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Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers University

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Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers University
Formation1991
FounderMary S. Hartman
Location
  • 162 Ryders Lane New Brunswick, NJ 08901
LeaderLisa Hetfield, Interim Director
Websiteiwl.rutgers.edu

The Institute for Women's Leadership (IWL) at Rutgers University is a consortium of nine units based at the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus and dedicated to the study of women and gender, to advocacy on behalf of gender equity, and to the promotion of women’s leadership locally, nationally, and globally. Established in 1991 by former Dean of Douglass Residential College, Mary S. Hartman, the Institute for Women’s Leadership connects its member units in the mission to examine and advance women’s leadership in education, research, the arts, sciences, business, politics and government, human rights, the workplace, and the world. The Institute supports member units’ missions, promotes a collective focus on women’s leadership for social change, and leads in the creation of initiatives that further women’s leadership in all arenas. The current Interim Director is Lisa Hetfield.

The IWL leads activities in three broad areas: model leadership programs for women in the public and private sectors; interdisciplinary research on women’s leadership; and collaborative programs that utilize the expertise of unit members for the benefit of the consortium. The strategic focus of the Institute is to develop leaders committed to a new vision of leadership, dedicated to improving people’s lives and creating a world with human rights and justice for everyone. Priorities include creating new knowledge about women’s leadership, developing leaders and fostering environments receptive to women’s leadership, and maintaining the Institute as a model of collaborative leadership.

The IWL complex on the Douglass Campus in New Brunswick provides a geographical focus where women leaders –grass roots activists, policy advocates, politicians, elected officials, and business and corporate executives –can connect with scholars and researchers to envision and help create a more equitable future. Linking diverse constituencies, the IWL is a site for creative problem solving and sociable change, and is poised to become a global leader in the study of women’s lives and the advancement of women’s leadership.

The Institute for Women’s Leadership consortium presently includes the following research, education, and advocacy units:

Members of the IWL consortium pursue distinctive programs of their own, while also working together on a range of joint initiatives and ventures. Their wide-ranging activity has made Rutgers a magnet for talented faculty in many fields who recognize the richness and collective value of the consortial arrangement.[1]

Programs

  • Leadership Scholars Certificate Program – A two-year selective, interdisciplinary certificate program that prepares Rutgers undergraduate women to be informed, innovative, and socially responsible leaders. IWL Leadership Scholars explore women's leadership and contributions to social change in contexts that range from the New Jersey Legislature to domestic violence shelters; from medical research labs to human rights organizations; from corporate boardrooms to the urban classroom; and from family dining tables to legal clinics. The program, launched in 1999, engages diverse models of leadership in classroom and experiential settings. IWL Leadership Scholars examine how different institutions inform our understanding and practice of leadership and how they encourage — or inhibit — civic innovation. Directed by Mary K. Trigg.[2]
  • WINGS – Women Investing in and Guiding Students is a one-year college-to-career mentoring program designed to link selected Rutgers undergraduate female students with successful professional women from our corporate partners, including: Accenture, Johnson & Johnson, PSEG, and Wells Fargo. During the mentoring relationship, WINGS students will build a network of valuable professional connections, gain an understanding about workplace culture, organizational structure, and work/life balance issues, and have the opportunity to explore a field of interest through exposure to a well-established professional woman in that field.[3]
  • CLASP – Community Leadership, Action and Service Project is a five-week service-learning program that offers undergraduate students at Rutgers University first-hand experience in a community-based organization in Central New Jersey. Internship placements focus on a variety of social issues, including: youth empowerment, arts education, public health, immigration, literacy, domestic violence prevention, and food security. Students gain valuable work experience while learning how organizations are addressing community challenges associated with social, economic and political inequality.[4]
  • Executive Leadership Program for Professional Women - An intensive workshop series for working women. This is a six-month program for women leaders from across the Fortune 500 companies. Training is designed by the Next Level, Inc., in partnership with the IWL and Center for Women and Work. The mission is to increase representation of women in senior roles by providing workshops to meet specific needs, coaching, and peer support. For more information, visit www.the-next-level.com.[5]
  • Visiting Scholars Program – The IWL and member units of the consortium sponsor special opportunities for visiting scholars to come to Rutgers to conduct research, teach, give public lectures, and participate in the women’s and gender studies community. The Visiting Global Associates Program provides annual opportunities for scholars and activists from around the world to visit Rutgers to work with the Center for Women's Global Leadership and the Institute for Women’s Leadership consortium members. The purpose of the Visiting Global Associates Program is to provide scholars and activists opportunities both to explore new areas of interest to them and to share their experience and wisdom with Rutgers faculty, staff and students. Visiting Global Associates may be in residence from two to six months to participate in leadership programs, curriculum development, and research initiatives on campus.[6]

IWL Lecture Series

  • The Annual Susan and Michael J. Angelides Endowed Lecture – Established with a generous endowment gift from Susan and Michael J. Angelides to the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University, the annual lecture provides students and faculty as well as the wider community with opportunities to learn from women leaders who are making a difference in society. The Series increases visibility both for the accomplishments of women leaders and for the need to increase women’s participation in leadership. The Angelides Lecture Series is a vital force in the work of the Institute in examining and advancing women’s leadership in education, research, politics, the workplace and the world. Previous lecturers include: Eve Ensler (2016), Ava DuVernay (2015), Gloria Steinem (2014), Geena Davis (2012), Isabel Wilkerson (2011), Anna Deavere Smith (2010), Jody Williams (2009), Samantha Power (2008), and Anne M. Mulcahy (2005)
  • Dialogues with the IWL Director Series – The Institute for Women’s Leadership sponsors “Dialogues with the IWL Director Series” to engage innovative thinkers and accomplished leaders from all arenas in informal conversations about their work for social change. Launched in 2011 by former IWL Director Alison R. Bernstein, the Dialogues Series examines emerging trends for women in leadership, explores issues of social justice, and initiates new areas of interest for the IWL consortium. Previous guests include: Jane Bennett (2014), Lisa Heineman (2014), Shari Munch (2014), Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh (2013), Savi Bisnath (2013), Clara Sue Kidwell (2013), Caroline Wigginton (2013), Sharon La Cruise (2012), Charlotte Bunch (2012), Geraldine Laybourne (2012), Jorge Reina Schement (2012), Dázon Dixon Diallo (2012), Terry McGovern (2012), Abigail Disney (2011), and Cora Weiss (2011)
  • Transforming Lives Documentary Film Project – In partnership with the Writers House, Rutgers University Department of English, the Institute for Women's Leadership piloted Transforming Lives in 2009. This project combines filmmaking and interview skills to help our undergraduate Leadership Scholars learn from women leaders who are making a difference in the world. These student films have been created with the help from filmmakers Pilar Timpane, Chantal Eyong, Lizette Gesudan, Stephen Beeston, Steve Holloway, Scott Lazes, and Nicholas Salazer under Dena Seidel's supervision in the Writers House documentary class. The purpose of the Transforming Lives project is to inspire and empower women of all ages to make positive change in their own lives, in their communities, in our state, nation, and the world. This educational initiative is a significant opportunity for Rutgers undergraduate students in the IWL Leadership Scholars Certificate Program to learn about leadership from women change makers, and to gain an understanding of the use of media as a vital tool for creating social change in the 21st century.

Research and Publications

The Institute for Women’s Leadership conducts research on women’s leadership and women’s lives. The IWL disseminates their findings through books, reports, transcripts and documentaries about women leaders, as well as fact sheets and data on the status of women in New Jersey, the nation, and the world. The goal is to encourage the interdisciplinary examination of leadership in different contexts of science, technology, politics and public policy, the arts, business, law, the humanities, higher education, and the global arena, considering perspectives of gender, race, ethnicity, and age in exercising leadership.

Notable publications include:

  • Junctures in Women’s Leadership: Social Movements edited by Mary K. Trigg and Alison R. Bernstein (Volume 1) and by Lisa Hetfield and Dana M. Britton (Volume 2)
  • Doing Diversity in Higher Education: Faculty Leaders Share Challenges and Strategies edited by Winnifred R. Brown-Galude
  • Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change edited by Mary K. Trigg, with preface by Mary Hartman
  • Talking Leadership: Conversations with Powerful Women edited by Mary Hartman
  • National Dialogue on Educating Women Leaders

All publications can be found on the Rutgers Press website.

In addition, the Institute for Women’s Leadership seeks to contribute to the advancement of women’s leadership studies, women’s education, and higher education by publishing collected essays and case studies on the work of the Institute for Women’s Leadership and by sponsoring research and forums on leadership issues. The National Dialogue on Educating Women for Leadership is a national, continuing conversation among educators, scholars and experts that explores a range of women's leadership issues, programs and research.

History

Early History of Women’s Education at Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has a unique history as a colonial college, a land-grant institution, and a state university. Chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, the eighth institution of higher learning to be founded in the colonies, the school opened its doors in New Brunswick in 1771. In 1825, the name of the college was changed to honor a former trustee and Revolutionary War veteran, Colonel Henry Rutgers.

Rutgers College assumed university status in 1924, and expanded significantly with the founding of an evening division—University College—in 1934, and the addition of the University of Newark (now Rutgers–Newark) in 1946, and the College of South Jersey at Camden (now Rutgers–Camden) in 1950. Legislative acts in 1945 and 1956 designated Rutgers, “The State University of New Jersey.”

During the first decade of the twentieth century, only one college in New Jersey admitted women – The College of Saint Elizabeth. To increase women’s access to higher education, the New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs launched a campaign to create a public liberal arts college for women that would be non-denominational and affordable.

Under the leadership of Mabel Smith Douglass, a Committee of the Federation of Women’s Clubs devised a multi-pronged strategy to create a space in which women would have comparable educational opportunities to men. Pointing out that federal land-grant funding for Rutgers was being used exclusively to benefit men, who comprised less than one-third of the high school students in the state, Douglass mobilized school superintendents and principals to support higher education for women. Lobbying wives of members of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, Douglass creatively deployed their influence to help persuade the President and the Board to allocate land and a building for the new college.

Tapping the political commitments and economic resources of women across the state, Douglass initiated a “one-dollar women’s subscription” to raise $150,000 to support the college. Building a coalition of supporters strong enough to overcome significant opposition, Douglass succeeded in founding The New Jersey College for Women at Rutgers in 1918 to offer women “a cultural broadening in connection with specific training so that women may go out into the world fitted not only for positions on the lower rung of the ladder of opportunity but for leadership as well in the economical, political, and intellectual life of this nation.” Throughout the third and fourth decades of the twentieth century, the college offered public higher education to women, growing in size and reputation. The first class of 42 women graduated in 1922. In 1955, the college was renamed Douglass College in honor of its founder and first dean.

Douglass, the College for Women at Rutgers - the Foundation for Research and Policy Centers Building on the early initiatives at Douglass College, Rutgers, in the late 1960’s was among the first schools in the nation to offer courses in Women’s Studies and to encourage path breaking new research on women and gender. By 1970, Rutgers established a Women’s Studies Program. Rutgers was also one of the leaders in offering educational programs on women in public leadership, and in 1971, the Center for American Women and Politics was founded at the Eagleton Institute of Politics on the Douglass College Campus. Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, women’s education at Rutgers expanded and, across the nation, women’s studies became a major social, political, and intellectual movement in the United States. The Institute for Research on Women was founded at Rutgers in 1971 and in 1989, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership was founded at Douglass College.

Today, Rutgers is home to the largest and most distinguished collection of academic units devoted to women and formally connected since the early 1990’s as the Institute for Women’s Leadership consortium.

Launching the Institute for Women’s Leadership Consortium In the late 1980’s Mary S. Hartman, then Dean of Douglass, began to meet informally with the directors of the women’s programs and centers located on the Douglass campus. These gatherings became a forum for working collaboratively to develop and strengthen women’s education at Rutgers and to consider the critical underrepresentation of women in leadership in all arenas at the local, national and international levels. In 1991, under Mary Hartman’s leadership, the directors formed a consortium to address this underrepresentation. Declaring the mission of the Institute as “dedicated to examining issues of leadership and advancing women’s leadership in education, research, politics, the workplace, and the world,” the founding directors established the Institute as a collaborative enterprise, the nation’s first consortium dedicated to women’s lives and leadership.

The founding directors of the new Institute for Women’s Leadership were:

Shortly after its founding, the Institute added the new Center for Women and Work, directed by Dorothy Sue Cobble at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (1993). In 2007, the Institute for Women and Art joined the consortium, Judith Brodsky and Ferris Olin, Co-directors, and in 2008, the Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, under the direction of Vice President Joan Bennett, became the eighth member unit of the Institute for Women’s Leadership.

Chronology of Progress for the Consortium

1991-1995

  • Following several years of planning, the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL) is formed as a consortium at Douglass College. Participating members include: Douglass College, Women’s Studies Program, Center for American Women and Politics, Institute for Research on Women, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and later, Center for Women and Work, and School of Management and Labor Relations.
  • NJ WomenCount is established to collect, analyze and publish data on the status of women in New Jersey.
  • Women’s Scholarship and Leadership is designated as a university growth area; and a university-wide committee is formed to identify priorities for internal funding.

1996-2000

  • Mary S. Hartman, former dean of Douglass College, becomes full-time director of the Institute.
  • IWL/IRW Interdisciplinary Research Seminar for Faculty and Graduate Students established through a seed grant from university funding, followed by grants to IWL from the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
  • Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building at 162 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, is dedicated, becoming location for IWL, Women’s Studies Program, and Center for Women and Work.
  • The Leadership Scholars Program is initiated through the Women’s Studies Program to provide undergraduates a two-year interdisciplinary experience to combine classwork, internships and social action projects in learning about leadership.
  • Dr. Mary K. Trigg is hired to direct the program.
  • Wittenborn Scholars Residence is dedicated, providing convenient housing for visiting scholars associated with the IWL and member units.
  • The IWL and the Center for Women and Work collaborate to co-sponsor the Senior Leadership Program for Professional Women (SLP) to serve 24 corporate and professional women annually. SLP becomes the Executive Leadership Program.
  • Leadership Scholars Program gains approval as a university certificate program. The IWL receives a $200,000 endowment gift for Scholars Program.

2001-2005

  • Division on Women, NJ Department of Community Affairs and the IWL form a research partnership to renew NJ WomenCount.
  • The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies is established and new PhD is approved.
  • Visiting Global Associates Program is established to link international work at the Global Center with IWL curricular and leadership development programs.
  • The IWL collaborates with Center for Women and Work to launch WINGS, a college-to-career mentoring program to link undergraduate students with senior business women. Deloitte & Touche becomes the first corporate partner in this program.
  • Ford Foundation approves a two-year research grant to fund “Re-affirming Action: Designs for Diversity in Higher Education.”
  • The Division on Women, NJ Department of Community Affairs, grants $140,000 to the IWL to continue NJ WomenCount. When funding is completed in 2007, the IWL continues the project as Women’s Leadership Fact Sheets.
  • The IWL receives a $1,000,000 endowment gift from Gretchen and James L. Johnson for core support. The IWL launches the annual Susan and Michael J. Angelides Endowed Lecture Series.

2006-2010

  • The IWL pilots the High School Leadership Program at Snyder High School, Jersey City, as a component of the IWL Leadership Scholars Certificate Program.
  • The IWL launches Community, Leadership, Action & Service Project (CLASP) – to provide summer placements for Rutgers undergraduates to learn about the needs of underserved populations in New Jersey.
  • The Institute for Women and Art (IWA) joins the IWL consortium becoming the seventh member unit.
  • Rutgers re-affirms the importance of women’s education, establishing Douglass Residential College as the first residential college within its re-organized undergraduate structure in New Brunswick.
  • The Office for the Advancement of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics joins the IWL consortium as the eighth member unit.
  • The IWL Leadership Scholars Certificate Program is named the 2009 recipient of the Wynona M. Lipman Award for Empowerment by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Division on Women, and the Commission on the Status of Women.
  • Transforming Lives Documentary Film Project launched in partnership with Rutgers Writers House to provide IWL Leadership Scholars opportunities to interview women leaders and produce short documentary films based on the interview for web distribution.

2011-present

  • Alison R. Bernstein is appointed the IWL Director following Mary S. Hartman’s retirement. Bernstein begins her five-year tenure July 1, 2011, identifying three new areas of focus: Women & Health, Women, Media, & Tech, and Women & Philanthropy.
  • The IWL and the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) pilot GROW (Girls Realizing Opportunities in the World), a program to provide adolescent girls in foster care, relative care and adoptive families with resources needed to overcome adversity and succeed in life through group psychotherapy and mentoring relationships with Rutgers IWL students.
  • The IWL endowment passes the $3,000,000 mark. The Center on Violence Against Women and Children, directed by Judy Postmus, School of Social Work, joins the IWL consortium, making the ninth participating member.
  • In 2012, the IWL completes the “Blue Skies” Strategic Planning Process to identify goals and strategic directions for the next six years.
  • Dr. Denise V. Rodgers, Vice Chancellor at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, joins the IWL as Senior Fellow for Women & Health.
  • In October 2014, in collaboration with the Rutgers School of Communication and Information and the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, the IWL launches its campaign to create The Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies and the Gloria Steinem program fund.
  • In 2015, the Gloria Steinem Media Mentoring Program is piloted, focusing on pairing recent graduates with successful people in their field.
  • In the summer of 2016, Lisa Hetfield is appointed the Interim Director of the IWL following the passing of Alison R. Bernstein.

References

  1. ^ IWL Official Website
  2. ^ http://iwl.rutgers.edu/programs_lsp.html
  3. ^ http://iwl.rutgers.edu/programs_wings.html
  4. ^ http://iwl.rutgers.edu/programs_clasp.html
  5. ^ http://iwl.rutgers.edu/programs_elp.html
  6. ^ http://iwl.rutgers.edu/programs_vsp_global.html
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