Projects
Title: Creating Quality Jobs For All in Washington’s Tech Sector
Client: OneAmerica
This project is part of the Northwest Papers, sponsored by OneAmerica, focusing on economic stability, job quality, and equity in the tech sector in the Seattle area. My co-author, Marcus Courtney, and I highlighted the inequities within the tech sector, particularly in relation to women, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), immigrants, H-1B visa holders, contract workers, and gig workers. We provided analysis of how different groups of workers are treated and how workers are organizing within the industry, and we highlighted areas in need of more research. We concluded the report by making state and federal level policy recommendations to ensure quality jobs, economic stability, and equity in Washington state’s largest employment sector for years to come.
Skills Used:
Co-project management from proposal to final report
Collaborative research, writing, and editing
Qualitative interviews with tech workers, on the phone, via zoom, and over email
Qualitative interview with widely published tech expert
Literature review
Newspaper and document analysis
Intersectional research approach
Oral presentation of findings to organized labor
Comprehensive list of federal and state-level policy recommendations for change within the tech industry
Co-authored final report
"Kim was an excellent co-author to work with in writing this report. She was very organized, easy to collaborate with, kept to deadlines and is an excellent writer. An organization that is seeking to do a research project that involves exploring the social and political issues related to their work should hire Kim."
Marcus Courtney, Principal Courtney Public Affairs
Title: The Gender Divide in the Tech Sector: A Plan to Address the Bias and Change the Culture
Clients: Washington State Labor Education and Research Center and SEIU 925
This project adds to the body of existing literature by including the voices of tech workers in the Seattle area, using a feminist research methodology that places women’s voices and experiences, as well as gender issues, at the forefront. I interviewed 48 women and gender nonconforming tech workers to understand how gender discrimination plays out in their daily lives in tech and what it means for their careers.
The research covered a wide range of issues, from microaggressions and sexual harassment, to hiring, pay and promotions, to performance reviews, and a lack of support for parents. All of these issues are rooted in a workplace culture that does not value women or diversity, and ultimately creates an unwelcoming environment. The final report contains a plan forward to address the bias and change the culture within the tech sector.
Skills Used:
Project management from proposal to final report
Qualitative interviews with 48 tech workers, in person, on the phone, 1:1 and in groups of 2-5
Survey design & data analysis
Literature review
Newspaper and document analysis
Intersectional research approach
Oral presentation of findings to tech workers and students
Comprehensive list of recommendations for change within the tech industry
Wrote final report
“Kim has an impressive ability to make sociology, economics and organizational behavior research very understandable to average readers, while also bringing to life how gender policies, practices and attitudes in the workplace affect individual workers. She has advanced our understanding of how microaggressions affect careers and lives for years to come.”
David West, Researcher (Retired)
Washington State Labor Education and Research Center
Title: Alumni Story Project
Client: Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington
The Alumni Story Project was based around the question “What do students do with their Scandinavian Studies degrees?” I designed a survey to find the answers. The biggest finding was that a Scandinavian Studies degree prepares alumni for a wide variety of careers – from sculptor to engineer, teacher to attorney, author to orthopedic surgeon, city planner to translator, filmmaker to librarian, flight attendant to architect. This points to the importance of a humanities degree in providing a broad set of knowledge and skills that can act as a stepping stone to more education or a career in the field of one’s choosing.
Skills used:
Project management from proposal to final report
Survey design & data analysis
Qualitative interviews on the phone and via email
Oral presentation of findings to students, faculty, and advisory board members
Wrote 31 alumni stories/profiles to be featured on the Department’s website
Wrote final report
“Kim did a professional job executing our project on time and meeting all expectations.”
Andrew Nestingen, Professor and Department Chair
Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington
Title: Gender and Compensation for Educators
Client: Washington Education Association
This project sought to determine whether K-12 educators in Washington State are paid less, overall, and were granted a smaller raise than male-dominated professions, such as Washington State Patrol Troopers, in the 2015-2017 state budget, because teaching is a female-dominated profession. My research unveiled that while the state budget is a complex issue involving multiple variables, the adoption of the 2015-17 Washington State budget did continue a pattern of devaluing work that is associated with women and women’s skills, and the legislature’s refusal to enact comparable worth policies to increase educator pay is linked to this devaluing of ‘women’s work.’
Skills Used:
Project management from proposal to final report
Literature review
Newspaper and document analysis
Tracing the historical feminization of the teaching profession
Comparative analysis of the treatment of teachers, a female-dominated field, and Washington State Patrol Troopers, a male-dominated field, in the 2015-2017 WA State Budget
Recommendations for change
Wrote final report
“Kim’s review of the academic literature on the gender wage gap in teaching and her research into the 2015-17 state budget gave WEA the opening to raise the issue of comparable worth policies for educator pay in a forceful yet academic presentation to legislators. Kim was highly organized, collaborative, and articulate. She delivered a research report that, without a doubt, added value to our lobbying effort that year for increased pay for educators.”
Rod Regan, Government Relations and Political Director (Retired), Washington Education Association
Title: Rethinking Representation: Toward Democratic Governance in Canada
Co-authored with Tammy Findlay
Client: Law Commission of Canada
One of the main goals of the project was to explore different understandings of representation and how they might enable the development of more democratic governance in Canada. We found that representation through electoral politics continues to be relevant for democracy, specifically for marginalized groups. However, representation includes not only elected politics, but also non-elected structures of the state, such as the legal system and the bureaucracy, and non-state realms, like participatory democracy and popular movements and groups.
Skills Used:
Co-project management from proposal to final report
Collaborative research and writing
Research into political theory as well as political structures and political movements
Literature review
Document review
Recommendations for policy change
Co-wrote final report
Title: From Local to Global Project
Client: National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
The project was based on how women live with and live through social and economic policy change in Canada, grounded in the reality of women’s experiences. The context was that Canada had not lived up to the commitments it made to advance gender equality at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Three policy areas - income support, housing, and immigration - were chosen for further critical investigation for six groups of historically disadvantaged women: Aboriginal women, women of color, Black women, women with disabilities, Francophone women, and lesbian women. Globalization was found to have a negative impact on these groups of historically disadvantaged women, resulting in the need for the federal and provincial governments to take more responsibility for social programs with the necessary resources to make substantive change.
Skills Used:
Synthesized research completed by other researchers during a 2 year participatory action research project, which included consultations with women’s organizations, cross-country focus groups and discussions, regional roundtables, and online discussions in French and English
Intersectional research analysis
Recommendations for policy change
Wrote final report