Louise Marie Roth is Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Arizona, with courtesy affiliations in Gender & Women's Studies and Psychology. She studies how laws and organizations shape justice and quality of life for women, with a focus on reproductive health, maternity care, and gender inequality at work. Her research combines quantitative analysis of state laws and population-level data with in-depth interviews with the professionals and advocates who work within these systems.

Her current research, conducted with Dr. Theresa Morris of Texas A&M University and a team of graduate and undergraduate researchers, examines how state laws shape birth justice in the United States. The project was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF 2147848). The team interviewed 56 attorneys and advocates involved in cases that defend midwifery and community birth, challenge violations of informed consent and bodily integrity, and defend people prosecuted for their pregnancy outcomes. Recent and forthcoming publications from this work appear in Law & Social Inquiry, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Women's Health Issues, and Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. The research addresses the obstacles facing reproductive justice attorneys, trends in state abortion laws, and variation in cesarean and midwifery-attended birth among Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups. Additional research based on this project examine cesarean disparities in U.S.–Mexico border counties, the implications of fetal personhood cultural frames, obstetric violence and the limits of legal remedies, and the effects of law and policy on racial disparities in preterm birth and low birthweight.

Dr. Roth's book, The Business of Birth: Malpractice and Maternity Care in the United States (NYU Press, 2021), analyzes how medical malpractice and reproductive rights laws influence maternity care practices such as early induction, electronic fetal monitoring, and cesarean delivery. Related articles appear in Social Problems, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Social Science & Medicine. She has also led a cross-national survey of doulas, childbirth educators, and labor and delivery nurses in the United States and Canada, published in JOGNN, Birth, and Research in the Sociology of Health Care.

Her earlier research on gender inequality in employment includes Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on Wall Street (Princeton University Press, 2006) and articles in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and other journals. That work showed how pay systems built on performance evaluations, which are meant to reward merit, systematically disadvantage women. She has extended this work to physician compensation and, with Dr. Dong Joon Park, to gender diversity among partners in South Korean law firms (Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2026).

Dr. Roth is a dedicated mentor who has chaired more than 20 master's and doctoral students. She received the University of Arizona Graduate College Teaching and Mentoring Award in 2026. She has also served the School of Sociology as Director of Undergraduate Studies, and has served on the editorial boards of American Sociological Review and Social Problems.