New York: Routledge.
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  This paper uses reproductive justice theory to analyze the effects of globalization on the reproductive agency of women in rural Uganda, as they negotiate modern ideas of fertility and traditional ideas of social status. Using original data from 160 surveys and 41 semi-structured interviews, we discuss how women use a script of modern economic rationality to justify preferring a smaller family size and to label others who do not conform to these scripts as irresponsible. They thus police the behaviors of other women to conform to international NGOs’ goals of economic development. Women’s uses of both traditional and modern economic justification of ideal family size suggests a population in transition. We argue that women strategically negotiate resources provided by international NGOs to improve their material wellbeing, but they compromise some reproductive agency in order to align with the cultural and behavioral goals of international NGOs. By adopting the logic of “family planning” from the development community, these women also socially sanction those that do not conform to modern scripts and behaviors. This suggests a mechanism for how globalization occurs at the micro-level.
• Naiman-sessions, M., Henley, M. M., Henley, M. M., & Roth, L. M. (2017). Bearing the Burden of Care: Emotional Burnout Among Maternity Support Workers. In Health and Health Care Concerns among Women and Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 35(pp 99-125). Emerald Publishing Limited. doi:10.1108/S0275-495920170000035006
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  Abstract This research examines effects on emotional burnout among “maternity support workers” (MSWs) that support women in labor (labor and delivery (L&D) nurses and doulas). The emotional intensity of maternity support work is likely to contribute to emotional distress, compassion fatigue, and burnout. This study uses data from the Maternity Support Survey (MSS) to analyze emotional burnout among 807 L&D nurses and 1,226 doulas in the United States and Canada. Multivariate OLS regression models examine the effects of work–family conflict, overwork, emotional intelligence, witnessing unethical mistreatment of women in labor, and practice characteristics on emotional burnout among these MSWs. We measure emotional burnout using the Professional Quality of Life (PROQOL) Emotional Burnout subscale. Work–family conflict, feelings of overwork, witnessing a higher frequency of unethical mistreatment, and working in a hospital with a larger percentage of cesarean deliveries are associated with higher levels of burnout among MSWs. Higher emotional intelligence is associated with lower levels of burnout, and the availability of hospital wellness programs is associated with less burnout among L&D nurses. While the MSS obtained a large number of responses, its recruitment methods produced a nonrandom sample and made it impossible to calculate a response rate. As a result, responses may not be generalizable to all L&D nurses and doulas in the United States and Canada. This research reveals that MSWs attitudes about medical procedures such as cesarean sections and induction are tied to their experiences of emotional burnout. It also demonstrates a link between witnessing mistreatment of laboring women and burnout, so that traumatic incidents have negative emotional consequences for MSWs. The findings have implications for secondary trauma and compassion fatigue, and for the quality of maternity care.
• Roth, L. M., & Lubold, A. M. (2014). Maternity Services and Policy in Canada. In Maternity Services and Policy in International Context: risk, citizenship and welfare regimes(pp 130-152). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
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  Invited chapter on maternity care services in Canada, situated within the welfare regime literature. Accepted in fall 2013, published in Fall 2014.
• Lubold, A., & Roth, L. M. (2012). The Context for Breastfeeding: The Impact of Workplace Practices on Breastfeeding Experiences and Disparities among Women. In Beyond Health, Beyond Choice: Breastfeeding Constraints and Realities(pp 157-166). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
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  Your Role: My student was interested in breastfeeding in my class, so I encouraged her to submit to this conference/volume with me as second author. I worked hard to see the research come to fruition, including substantial analysis and writing. This is her first publication.;Collaborative with graduate student:
• Roth, L. M., & Lubold, A. (2012). The Context for Breastfeeding: The Impact of Workplace Practices on Breastfeeding Experiences and Disparities among Women. In Beyond Health, Beyond Choice: Breastfeeding Constraints and Realities(pp 157-166). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
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  Your Role: My student was interested in breastfeeding in my class, so I encouraged her to submit to this conference/volume with me as second author. I worked hard to see the research come to fruition, including substantial analysis and writing. This was her first publication.;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;
• Roth, L. M., & Kwan, S. (2011). Tainted Meat: Vegetarianism as Counter-Hegemonic Embodiment. In Embodied Resistance: Breaking the Rules in Public Places(pp 186-196). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
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  Published in Embodied Resistance: Breaking the Rules in Public Places, edited by Christina Bobel and Samantha Kwan. Vanderbilt University Press. (Names are in alphabetical order to reflect equal contributions.);Your Role: Equal co-author;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;
• Roth, L. M., & Kwan, S. (2011). The Everyday Resistance of Vegetarianism. In Embodied Resistance: Breaking the Rules in Public Places(pp 186-196). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
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  Samantha Kwan is a former graduate student who is now faculty at University of Houston. Names are in alphabetical order to reflect equal contributions.;Your Role: Equal co-author;Edited by Christina Bobel and Samantha Kwan. Collaborative with graduate student:

Journals/Publications

• Lee, J. H., & Roth, L. M. (2023).

  Undue Burdens: State Abortion Laws in the U.S., 1994–2022

  . Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. doi:10.1215/03616878-10449905
• Roth, L. M. (2022). Defensive versus evidence-based medical technology: Liability risk and electronic fetal monitoring in low-risk births. Social Science & Medicine, 317. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115565
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  Accepted November 2022. Available online ahead of print November 26, 2022. Publication in print journals January 2023.
• Roth, L. M., & Lee, J. H. (2022). Undue Burdens: State Abortion Laws in the U.S., 1994-2022. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law (Special Issue on “Politics of Abortion 50 Years after Roe”).
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  Invited submission: full manuscript of 7,000-10,000 words
• Morton, C. H., Henley, M. M., Seacrist, M., & Roth, L. M. (2018). Bearing Witness: U.S. and Canadian Maternity Support Workers’ Observations of Mistreatment of Women in Childbirth. Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care, 45, 263-274. doi:10.1111/birt.12373
• Roth, L. M., & Henley, M. M. (2018). Full spectrum or à la carte: views of reproductive rights among maternity support workers in Canada and the United States. Sociology International Journal, 2(6). doi:10.15406/sij.2018.02.00096
• Roth, L. M., Morton, C. H., Henley, M. M., & Seacrist, M. (2018). Bearing witness: United States and Canadian maternity support workers’ observations of disrespectful care in childbirth. Birth, 45(3), 263-274. doi:10.1111/birt.12373
• Naiman-Sessions, M., Henley, M. M., & Roth, L. M. (2017). Bearing the Burden of Care: Emotional Burnout among Maternity Support Workers. Research in the Sociology of Health Care, 35.
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  Accepted for publication in 2017
• Henley, M. M., Seacrist, M. J., Roth, L. M., Morton, C. H., & Henley, M. M. (2016). North American Nurses' and Doulas' Views of Each Other.. Journal of obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing : JOGNN, 45(6), 790-800. doi:10.1016/j.jogn.2016.06.011
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  To analyze factors that lead nurses and doulas to have positive views of each other..A multivariate analysis of a cross-sectional survey, the Maternity Support Survey..Online survey with labor and delivery nurses, doulas, and childbirth educators in the United States and Canada..A convenience sample of 704 labor and delivery nurses and 1,470 doulas..Multiple regression analysis was used to examine five sets of hypotheses about nurses' and doulas' attitudes toward each other. Scales of nurses' attitudes toward doulas and doulas' attitudes toward nurses included beliefs that nurses/doulas enhance communication, are collaborative team members, enhance a woman's birth experience, interfere with the ability to provide care, or interfere with relationships with the women for whom they care..For nurses, exposure to doulas in their primary hospitals was associated with more positive views, whereas working more hours, feeling overworked, and a preference for clinical tasks over labor support were associated with more negative views of doulas. For doulas, working primarily in one hospital and certification were associated with more positive views of nurses. Nurses with more positive attitudes toward common obstetric practices had more negative attitudes toward doulas, whereas doulas with more positive attitudes toward common obstetric practices had more positive attitudes toward nurses..Our findings show factors that influence mutual understanding and appreciation of nurses and doulas for each other. These factors can be influenced by educational efforts to improve interprofessional collaboration between these maternity care support roles.
• Roth, L. M. (2016). A Doctor’s Worth Bonus Criteria and the Gender Pay Gap among American Physicians. Social currents, 3(1), 3-23. doi:10.1177/2329496515603728
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  Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs, based on productivity, patient satisfaction, quality of care, efficiency profiling, or unspecified criteria have become popular in American medicine. Theoretical...
• Roth, L. M. (2016). What’s the Rush? Tort Laws and Elective Early-term Induction of Labor. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 57(4), 486-501. doi:10.1177/0022146516669971
• Roth, L. M. (2016). What’s the Rush? Tort Laws and Early Elective Delivery. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 57(4), 486-501. doi:10.1177/0022146516669971
• Roth, L. M., Henley, M. M., Marek, M., Torres, J. C., & Morton, C. H. (2016). How US and Canadian Doulas and Nurses View Collaborative Relationships with Each Other. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing (JOGNN), 45(6), 790-800. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jogn.2016.06.011
• Cote, R. R., Jensen, J., Roth, L. M., & Way, S. (2015). The Effects of Gendered Networks on U.S. Migration: A Comparison of 4 Latin American Countries. Demography, 52(3). doi:10.1007/s13524-015-0396-z
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  Published in June 2015 issue
• Roth, L. M. (2016). A Doctor's Worth: Bonus Criteria and the Gender Pay Gap among American Physicians. Social Currents, 3(1), 3-23. doi:10.1177/2329496515603728
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  This paper analyzes the effects of bonus compensation on the gender gap in pay among doctors.
• Way, S. M., Roth, L. M., Jensen, J. E., & Cote, R. R. (2015). The Effects of Gendered Social Capital on U.S. Migration: A Comparison of Four Latin American Countries.. Demography, 52(3), 989-1015. doi:10.1007/s13524-015-0396-z
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  This article contributes to understandings of gendered social capital by analyzing the effects of gendered ties on the migration of men and women from four Latin American countries (Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic) to the United States. The research theorizes the importance of strong and weak ties to men and women in each sending country as a product of the gender equity gap in economic participation (low/high) and incidence of female-led families (low/high). The findings reveal that ties to men increase the odds of migration from countries where gender equity and incidence of female-led families are low, while ties to women are more important for migration from countries where gender equity and female-led families are high. Previous research on migration and social capital details the importance of network ties for providing resources and the role of gender in mediating social capital quality and access to network support. Results reveal that not only are different kinds of ties important to female and male migration, but migrants from different countries look to different sources of social capital for assistance.
• Roth, L. M. (2013). Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model. Contemporary Sociology, 42(2), 262-263. doi:10.1177/0094306113477381gg
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  Book review
• Running, K. M., & Roth, L. M. (2013). To Wed or to Work: Assessing Work and Marriage as Routes Out of Poverty. Journal of Poverty, 17(2), 177-197.
• Roth, L. M., & Henley, M. M. (2012). Unequal Motherhood: Inequality in Cesarean Sections in the United States. Social Problems/University of California Press, 59(2), 207-227.
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  Your Role: Primary investigator/first author.;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;
• Roth, L. M., & Henley, M. M. (2012). Unequal Motherhood: Inequality in Cesarean Sections in the United States. Social Problems/University of California Press.
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  ;Your Role: Primary investigator/first author.;Full Citation: Roth, Louise Marie, and Megan M. Henley. 2012. “Unequal Motherhood: Inequality in Cesarean Sections in the United States.” Social Problems 59, 2 (May): 207-227.;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;
• Roth, L. M. (2011). Gender Inequalities in the 21st Century: New Barriers and Continuing Constraints. Contemporary Sociology, 40(6), 752-754. doi:10.1177/0094306111425016uu
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  Book review
• Roth, L. M. (2009). Leveling the Playing Field: Negotiating Opportunities and Recognition in Gendered Jobs. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 2(1), 17-30. doi:10.1111/j.1750-4716.2008.00025.x
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  In gendered jobs, how do women and men negotiate opportunities to perform and receive recognition for their accomplishments? Women face disadvantages negotiating the workplace, especially in male-dominated positions, while men receive advantages even in female-dominated jobs. This article uses research on gender inequality on Wall Street to illustrate how gender schemas sustain gen- der inequality in career opportunities, access to networks and mentors, and evaluations of performance. Women on Wall Street faced exclusionary networks and assumptions that men were more competent at finance. The article then focuses on strategies that some women on Wall Street have used to successfully negotiate career opportu- nities and recognition. These strategies include developing expertise, specializing in financial products, and seeking positions with objective performance criteria.
• Roth, L. M. (2007). Women on Wall Street: Despite Diversity Measures, Wall Street Remains Vulnerable to Sex Discrimination Charges. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(1), 24-35. doi:10.5465/amp.2007.24286162
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  Executive Overview Shaken by sexual harassment charges and costly lawsuits, Wall Street in the late 1990s saw a real shift away from its “old boy network” past – at least on paper anyway. In response to sexual harassment suits, many firms on Wall Street implemented strict sexual harassment policies, and even family friendly work-life balance policies. Unfortunately, the lawsuits have continued, prompting many to wonder why Wall Street continues to be so hostile to anyone other than white males. In a research study conducted in 1998 and 1999 with 76 men and women working on Wall Street, I found a number of reasons why change has been so slow in the making.
• Roth, L. M., & Kroll, J. C. (2007). Risky Business: Assessing Risk Preference Explanations for Gender Differences in Religiosity:. American Sociological Review, 72(2), 205-220. doi:10.1177/000312240707200204
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  Scholars of religion have long known that women are more religious than men, but they disagree about the reasons underlying this difference. Risk preference theory suggests that gender gaps in religiosity are a consequence of men's greater propensity to take risks, and that irreligiosity is analogous to other high-risk behaviors typically associated with young men. Yet, research using risk preference theory has not effectively distinguished those who perceive a risk to irreligiousness from those who do not. In this article, we evaluate risk preference theory. We differentiate those who believe in an afterlife, who perceive a risk to irreligiousness, from nonbelievers who perceive no risk associated with the judgment after death. Using General Social Survey and World Values Survey data, multivariate models test the effects of gender and belief on religiousness. In most religions and nations the gender gap is larger for those who do not believe in an afterlife than for those who do, contradicting the predic...
• Zaloom, C., & Roth, L. M. (2007). Review Exchange: Scrutinizing Wall Street. Qualitative Sociology, 30(3), 337-342. doi:10.1007/s11133-007-9067-8
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  Book review
• Roth, L. M. (2006). Because I'm Worth It? Understanding Inequality in a Performance‐Based Pay System*. Sociological Inquiry, 76(1), 116-139. doi:10.1111/j.1475-682x.2006.00146.x
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  How do workers understand pay inequality? Every organizational field has a taken-for-granted compensation system that shapes understandings of rewards. Using data from 76 Wall Street professionals, I analyze how individuals interpret, understand, and justify inequality in a performance-based reward system where pay is supposed to be based on merit. A majority of securities workers believed that the performance-based pay system produced equitable rewards. But a substantial minority challenged the procedural and/or distributive justice of this pay system, producing counterinstitutional accounts. These accounts took three general forms: accounts of arbitrariness, accounts of misinformation, and accounts of discrimination. All of these counterinstitutional accounts pointed to nonmerit influences on bonuses. I argue that these challenges might undermine the legitimacy of the pay system, but most men and women who challenged the system exited their firms or the industry, so that their challenges did little to destabilize Wall Street's pay practices. Wall Street appears to maintain its legitimacy in part through the self-selection of dissenters out of the system.
• Roth, L. M. (2004). Bringing clients back in: Homophily preferences and inequality on Wall Street. Sociological Quarterly, 45(4), 613-635. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2004.tb02307.x
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  Using qualitative data from a cohort sample of 76 current or former Wall Street professionals, I argue that the perception that clients prefer homophily with their service providers shapes Wall Street careers and contributes to gender inequality. I also reveal how some women on Wall Street partially insulate themselves from biases against them by deliberately avoiding positions that are most dependent on client relationships. I hypothesize that the strength of client preferences for homophily in service providers in the Wall Street context is related to the high status of this service profession and its clients.
• Roth, L. M. (2004). Competing DevotionsCompeting Devotions: Career and Family Among Women Executives, by Blair-LoyMary. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. 288 pp. $39.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-674-01089-2.: Career and Family Among Women Executives. Contemporary Sociology, 33(4), 437-438. doi:10.1177/009430610403300422
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  Book review
• Roth, L. M. (2004). Engendering inequality: Processes of sex-segregation on wall street. Sociological Forum, 19(2), 203-228. doi:10.1023/b:sofo.0000031980.82004.d7
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  Women's numbers in high-paying, male-dominated occupations have risen in the past three decades, but they disproportionately hold lower-paying jobs within those occupations. A cohort sample of Wall Street securities professionals shows how sex segregation occurs over time, as men's and women's different experiences lead them to change functions, to change firms, or to leave the securities industry. While seemingly similar processes impinge on the careers of everyone in this exceptionally high-paid occupation, family constraints and gender discrimination produce differential results for similarly qualified men and women. Over time men disproportionately gain the very highest paying Wall Street jobs.
• Roth, L. M. (2004). The Social Psychology of Tokenism: Status and Homophily Processes on Wall Street:. Sociological Perspectives, 47(2), 189-214. doi:10.1525/sop.2004.47.2.189
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  While conscious action may produce some inequality, most discrimination occurs through cognitive processes that are automatic and unconscious. I examine the role of two cognitive mechanisms that affect gender inequality in the securities industry: homophily preferences and status expectations. I argue that homophily preferences and status expectations are the general cognitive processes that produce the effects of “tokenism,” which were originally identified by Kanter for female tokens. These processes also lead to differences in the experiences of male and female tokens. I use qualitative data on 76 Wall Street professionals to illustrate how homophily and status processes maintain and reproduce stratification in securities firms. Moreover, the compensation system in this industry, which rewards employees based on performance evaluations, aggravates the effects of these cognitive processes. Strong mentors, the possession of specialized skills, and objective performance indicators seem to mitigate these e...
• Roth, L. M. (2003). Selling Women Short: A Research Note on Gender Differences in Compensation on Wall Street. Social Forces, 82(2), 783-802. doi:10.1353/sof.2004.0023
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  Some research has suggested that, once all forms of segregation are controlled, there is no gender gap in earnings. However, other research suggests that substantial barriers to gender equality persist even within occupations. I suggest that institutional norms and market forces that determine compensation practices are likely to produce different results across professions. I hypothesize that gender inequality will persist on Wall Street even when men and women hold identical job titles. Using a cohort sample of securities professionals with highly similar human capital characteristics, I find statistically significant gender differences in 1997 earnings, controlling for background characteristics, human capital, and segregation by area of finance. I offer possible explanations for variation among professions, emphasizing the importance of institutional practices within the securities industry.
• Roth, L. M., Bean, F. D., Kantor, H., & Browne, I. (2002). Book Reviews. Work and Occupations, 29(3), 380-387. doi:10.1177/0730888402029003006
• Roth, L. M. (1999). The right to privacy is political: Power, the boundary between public and private, and sexual harassment. Law and Social Inquiry-journal of The American Bar Foundation, 24(1), 45-71. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.1999.tb00792.x
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  This paper concerns the relationship between power and the ability to defend the night of privacy. The discourse of public and private spheres has shifted historically, engendering arbitrary and changing legal and cultural definitions of the boundary between public and private. Historic specifications of this boundary have become untenable as increasing numbers of women entered the paid labor force. Recent formulations define the boundary of privacy as an area within each individual's life. However, greater social power increases the ability to protect personal privacy because it offers the ability to define and protect the “private” from scrutiny. After outlining the history of the shifting public/private boundary, this argument is applied to sexual harassment. Explicitly sexual types of harassment are related to the public/private boundary in two ways. First, they challenge the boundary itself, representing the occurrence of “private” conduct in the “public” sphere of work and education. Second, sexual harassment reveals the importance of social power in defining and defending one's privacy. Sexual harassment represents the extreme on a continuum of communication patterns between status unequals, and an invasion of the sexual privacy of the target.
• Roth, L. M., & Guthrie, D. (1999). The State, Courts, and Equal Opportunities for Female CEOs in U.S. Organizations: Specifying Institutional Mechanisms. Social Forces, 78(2), 511-542. doi:10.1093/sf/78.2.511
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  While institutional analyses have convincingly demonstrated the association between institutional environments and the rise of due-process structures in the workplace, they have been less clear on the extent to which institutional environments and due-process structures actually matter for worker outcomes in organizations. Through an analysis of CEOs in a national sample of U.S. organizations, this article contributes to institutional research in two ways: First, we examine the actual implications of institutional environments and due-process structures for equality of opportunity for women in the workplace, focusing on the likelihood that an organization will have a female CEO. Second, whereas institutional analyses have often relied on the presence of time-period effects to draw inferences about unmeasured characteristics of institutional environments, we measure characteristics of the institutional environment directly at the state and federal levels. Results show that specific aspects of the institutional environment in which an organization is situated, as well as the structure of an organization's internal labor market, are significant predictors of whether an
• Roth, L. M., & Guthrie, D. (1999). The State, Courts, and Maternity Policies in U.S. Organizations: Specifying Institutional Mechanisms. American Sociological Review, 64(1), 41-63. doi:10.2307/2657277
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  We analyze the dynamic interaction of state institutions and organizational policies through an analysis of leave benefits in U.S. organizations. Following the Pregnancy Leave Act of 1978 and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, organizations have been required by law to allow workers to take time off from work for childbearing and childrearing. Yet organizations vary on whether they offer full-time employees benefits that actually facilitate leave for family responsibilities. We analyze the determinants of the organizational decision to offer paid maternity leave to full-time employees. We compare these findings to the determinants of the organizational decision to offer paid sick leave to full-time employees. Our analysis suggests that organizations have taken an activist approach to their institutional environments: In the face of federal definitions of the law that mandated gender-neutral policies in the workplace and linked pregnancy to disability, those organizations that most often deal with maternity issues (e.g., those located in female-dominated industries) have institutionalized sick leave policies (often instead ofmaternity leave) to accommodate pregnant employees. The analysis examines specific aspects of the institutional environment at the state and federal levels to illuminate these trends.

Presentations

• Garnar, T. L., & Roth, L. M. (2022, August). The Hazards of Equal Treatment: Pregnancy Discrimination in Hazardous Workplaces. American Sociological Association annual meeting. Los Angeles.
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  Some workplace fetal-protection policies treat childbearing-capable workers differently from other workers even though pregnancy discrimination is a form of sex discrimination. This paper uses content analysis and a legal framing perspective to analyze federal pregnancy discrimination cases involving fetal-protection policies. The analysis reveals that these court decisions have relied on two dominant legal frames since 1964: a “protective-treatment” frame that permits differential treatment of childbearing-capable workers, and a “free-market” frame that requires equal treatment but prioritizes business interests and requires no accommodations. A more recent “disability-accommodation” frame demands workplace accommodations for pregnant workers and currently coexists with the free-market frame. (LSR rejected this paper and we are trying to carve out time to rework it for submission to another journal.)
• Park, D. J., & Roth, L. M. (2022, August). Enhancing Diversity by Expanding the Field: The Korean Attorney-at-Law Act and Diversity among Partners in Korean Law Firms. American Sociological Association annual meeting. Los Angeles.
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  This paper analyzes the effects of amendments to the Korean Attorney-at-Law Act (ALA) on diversity among founding law firm partners. Previous research has found that legal mandates that aim to increase diversity often have limited substantive impact, especially at the highest levels of organizations and professions. We examine the effects of legislation that aimed to transform the Korean legal field on three types of diversity among founding law firm partners: gender diversity, diversity in educational background, and diversity in career experience. Using data on founding partners who established Korean law firms from 2000 to 2016, this study models the effects of the ALA on a common measure for diversity in social science: the adjusted Blau’s index. The analysis finds that the gender diversity of founding law firm partners increased after May 2011, especially outside the capital city of Seoul, but the educational backgrounds and career histories of law firm partners became less diverse after May 2011. Thus, it appears that educational background and career experience become more important as the size of the legal field and its gender diversity increase. We argue that expansion of the legal labor market in Korea and gender quotas in newly-established Korean law schools encouraged gender desegregation and increased the gender diversity of law firm co-founders. Thus, the relationship between the 2011 ALA amendments and partner diversity illuminates conditions under which legislative changes can substantively promote gender diversity at the top of an organizational field. At the same time, the increase in the number of attorneys after May 2011 gave attorneys with a more prestigious educational background, and former judges and prosecutors, a competitive advantage, leading to greater educational and career homogeneity among founding law firm partners. (LSR rejected an earlier version. The paper is ready to resubmit to a general journal in Feb. 2023)
• Roth, L. M. (2022, October). Personhood under Patriarchy: Reproductive Justice in Arizona and Beyond. SBS Downtown Lecture Series. Fox Tucson Theatre: College of SBS.
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  10th Anniversary of the SBS Downtown Lecture Series. Theme: Sexualities. October 26, 2022.
• Roth, L. M. (2021, February). What’s the Rush: Tort Laws and Elective Early-Term Births. School of Sociology Brown Bag. University of Arizona (via Zoom).
• Roth, L. M. (2021, March). State Laws, the Affordable Care Act, and Reproductive Justice in the U.S., 2010-2019. Udall Center Fellows Colloquium Series. University of Arizona (via Zoom): Udall Center.
• Roth, L. M. (2021, November). The Business of Birth: Reproductive Regimes and Maternity Care in the United States. Texas A&M University Sociology Colloquium. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (via Zoom): Texas A&M Sociology Department.
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  I delivered an oral/visual presentation of major findings regarding reproductive rights laws from my 2021 book, The Business of Birth.
• Roth, L. M. (2019, August). A Breach of Promise: Tort Regimes and the Impact of Medical Malpractice on American Obstetrics. ASA Annual Meeting. New York, NY: American Sociological Association.
• Roth, L. M. (2018, August). Choice Matters: Reproductive Justice and the Availability of VBAC. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Philadelphia, PA: American Sociological Association.
• Roth, L. M. (2018, June). At the Crossroads of Law and Medicine: Myths of Malpractice and Defensive Medicine in American Obstetrics. Law and Society Association International Meetings. Toronto, Ontario: Law and Society Association.
• Heinz, E. M., & Roth, L. M. (2017, August). As Many as I Can Afford: Economic Constraint and Reproductive Justice in Uganda. American Sociological Association Annual Meetings. Montreal, Quebec: American Sociological Association.
• Roth, L. M. (2017, June). The Electronic Fetal Monitor: Legal Defense or Organizational Ritual?. Law and Society Association International Conference. Mexico City: Law and Society Association.
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  In Western maternity care, the use of the continuous electronic fetal monitor (EFM) has not demonstrated benefits for fetal outcomes, but organizational and legal considerations have perpetuated its routine use. Maternity care providers’ most common explanation for using EFM is that it is necessary to protect against malpractice suits, but it is unclear whether EFM use responds to variation in liability risk. This study uses multilevel logistic models (MLM) to analyze the effects of tort laws on EFM use in births nested in U.S. states from 1995-2004. The results suggest that objective legal risk does not significantly contribute to EFM use in American maternity care. The odds of EFM use are higher in states with caps on damages that limit providers’ liability risk, and there is no consistent pattern based on changes in legal risk over time. The use of EFM thus follows patterns predicted by neo-institutional theory, and a “dual-process model” of institutional action can explain the decoupling of cultural justifications and actual motivations for technology use. In American maternity care, deeply internalized values and schemas motivate institutional behavior, but justifications for action rely on cultural accounts of legal risk that do not accurately reflect those motivations.
• Roth, L. M. (2017, March). Reproductive Regimes: State-Level Regulations and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean in the United States. Southern Sociological Society (SSS) Annual Meeting. Greenville, NC: SSS.
• Roth, L. M. (2017, May/June). Full-spectrum or a la Carte: Views of Reproductive Rights among Maternity Support Workers in Canada and the United States. Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Sociological Association.
• Roth, L. M., Henley, M. M., Seacrist, M., & Morton, C. H. (2017, August). Bearing Witness: U.S. and Canadian Maternity Support Workers’ Observations of Mistreatment of Women in Childbirth. American Sociological Association Annual Meetings. Montreal, Quebec: American Sociological Association.
• Biernat, M., Lee, R. M., & Roth, L. M. (2016, Fall). Interrupting Gender and Racial Bias at Work: Studying the Performance Evaluation Review Process in a Large STEM-based Organization. Weiland Speaker Series and Payne Research Symposium. McClelland Hall, University of Arizona: Department of Marketing, Eller College of Business.
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  Research in social psychology has demonstrated that individuals hold automatic, unconscious biases that lead them to view white men more favorably than women and people of color. In organizations, these biases influence hiring decisions, the distribution of opportunities, promotions, performance evaluations, and pay. In an effort to interrupt bias through effective, research-based interventions, the Bias Interrupters Working Group brings together social scientists and organizations that want to study and interrupt subtle biases in their work processes. In this study, the three investigators have visited the research site, a large STEM-based organization, and observed their talent review process. The study design involves an experiment to interrupt gender and racial-ethnic bias in year-end performance evaluations. Managers from the experimental groups will undergo subtle bias training and receive worksheets on how to reduce the effects of unconscious bias on performance evaluations. They will also receive a meeting protocol reminder/primer to use at the performance review meeting. Control groups will go through their existing process.
• Naiman-Sessions, M., Henley, M. M., & Roth, L. M. (2016, August). Bearing the Burden of Care: Emotional Burnout among Maternity Support Workers. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Seattle, WA: American Sociological Association.
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  Accepted for a regular session on Health Care and Care Delivery
• Roth, L. M. (2016, Fall). What’s the Rush? Tort Laws and Early Elective Delivery. American Sociological Association Annual Conference. Seattle, WA: American Sociological Association.
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  Accepted for a regular session on Law and Health
• Roth, L. M. (2016, March). What is Performance? Social Constructions of Merit in Organizations. Bias Interrupters Working Group Meeting. Santa Barbara, CA: Bias Interrupters Working Group.
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  Presentation of my research on Wall Street workers and physicians at the Bias Interrupters Working Group.
• Roth, L. M., & Henley, M. M. (2015, August). Reproductive Justice Perspectives of Doulas, Childbirth Educators, and L&D Nurses in Canada and the United States. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL: American Sociological Association.
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  Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M., Henley, M. M., Seacrist, M., & Morton, C. H. (2015, November). Ethical Challenges in US and Canadian Maternity Support Workers’ Views of Childbirth. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Denver, CO: American Anthropological Association.
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  Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2013, February 8). Reproductive Rights: Public Policy and Discourse, "Reproductive Justice Framework". Invited panel presentation on reproductive rights at James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona. James E Rogers College of Law.
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  Panelists: Barbara Atwood, Rogers College of Law; Pamela Lotke, UA College of Medicine, and Louise Marie Roth, Sociology
• Roth, L. M. (2012, 2012-09-01). Defensive Medicine as Myth and Ceremony: The Case of American Obstetrics. Sociology Brownbag Colloquium Series. Sociology, Social Sciences 415.
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  In this presentation, I discussed my findings regarding obstetricians' fears about malpractice litigation in light of discussions with medical negligence attorneys about the actual risk of malpractice litigation.;Invited: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M., & Henley, M. M. (2012, 2012-02-01). Paradoxes of Defensive Medicine in American Obstetrics. Eastern Sociological Association. New York.
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  Paper summarizes preliminary findings from my research on defensive medicine in obstetrics.;Your Role: First author/Primary Investigator;Submitted: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M., & Henley, M. M. (2012, 2012-08-01). The Machine that Goes “Ping”: The Medico-Legal Fetishism of Electronic Fetal Monitoring. American Sociological Association. Denver, CO.
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  Paper presents both quantitative and qualitative findings from research on maternity care, related to use of electronic fetal monitoring (EFM).;Submitted: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2011, 2011-08-01). A Doctor's Worth: Variable Physician Pay and the Gender Gap in Physician Compensation. American Sociological Association. Las Vegas, NV.
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  ;Submitted: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2010, 2010-09-01). A Doctor's Worth: Variable Physician Pay and the Gender Gap in Physician Compensation. Sociology Department.
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  Department brownbag (and practice for invited talk at University of Toronto);Invited: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M. (2010, 2010-10-01). A Doctor's Worth: Variable Physician Pay and the Gender Gap in Physician Compensation. University of Toronto, Sociology Department.
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  ;Invited: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M. (2010, 2010-10-01). Unequal Motherhood: Racial-Ethnic and Socio-economic Disparities in Cesarean Sections in the United States. Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI). Mothers and the Economy: The Economics of Mothering. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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  ;Your Role: Based on paper that was under review, now under revision for the journal, Social Problems.;Submitted: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M., & Lubold, A. (2010, 2010-03-01). The Context for Breastfeeding: The Impact of Workplace Practices on Breastfeeding Experiences and Disparities among Women. Breastfeeding and Feminism Symposium. Greenville, NC.
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  ;Your Role: Based on collaborative research that I was conducting with Amanda Lubold, based on interests that she developed in my graduate seminar and pursued in her MA paper. The revised paper is forthcoming in an edited collection from the symposium.;Submitted: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference/Workshop;
• Roth, L. M., & Lubold, A. (2010, 2010-10-01). Paid Labor and Lactation: The Effects of Labor Force Re-Entry and Workplace Practices on Breastfeeding. Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI). Mothers and the Economy: The Economics of Mothering. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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  ;Your Role: Based on collaborative research that I was conducting with Amanda Lubold, based on interests that she developed in my graduate seminar and pursued in her MA paper.;Submitted: Yes;Collaborative with graduate student: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2009, 2009-03-01). Cesarean on Maternal Request: Are c-section rates higher when women have more choices?. Invited talk and methodological workshop. University of Colorado-Boulder.
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  Invited talk and methodological workshop to graduate students in sociology at University of Colorado-Boulder;Invited: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M. (2009, 2009-03-01). Myths of Obstetric Malpractice. Controversies in Childbirth Conference. Fort Worth Convention Center, Dallas-Fort Worth.
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  Interdisciplinary conference on childbirth included obstetricians, midwives, nurses, and birth activists.;Invited: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Type of Presentation: Professional Organization;
• Roth, L. M. (2009, 2009-04-01). The Myth of Maternal Request Cesarean Section. SWS-Tucson conference, Bringing the Body Back In: Toward a Corporeal Social Science. University of Arizona.
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  Presentation at conference that I organized in collaboration with Jennifer Croissant in Women's Studies and sociology graduate students.;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2009, 2009-08-01). Unequal Motherhood: Inequality in Cesarean Sections in the United States. American Sociological Association. San Francisco.
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  ;Submitted: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2009, 2009-10-01). Land of the Fee: Reward Structures in Medicine and their Effects on Physician Compensation in the United States. Social Organizations Seminar. University of Arizona.
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  Workshop colloquium;Submitted: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M. (2008, 2008-04-01). If you don't want to get cut, don't go to a surgeon: Liability, Managed Care, and Cesarean Sections in the U.S.. SWS-Tucson Gender Studies Colloquium. University of Arizona.
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  Audience consisted primarily of internal UA students and faculty, and offered students exposure to the research that I am working on.;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M. (2008, 2008-04-01). Too Posh to Push? Liability, Managed Care, and Cesarean Sections in the U.S.. Rogers Law & Society Workshop. University of Arizona.
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  As part of the faculty small grant that I received from the Rogers Program, I presented my current research to an interdisciplinary group at the Law School.;Invited: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Type of Presentation: University;
• Roth, L. M. (2008, 2008-08-01). Too Posh to Push? Liability, Managed Care, and Cesareans in the United States.. Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Boston, MA.
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  Regular Session on Sociology of Reproduction.;Submitted: Yes;Refereed: Yes;Type of Presentation: Academic Conference;
• Roth, L. M. (2008, 2008-09-01). Too Posh to Push? Liability, Managed Care, and C-Sections in the United States. American Association of Birth Centers 2nd Annual Conference: AABC Birth Institute: What is Optimal?. Loews Ventana Canyon, Tucson, AZ.
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  I gave an invited presentation of my current research to an interdisciplinary audience composed primarily of health care clinicians, and including lawyers and activists. The presentation was well-received and led to an invitation to present at another interdisciplinary conference in Dallas on March 28, 2009.;Invited: Yes;Interdisciplinary: Yes;Type of Presentation: Invited/Plenary Speaker;

Others

• Roth, L. M., Heidbreder, N., Henley, M. M., Marek, M., Sessions, M., Torres, J. C., & Morton, C. H. (2014, March). Maternity Support Survey: A Report on the Cross-National Survey of Doulas, Childbirth Educators, and Labor and Delivery Nurses in the United States and Canada. http://maternitysurvey.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/mss-report-5-1-14-final.pdf
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  Report of findings of the Maternity Support Survey. The report is intended for donors (through an indiegogo.com campaign) and the organizations that participated in the survey by providing access to their members. The research team has made the report public on-line.