DIVERSIFYING THE LEADERSHIP PROJECT
Women’s research, policy and advocacy centers have long been a driving force in efforts to create more diverse institutions, especially in higher education. Yet the fields of women’s research and women’s studies have themselves not been diverse, and too often their leadership has not reflected the vision, energies, perspectives, and concerns of women of color.
"With this project, the Council proposed to address the historical under-representation of women of color within the fields of women’s studies and research, and … to foster the development of a new generation of leaders and experts that bring a diversity of experiences and perspectives to address issues of social justice, inclusion, and equity."
-- The National Council for Research on Women, Report to the Ford Foundation, June 2009
To help address this challenge, the Council launched a two-year project (2008-2009): Diversifying the Leadership of Women’s Research, Policy, and Advocacy Centers. The project was designed to increase the number of women of color at all professional levels at select policymaking, advocacy, and research centers, and to identify best practices for promoting their leadership within their institutions and in the field more generally.
Download full analysis of the project's Strategies, Outcomes and Lessons Learned as a pdf.
More information is available in our project-related reports and programs, and in the project meeting summaries from our Annual Conference Reports for 2008 and 2009.
The six centers chosen for implementing projects:
- Center for Research on Gender & Sexuality, San Francisco State
- Southwest Women’s Law Center, Albuquerque, NM
- Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy, University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB)
- Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO), Simmons School of Management, Boston, MA
- Women’s Studies Program, Miami University of Ohio
- Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
The National Council for Research on Women gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ford Foundation for this
project. Additional support was provided by the home institutions of five of the project participants: Miami University
of Ohio; Simmons School of Management; the University of Massachusetts, Boston; the University of Oregon; and
San Francisco State University.
"The changes brought by these initiatives will affect the way knowledge is conceptualized and disseminated by, for and about underrepresented women of color."
--The Women’s Studies Program, Miami University of Ohio
