Contact
Research Areas
Labor Economics; Social Policy; Women and Work
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University
M.A., Harvard University
B.A., University of Wisconsin
Hilda Kahne
Hilda Kahne
Following a brief post-B.A. period of a research appointment at the Social Security Administration in Washington, D.C., I became Research Assistant to Professor Sumner Slichter (1944-1948) and enrolled in graduate school in labor economics at Harvard. My subsequent career has combined teaching in academia with some research and administrative responsibilities. Major appointments included Wellesley College (1948-1958), Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (1966-1977), Wheaton College (1977-1992). After retiring from Wheaton, I taught at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management (1992-2002) and have been at the Women’s Studies Research Center since 2002. My work at the Center has focused on low- wage single-mother earners, and their work and family lives, and social policies to improve their economic well-being. My current project relates to work activities -- paid and unpaid -- engaged in by women after age 65.
Current Projects
My research is concerned with a contrast of paid work history of high-school women graduates after age 65 with that of comparable women college graduates. Is work paid or unpaid or both? How do social security benefits compare? Can the study suggest new directions for retirement-age activities? What are the social policy implications?
Representative Publications
Kahne, Hilda. “Low-Wage Single Mother Families in this Jobless Recovery: Can Improved Policies Help?” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 4.1 (2004).
Kahne, Hilda and Zachary Mabel, “Single Mothers and Other Low Earners: Policy Routes to Adequate Wages.” Poverty and Public Policy 2, Article 7 (September 2010).