Parpart's work has focused on the intersections of gender,
agency, and development with a focus on the Global South and particularly Africa. She has examined correlations between colonial power structures drawing parallels with traditional rural power hierarchies by elder men. Political scientist
Meredeth Turshen said that Parpart concluded that controlling women's sexual behavior and freedoms facilitated the functioning of indirect rule. Controlling women's choices in whom to marry, preventing wives' adultery, keeping women in rural areas and preventing them from free movement all contributed to the system that centralized power in men kept male authority intact. Parpart and other scholars pointed out that women rarely appeared in colonial records unless it was to address a moral panic such as prostitution or polygyny, or as code for problems related to rights or generational relationships. Looking at other power structures, Parpart argued, as had other feminist authors such as
Maria Mies, that the capitalist system relied on exploiting women's domestic labor as free, thereby minimizing its value. Unaludo Sechele, stated that Parpart's work confirmed that post-independence, despite constitutional guarantees for equal access to education and socio-politico-economic structures, many African women found limitations to their educational experiences and job opportunities. While women were increasingly accepted into universities, the courses that accepted them were typically in the humanities, and the jobs they were able to secure paid less and had more limits to advancement than those available to men. She proposed that policies of gender equity did not require that men and women (or boys and girls) be treated in the exact same manner, but instead that their differing needs, aspirations, and behaviors be equally valued and given support and access to take advantage of opportunities and participate in decision-making. Scholars
Ann-Dorte Christensen and Sune Qvotrup Jensen stated that Parpart examined the ramifications of being excluded from decision-making and having limited paths for economic security and concluded that poverty and lack of opportunities have led young men to participate in terrorist actions. She argued that societal expectations for masculinity made young men prime targets for recruitment to military and paramilitary groups because theses types of organizations provided men with the means to make a living and appear strong. Another focus of Parpart's work has been on urbanization and specifically problems that accompany modernization and development. Much of her analysis has evaluated how gender impacts and is impacted by development policies in Africa and Asia. According to sociologist Kriemild Saunders, Parpart has criticized the
participatory rural appraisal model of development because, although it incorporates local knowledge in evaluating solutions and developing policy, it does not take into account power imbalances which may lead to continued marginalization of women. Along with others, Parpart had identified that there are often entrenched biases against marginalized groups which prevent or inhibit their empowerment. Instead, she advocates for a more balanced approach in designing developmental models that are informed by both tradition and modern changes. To shift shift development toward equality for both men and women, Parpart and other scholars who advocate for a balanced approach, argue that the complex relationships between poverty, race, ethnicity, class, and gender must be evaluated in terms of power relationships. ==Selected works==