Madonna Harrington Meyer

Madonna Harrington Meyer is an American sociologist, author, and academic. She is a University Professor at Syracuse University, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, and Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research, Faculty Research Affiliate at the Lerner Center, and Faculty Affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute of Syracuse University.

Harrington Meyer's research interests encompass the fields of old age policies in the United States and the physical, emotional, social and financial impacts of grandparenting among grandparents. Since 2020, she has been working in the area of food insecurity among the elderly in the United States. She has authored and co-authored several books. She is the author of Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs (2014), which won the Gerontological Society of America's Kalish Book Award. She is also the co-author of Grandparenting Children with Disabilities (2020) with Ynesse Abdul-Malak, co-editor of Grandparenting in the United States (2016) with Abdul-Malak, and co-editor of Gerontology: Changes, Challenges, and Solutions (2016) with Elizabeth Daniele. In addition, she is co-author with Pamela Herd of Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age (2007), which also won the Gerontological Society of America's Kalish Book Award and is editor of Care Work: Gender, Labor, and the Welfare State (2000).

Harrington Meyer is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Harrington Meyer obtained her Baccalaureate degree in Sociology and Urban Studies from Hamline University in 1981 and received a master's degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota. She then went on to complete her Ph.D. in sociology from Florida State University in 1991 with a thesis entitled, "Universalism vs. Targeting as a Basis of Social Distribution: Gender, Race, and Long Term Care in the United States".

Following her Ph.D., Harrington Meyer began her academic career as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1991 and was promoted to associate professor. In 1997, she held the position of Senior Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research and an associate professor at the Department of Sociology of Syracuse University and in 2005, she was promoted to Professor. She serves as a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence and a University Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and a Faculty Research Affiliate at the Lerner Center, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute of Syracuse University.

Harrington Meyer has held administrative appointments throughout her career, including serving as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology, Director of the Gerontology Center, and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University.

Harrington Meyer's research covers United States' old age policies, grandparenting, care work, and food insecurity. Her work has been covered by several media outlets, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, U.S. News and World Report, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and LA Times.

Old age policies

Harrington Meyer's primary focus lies in addressing inequality linked to gender, race, class, and marital status among older people in the United States through an emphasis on the impact of various social policies. In her book, Market Friendly or Family Friendly? she and Pamela Herd analyzed the gendered nature of poverty and inequality among older populations, particularly focusing on women, and discussed potential policy solutions to address these disparities and create a more equitable future for older women. She explored how various long-term care policies and practices directly impact couples' well-being and elucidated that while many couples struggle with long-term care policies to exercise their rights in these arenas, unmarried couples face challenges that maybe are particularly difficult to overcome. In related research, she described the potential impact of declining marriage rates on the financial security of older women and the need for potential Social Security policy adjustments. She also examined the income, health, and functional capacity of older Florida residents who fall into the Medicaid gap and the challenges faced by their primary caregivers in a collaborative study and presented a Social Security minimum benefit plan that would provide a cost-effective method for reducing old age poverty to very low levels. She explored the gender and race distinctions between making Social Security claims as workers or wives for financial wellbeing in old age. With her colleague Eliza Pavalko, she examined the impact of marriage, care work, and employment on access to health insurance among middle-aged women. In addition, she addressed the dental care challenges faced by older adult Medicare and Medicaid recipients, particularly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, and proposed a solution involving the inclusion of dental care coverage within federal funding initiatives.

Grandparenting

Harrington Meyer's research has also highlighted the impact of grandparenting on the emotional, physical, social, and financial well-being of grandparents. In Grandmothers at Work, based on interviews with 48 working grandmothers, she explored how they juggled paid work and unpaid family care work and the impact on their wellbeing. In the Journal of Elderly Policy, she examined how increasing childhood disability rates in the US lead to extensive grandparent caregiving, highlighting challenges related to employment benefits, social assistance programs, and disability policies, and underscoring the impact on grandparents' well-being. In her book, Grandparenting in the United States, co-edited with Abdul-Malak, she inspected diverse aspects of grandparenting using various data sets, analyzing how factors like living arrangements, economic status, ethnicity, and more impact grandparenting experiences, including financial assistance, cultural expectations, childcare roles, and intergenerational impacts. Additionally, she analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of working grandmothers and how sociodemographic changes and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are reshaping grandparenting in the United States, emphasizing the need for supportive social welfare programs to alleviate the reliance on grandparents for childcare and financial assistance. Moreover, in her book Grandparenting Children with Disabilities, based on interviews with 50 grandparents who are caring for grandchildren with disabilities, she and Abdul-Malak assessed the effects of caring for and supporting grandchildren with disabilities on grandparents' social, emotional, physical, and financial well-being.

Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs

In her book Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs, Harrington Meyer explored the experiences of middle-aged American women who navigate the demands of their careers while providing childcare for their grandchildren, highlighting challenges such as financial adjustments, postponed retirements, and complex caregiving responsibilities. Heather E. Dillaway reviewed the book and mentioned, "Meyer presents the reader with data about how exactly continuous women's caregiving can be across the life course". The book covers the impact of grandmothers in building families, a point commended by Carole Cox in her book review. She stated, "with grandmothers playing dominant roles in families, this book underscores the commitment, dedication, and even sacrifices that they make.' Loriena (Lori) Yancura highlighted another aspect of the book: the United States' family-friendly policies and emphasized that "This book makes repeated mention of the fact that grandmothers providing part-time care for their grandchildren would not be as burdened if the United States had more family-friendly work policies, such as flexible work schedules and paid sick leave."

• 1993 – John Heinz Dissertation Award, the National Academy of Social Insurance
• 1997 – Jessie Bernard Outstanding Contribution to Feminist Scholarship Paper Award, National Council on Family Relations
• 2004 – Fellow, Gerontological Society of America
• 2007 – Richard Kalish Book Award, Gerontological Society of America
• 2014 – Richard Kalish Book Award, Gerontological Society of America
• 2016 – Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award, American Sociological Association

Selected books

• Market Friendly or Family Friendly? The State and Gender Inequality in Old Age, with Pamela Herd (2007) ISBN 978-0871545985
• Grandmothers at Work: Juggling Families and Jobs (2014) ISBN 978-0814729472
• Grandparenting Children with Disabilities, with Ynesse Abdul-Malak (2020) ISBN 978-3030390549

Selected articles

• Quadagno, J., & Meyer, M. H. (1989). Organized labor, state structures, and social policy development: A case study of old age assistance in Ohio, 1916–1940. Social Problems, 36(2), 181–196.
• Harrington Meyer, M., Street, D., & Quadagno, J. (1994). The impact of family status on income security and health care in old age: A comparison of western nations. International journal of sociology and social policy, 14(1/2), 53–83.
• Meyer, M. H. (1996). Making claims as workers or wives: The distribution of social security benefits. American sociological review, 449–465.
• Meyer, M. H., & Pavalko, E. K. (1996). Family, work, and access to health insurance among mature women. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 311–325.
• Herd, P., & Meyer, M. H. (2002). Care work: Invisible civic engagement. Gender & Society, 16(5), 665–688.
• Meyer, M. H., Wolf, D. A., & Himes, C. L. (2006). Declining eligibility for social security spouse and widow benefits in the United States?. Research on Aging, 28(2), 240–260.
• Meyer, M. H. (2007). Changing Marital Rates and Stagnant Social Security Policy. Public Policy and Aging Report, 17(3), 11–14.
• Meyer, M. H. (2009). Why all women (and most men) should support universal rather than privatized Social Security. Social Insurance and Social Justice, 149–164.
• Meyer, M. H. (2013). Changing social security in the US: rising insecurity?. Social Policy and Society, 12(1), 135–146.
• Meyer, M. H. (2016). Grandmothers’ Financial Contributions and the Impact on Grandmothers. Grandparenting in the United States.
• Herd, P., Favreault, M., Meyer, M. H., & Smeeding, T. M. (2018). A targeted minimum benefit plan: A new proposal to reduce poverty among older Social Security recipients a targeted minimum benefit plan. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(2), 74–90.
• Abdul-Malak, Y., & Harrington Meyer, M. (2020). Physical Health Impacts of Grandparenting Children with Disabilities.