Institute for Women's Leadership

A consortium of teaching, research, and public service units at Douglass College, the women’s college of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The institute and its members are dedicated to examining leadership issues and advancing women’s leadership in all arenas of public life – locally, nationally, and globally.

The Institute for Women’s Leadership focuses on the study of how and why women lead. It works to create new knowledge about women’s leadership and develops programs that prepare women of all ages to lead effectively. The consortium also fosters environments receptive to women’s leadership and operates as a model of collaborative leadership.

Institute for Research on Women

At the forefront of interdisciplinary research since its founding in 1976-7, the Institute for Research on Women (IRW) has been a central force in establishing Rutgers University as one of the most distinguished research institutions in the world for the study of women and gender.

The mission of the IRW is to stimulate research on women and gender within and across the disciplines on all three of the university campuses. Affiliates include 900 faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates drawn from a wide range of disciplines, departments, and programs.

The IRW promotes innovative scholarship on women and gender by hosting interdisciplinary seminars, lectures, symposia and conferences that bring together Rutgers University researchers with top visiting scholars from the U.S. and abroad.

Center for Women's Global Leadership

Develops and facilitates women's leadership for women's human rights and social justice worldwide.

The Global Center's programs promote the leadership of women and advance feminist perspectives in policy-making processes in local, national and international arenas. Since 1990, the Global Center has fostered women's leadership in the area of human rights through women's global leadership institutes, strategic planning activities, international mobilization campaigns, UN monitoring, global education endeavors, publications, and a resource center. The Global Center works from a human rights perspective with an emphasis on violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and socio-economic well-being. The Global Center's programs are in two broad areas of policy & advocacy and leadership development & women's human rights education.

Center for American Women and Politics

A unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, CAWP is a leading authority in its field and a respected bridge between the academic and political worlds. Debbie Walsh is the director of CAWP.

Before CAWP was founded in 1971, no organization or educational institution was compiling information about women in government and politics or studying and monitoring the status and prospects of those women.

Today, CAWP has taken on the multiple roles of catalyst and resource, provider of data and analyses, interpreter and guide. CAWP raises and responds to emerging issues, working daily with women leaders as well as journalists, scholars, students, women's groups, governmental agencies, civic organizations, and political parties.

Center for Women and Work (CWW)

Dedicated to advancing women across the education, income, ethnic, and occupational spectrums, and to challenging the status quo in organizations that educate, train, and employ them. The Center addresses these issues through research, education, skills development, outreach, and advocacy.

Research at CWW addresses a wide array of labor market challenges and opportunities facing working women. Current research and public education projects at the Center include women in the building trades, men in nursing, measurement of women's leadership skills, paid family leave for New Jersey's workers, issues of work/life balance, and gender equity for New Jersey's students and workers. As the research arm of the New Jersey Council on Gender Parity in Labor and Education, the CWW researches model programs for women's advancement and industry barriers to the full participation of women in New Jersey's workforce. The Center is also working to establish a national center to expand New Jersey's online learning programs for high school educated workers employed in low wage jobs to other states.

Center for Research on Ending Violence

Created in the Spring of 2007 as the Center on Violence Against Women & Children (VAWC), the Center for Research on Ending Violence exemplifies the land grant mission of Rutgers by engaging community partners from the academic, corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors to collaborate on different projects.  The four components of the center's work include research, continuing education, MSW education, and community facilitation.

Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities

The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities (CWAH) is a unit of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and a center of the Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic & Public Partnerships in the Arts & Humanities.

The mission of the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities is to transform values, policies, and institutions, and to ensure that the intellectual and aesthetic contributions of diverse communities of women in the visual arts are included in the cultural mainstream and acknowledged in the historical record. To accomplish this goal, the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities invents, implements, and conducts live and virtual education, research, documentation, public programs, and exhibitions focused on women artists and feminist art. The CWAH strives to establish equality and visibility for all women artists, who are underrepresented and unrecognized in art history, the art market, and the contemporary art world, and to address their professional development needs. The CWAH endeavors to serve all women in the visual arts and diverse global, national, regional, state, and university audiences.

Douglass Residential College

Rutgers University is the only flagship public research university in the nation to offer students the opportunity to join a women's residential college. Through personalized programs, leadership opportunities, and residential learning communities, Douglass offers an enhancement to the wonderful opportunities for undergraduates at Rutgers–New Brunswick.

Douglass' programs range from a first-year orientation that assists students in adjusting to college to senior year workshops, externship programs and labor force preparation. Douglass, a community of students invested in their own and each other's success, offers a four-year academic engagement curriculum for any female undergraduate student at Rutgers–New Brunswick. Douglass caters to the wide variety of students' interests, with a specialization for women in science, math, engineering, and technology majors. While at Douglass, all students are provided with customized programs, including peer mentors, themed and language housing, active student clubs, a student government, scholarships, leadership opportunities, and common first-year learning experiences.

Douglass' dedicated professional staff offers students personalized attention and unique experiential learning opportunities. The professionals at Douglass are deeply dedicated to bringing out the best in the each student. After graduation, students are a part of the dedicated Douglass alumnae network at the Associate Alumnae of Douglass College and the Rutgers University Alumni Association, which offers lifelong friendships and career development opportunities.

sciwomenOffice for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics

The Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (SciWomen) supports the Rutgers University mission of outstanding teaching, research and community engagement by advancing gender and racial equity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), including social and health science fields.

SciWomen works to advance gender and racial equity by providing resources and support for engagement and success in the sciences. Below is what we do and some specific examples of the programs, awards, and projects that support this effort.