Her work grapples with theory's application to historical and current events, focusing on how terms are defined and how positions and identities are articulated.

[9] She has also played a major role in the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)[10] as the chair of its Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

Drawing on a range of philosophical thought, as well as on a rethinking of her own training as a labor historian, she has contributed to a transformation of the field of intellectual history.

[16] Reflecting her interest in European working class history, in 1980 Scott co-wrote with the British historian Eric Hobsbawm in an article in Past and Present entitled "Political Shoemakers".

[18] In addition to her article "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis", Scott has published several books, which are widely reprinted and have been translated into several languages, including French, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.

[23] In 2018, Joan Wallach Scott was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur of France, the country's highest decoration, for her contributions to the writing of history and to the intellectual, philosophical, and political debates of the French Republic.

She has played an influential role in establishing the careers of a number of prominent academics, winning the prestigious Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award in 1995.

The Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University annually awards the Joan Wallach Scott Prize for an outstanding honors thesis in Gender and Sexuality Studies.