Cynthia Struthers
Cynthia Struthers
PH. D, Assistant Professor
Stipes 502
309-298-2282
CB-Struthers@wiu.edu
Cynthia Struthers is an associate professor of sociology, Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, Western Illinois University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University, August 1999 with a thematic emphasis in structural inequalities and families. Her dissertation research focused on the paid employment and social reproductive (family) work of rural non-farm women. She earned an M.A. in Sociology from Michigan State University with a focus on Occupations and Organizations. Primary duties at Western Illinois University include research on rural housing issues.
Research Interests
Current research interests are the retirement plans and housing needs of older residents of rural Illinois. In addition she is examining the availability of services and access to community facilities by older rural residents. She has completed a study on the housing conditions of rural seniors in Illinois. Portions of this research were published in the Journal of Housing for the Elderly and Humanity and Society. In 2006, with funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health-Center for Rural Health, she provided a series of workshops on housing options for seniors which included a session on strategies that rural communities could adopt to develop appropriate housing. These workshops included representatives from the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) and USDA-Rural Development.
Other research interests include rural homelessness, the housing needs of young families and non-traditional households, and women's homeownership. An important applied focus of her work is the development of programming that helps rural communities identify and develop housing appropriate to diverse populations. She remains interested in how rural women describe and organize their paid employment and family work and family well-being in rural places.
She teaches courses in Rural Social Organizations, Community, American Family, and Women and Poverty.
Service activities include memberships in the Rural Sociological Association where she serves on the RSS Council, the Community Development Society, and the Illinois Rural Health Association. She is a member of the Governor's Housing Task Force and is a Commissioner with the Housing Authority of McDonough County.
