who we are

We are researchers, curators, and translators of high-quality research on gender inequality.  We want to help working women navigate transitions at home and at work, without adding to their mental load.

 what we do

 

Make gender equity

research more accessible.

Share lived experiences to

keep research fresh and responsive.

 research. rinse. repeat.

we believe

  • We are not the problem. It’s work. It’s life. It’s everything…and it’s everything intersecting all the time—our temperament, our relationships, the culture we live in and its institutions. We help individual women understand these problems by translating the best research into tasty and digestible packets of information to make everything less overwhelming.

  • We know that women are burnt-out, overwhelmed and exhausted. Together we are still trying to understand the strain our many identities, roles and responsibilities have on our work and home lives. We are here to arm women with the most up-to-date research to empower equity informed decision-making.

  • Much of the thinking on work-life alignment has been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful. We are committed to drawing out and learning from women and working families from all walks of life. We are here to start inclusive research-based conversations that spark action across diverse race, class and gender identities.

  • We don’t believe in simple life hacks or single solutions to our work-life dilemmas. We don’t believe you can magically add more time to the day. Rather, we acknowledge the roles of institutions, systems and norms in structuring our work and personal lives. We want women to protect their limited time, and we want those around them to value it too.

 our people

lauren berry

co-founder and connector of dots

Lauren is an international social impact expert with two decades of experience leading corporate responsibility efforts at companies such as Ann Taylor, Chevron, and Kosmos Energy. In these roles, Lauren has worked with civil society and communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to design corporate policies and practices that respect human rights and advance socioeconomic development. She’s also successfully advanced progressive policy issues with teams and leaders that hold more traditional and conservative views (and we all still talk to each other!) She co-founded Work Life Everything to bring some of these experiences to bear and better connect the siloed worlds of DEI, human rights, work and home. She spends much of her “free” time driving around her two children and finds respite in 90s hip-hop and David Sedaris.   

 

leah ruppanner

Co-founder and lover of all things Research

Leah Ruppanner is a Professor of Sociology and Director of The Future of Work Lab at the University of Melbourne. Leah is the founder of GenEq, a corporate consulting firm that designs research-based solutions to increase equity and meet the diverse needs of women in the workplace. She was born in San Francisco, California and after a short childhood stint in Honolulu, Hawaii, spent most of her childhood and young adulthood in California. Leah completed a BA in Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara and then a master’s degree and PhD at the University of California at Irvine. She has spent the past decade researching how gender structures work, family and technology, and has been awarded the top gender scholar in Australia. Her research is about understanding how women’s unpaid work – the time they spend in housework, childcare, and the invisible load – impacts their ability to do other things. Her goal is to use this research to help women gain control over their time to spend it exactly as they wish – to create more meaning, love and joy in our lives.

haley swenson

Co-founder & managing EditorHaley is a PhD gender inequality researcher and prolific storyteller specializing in translating academic findings into accessible, actionable advice and arguments for pushing society toward intersectional, economic, social, and political equality. Swenson received her doctorate from The Ohio State University in 2016 and wrote a dissertation on unpaid labor in the aftermath of the Great Recession called Reproducing Inequality: Cooking, Cleaning and Caring in the Austerity Age. From 2017 to 2018 she edited the Better Life Lab vertical at Slate.com, which featured over two hundred original stories on work, social policy, and gender inequality by researchers and freelance journalists. Since then, she has worked as a media strategist and research fellow for the Better Life Lab, a gender, work, and policy program at the non-partisan think tank New America. She has written for the Washington Post, CNN.com, Harvard Business Review, Romper, and at Slate.com. She lives with her wife and family in Southern Utah, where she attempts to keep plants alive in the desert, loves to cook, and has recently become adept with using power tools.