Her scholarly and teaching interests include women in the 20th century, American families, and the gay and lesbian movement. Likewise, her work has led her from the post-Civil War era to the turn of the 21st century. Her dissertation on the Settlement House movement, titled "Settlement Folk: Social Thought and the American Settlement Movement, 1885-1930," was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1990. Pondering the evolution of the settlement workers' professional training led to an investigation of the development of professional home economics, family science, and then the emergence of family therapy in post World War II era.