Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University
About
Megan is a postdoctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. In 2017, she graduated with a PhD in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, Megan worked as a research analyst at a finance firm and earned a BA at Seattle University.
Current Work:
Megan's current research is a qualitative study of the US hedge fund industry, a key driver of economic instability, precarious work, and income inequality. Using this industry as a case study of the top one percent of earners, she examines the cultural norms and practices that prevent women and minority men from advancing in elite sectors of the workforce. Like other high-paying sectors of the economy, women and minority men are drastically underrepresented at hedge funds, managing only three percent of assets in this lucrative industry. For her research, Megan conducted 45 in-depth interviews with men and women and engaged in participant observation over four years in New York and Texas. Using qualitative methods to study the hedge fund industry provides industry-level insight into macro-level research on the rising wealth and income of the top one percent, showing how it is directly tied to gender and race inequality.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Gender, race, and class; economic and social inequality; work and organizations; economic sociology; feminist theories
