Her work focuses on gender relations and the rise of a therapeutic culture in the twentieth-century U.S. She is especially interested in exploring how people in the past have constructed a sense of selfhood, and the ways in which historical forces have shaped emotional life and interpersonal relationships. Her book, Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2010. It is based on her Ph.D. thesis, which was awarded the Lerner-Scott Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the best dissertation in U.S. women’s and gender history in 2003. Plant has also held fellowships from the American Association of University Women and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.