Our Mission

The Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children was established in 2001 to be a leading source of research on significant issues impacting the intersection between work and family. The Berger Institute focuses on quantitative research impacting business practices and families; supports high-quality interdisciplinary research by talented CMC professors, which will lead to publishing opportunities; provides challenging and stimulating educational experiences for CMC students from freshman year through graduation, resulting in high-quality student work and publishing opportunities; and connects the wider CMC community, including alumni and parents of students to provide practical information about significant work/family issues.

Subscribe to the Berger Institute electronic newsletter to receive more information on work and family issues. To view the most recent issue, click here.

Current Research

The Opt-Out Revolution: Recent Trends in Female Labor Supply
Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 33 (2011): 45-83.
Dr. Heather Antecol, Director of The Berger Institute

Using data from the U.S. Census in conjunction with data from the Current Population Survey (1980-2009), I find little support for the opt-out revolution—highly educated women, relative to their less educated counterparts, are exiting the labor force to care for their families at higher rates today than in earlier time periods—if one focuses solely on the decision to work a positive number of hours irrespective of marital status or race. If one, however, focuses on both the decision to work a positive number of hours as well as the decision to adjust annual hours of work (conditional on working), I find some evidence of the opt-out revolution, particularly among white college educated married women in male dominated occupations.

Click here to read the full paper.

Events

February 5, 2012: Living Room Conversation, Burlingame, CA. This event was hosted at the home of Wendy Verba CMC '82, a Berger Institute Advisory Board Member. The focus of the conversation was "Work and Family". Sponsored by the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children.

February 10, 2012: WLA Women and Leadership Workshop. Co-sponsored by the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children, the Kravis Leadership Institute, the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance, and members of the Women and Leadership Alliance.

February 22, 2012: Meg Wolitzer in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Author of The Ten-Year Nap and The Uncoupling. Sponsored by the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children , Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum and the Center for Writing and Public Discourse.

March 7, 2012: A lunch (12pm) panel discussion held in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum: A Career in Law: Can You Achieve Work/Life Satisfaction? Panelists included Gigi Birchfield, Esq., CMC '82, P’12, Judge John P. Doyle, CMC P’11, P’13, Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl, CMC P’11, Judge Margaret Nagle CMC P’10, P’12. Moderated by Judge Suzanne H. Segal CMC ‘82. Sponsored by the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children, a member of the Women and Leadership Alliance. For more information on our panelists, click here.

March 22-25, 2012: The 4th International Conference on Adoption and Culture, Mapping Adoption: Histories, Geographies, Literatures, Politics. Sponsored by Intercollegiate Women's Studies of the Claremont Colleges and the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children.

April 13, 2012: Southern California Conference in Applied Microeconomics. Co-hosted with the Lowe Institute of Political Economy and the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance. The Berger Institute sponsored the lunch keynote speaker, Dr. Michael Greenstone, 3M Professor of Environmental Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His talk was entitled "Can Adaptation Save Us From Climate Change?"

April 27, 2012: WLA Negotiation Workshop, from 2:00-5:00pm in Pickford Auditorium at Claremont McKenna College. Co-sponsored by the Women & Leadership Alliance, the Kravis Leadership Institute, the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance, and the CMC Office of Development. This workshop will target negotiation strategies in the areas of compensation, professional development and social interactions in three specialized sessions.  Each session will be led by a professional in the respective topic area and students will have an opportunity to participate in negotiation simulations based upon focused scenarios.

For additional events sponsored by members of the Women and Leadership Alliance (WLA), click here.

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