I am Assistant Professor of Sociology and Programme Director in Social Inequality in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute. I am also an external research affiliate at the Population Research Institute at Penn State and at the Centre for Research on Social Inequalities (CRIS) at Sciences Po.
I study the unequal consequences of the gender revolution for women’s work and family lives across class, race and countries. I use quantitative methods and cross-national, longitudinal data to compare countries and periods. My work has appeared in Demography, Social Forces, Sociological Science, the Journal of Marriage and Family, Demographic Research and the European Sociological Review.
I lead WeEqualize (ERC Starting Grant, 2024 to 2029), which examines social inequalities in couples’ work-family strategies across 24 countries from the 1960s to today. With Sarah Damaske, I am writing a book on how the rise of precarious employment has shaped gender equality in the United States.
Before joining the EUI in 2024, I was Assistant and then Associate Professor of Sociology at ENSAE Paris and CREST (2023 to 2024), and Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography at Penn State (2019 to 2023), where I had been an NICHD postdoctoral fellow at the Population Research Institute. I hold a PhD in Sociology and Demography from Pompeu Fabra University (2016).
Contact: lea.pessin (at) eui.eu · Google Scholar · ORCID · EUI page
