Dr. Shih-Yi Chao received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, US. Prior to joining Academia Sinica, she was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton in the UK. Her research asks how family generates and reinforces inequalities, and how these inequalities vary across socioeconomic contexts.

Her research agenda engages in the following unsolved puzzles: 1) Why do gender roles within the family resist change while gender gaps in the paid labor force tend to converge; 2) To what extent work-life conflicts vary across gender and socioeconomic lines, and how could social policies intervene to reduce those inequalities; and 3) How do family socioeconomic backgrounds contribute to the reproduction of socioeconomic opportunities.

Dr. Shih-Yi Chao served as an assistant research fellow in the Institute of Sociology since January 2022.