Suzanne Bianchi, the inaugural holder of the Dorothy Meier Chair in Social Equities at the University of California at Los Angeles, died on November 4 as a result of pancreatic cancer. She was 61 years old.
Professor Bianchi’s research involved the study of changes in family life in the latter half of the 20th century brought about by the greater number of women in the workforce. She was the co-author of the books American Women in Transition (Russell Sage Foundation, 1986), Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage and Employment Among American Women (Russell Sage Foundation, 1996), Continuity and Change in the American Family (SAGE, 2002), and Changing Rhythms of American Family Life (Russell Sage Foundation, 2006).
A native of Fort Dodge, Iowa, she was the valedictorian of her high school class. Dr. Bianchi earned a bachelor’s degree at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Professor Bianchi worked for the U.S. Census Bureau before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park in 1994. There, she was chair of the sociology department and was the founding director of the Maryland Population Research Center. In 2009, she accepted an appointment to the faculty at UCLA.
Dr. Bianchi was a past president of the Population Association of America and former editor of the journal Demography.