Mary Gatta, Ph. D.

SENIOR SCHOLAR

Dr. Mary Gatta is currently a Senior Scholar, at Wider Opportunities for Women. Prior to that she served as a Director of Gender and Workforce Policy at the Center for Women and Work, at Rutgers University. Her scholarly interests center on the broad issues of women, low-wage work and workplace skills, and social welfare policy including workforce development, poverty and welfare.

Currently, Dr. Gatta is working on major projects on workplace flexibility for low-wage workers, including workers in small business, restaurants and tourism, and manufacturing. In addition, she developed a large research project, “All I Want Is A Job: The Experiences of Women in the Public Workforce Development System”, to explore the experiences of women as they navigate the workforce development system, in particular via the One-Stop Career Centers. What is most unique about her project is that she conducted participant observation analysis, where she posed as a client of the workforce system over a six month period.

Dr. Gatta has published several books, articles, and policy papers. Her latest book, Not Just Getting By: The New Era of Flexible Workforce Development released from Lexington Press's imprint Press for Change, chronicles innovative workforce development initiatives that delivers skills training to single working poor mothers via the Internet. Her book, Juggling Food and Feelings: Emotional Balance in the Workplace was released from Lexington Press in 2002. She was an editor on the book A US Skills System for the 21st Century: Innovations in Workforce Education and Development released by Cornell Press.

Dr. Gatta invites you to contact her at mgatta@wowonline.org.