An historian by training, she has written extensively on the history of motherhood, child rearing, marriage and the family. She is the author of Education for Motherhood: Advice for Mothers in Twentieth Century Canada, a prize-winning examination of the ideology and experience of motherhood. She has written and published numerous articles on lesbian and gay parenting. She is currently engaged in a comparative study of same-sex marriage in the United States and Canada. She also volunteers in a residential hospice, providing end of life care, and she is writing a book on death and dying.