Women's & Gender Studies has a rich history at Rutgers University. Inaugurated as a department in 2001, Women's & Gender Studies has grown from offering a few courses at the University in 1973 to becoming one of the strongest interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate programs in the United States. In 2009-2010 3297 undergraduate and 203 graduate students enrolled in courses offered by the Department. Currently Women's & Gender Studies enrolls 184 undergraduates in major and minor degree programs, 33 students in the Ph.D. program and 21 students in the M.A. program. Department faculty include 31 core, 102 graduate, and 70 affiliate members whose expertise in women's and gender studies is enriched by specializations in the arts, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, political science, and comparative literatures in English, French, and Spanish.

The Women's & Gender Studies Department is a member of the Institute for Women's Leadership Consortium. Other members include The Institute for Women's Leadership; The Douglass Residential College; The Center for American Women and Politics; The Institute for Research on Women; The Center for Women's Global Leadership; The Center for Women and Work; The Institute for Women and Art; The Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics; and The Center on Violence Against Women & Children.