Editor’s Note: As part of Women’s History Month, UALR is profiling a few of its women faculty of distinction. This is the third in a four-part series.

Dr. Sarah Beth Estes is respected for her expertise in gender and family issues.

Her scholarship has been cited in numerous books, and she was among the panelists invited last year to address an audience at the Clinton School of Public Service about a report she co-authored for the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas on educational barriers that exist for girls and women in Arkansas.

She also presented this work in January at an event at the University of Arkansas Global Campus.

Estes, a sociology professor and interim associate dean for Research and Community Engagement in the College of Social Sciences and Communication at UALR, has also helped present reports to state legislative committees on the social and economic status of women in Arkansas.

Estes believes education is fundamental in breaking the cycle of poverty and achieving economic security for women.

“Education improves a woman’s prospects for participating in the labor market and entering the workforce,” she says. “And rewarding work is clearly a pathway to financial and emotional health.”

Estes’ service on the board of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas is evidence of this belief. The mission of the organization is to promote philanthropy among women and help women and girls achieve their full potential. Estes’ service revolves around her areas of expertise. She sits on the Policy and Research Committee and the Grants Committee.

Much of Estes’ research has focused on how work-family policies are related to aspects of family life, including parenting behavior, children’s well-being, and the gendered division of household labor.

Estes has also contributed to the discussion about the gap in pay that exists for women, including discrepancies found in academia.

Discussing the matter with the Arkansas Times in 2007, Estes remarked, “Taking into account all the possible explanations — institutional affiliation, teaching load, academic field, and so on — there is still about a 7 percent gap. Those who believe in gender biases say it supports their argument. Those who negate gender bias believe something else exists to explain the gap.”

Since coming to UALR in 2006, she has served on the scholarship selection committee for the Stonewall Scholarship, which is awarded to new and returning students university wide interested in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues.

The scholarship reached full endowment last year and is among largest awards in the College of Social Sciences and Communication.

She was also the founding chair of the Green Dot Violence Prevention Program established at UALR in 2013.

Estes received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Iowa and was a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati and affiliate of the Kunz Center for Work and Family and the Women’s Studies Department before coming to UALR.

She is the coordinator of the gender studies program at UALR and has taught courses on Gender, Social Statistics and Research Methods in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology as well as Individual and Society I and II in the Donaghey Scholars Program.