Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers University
The Institute for Women's Leadership (IWL) at Rutgers University is a consortium of ten units based at the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus. It is 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 has been led by Rebecca Mark since January 2020. 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. Research and publications. The Institute for Women's Leadership conducts research on women's leadership and women's lives. The IWL disseminates its 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: 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. Launching the Institute for Women's Leadership Consortium In the late 1980s 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 (now the Center for Women in the  Arts and Humanities) 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. In 2011, the Center on Violence Against Women and Children (now Center for Research on Ending Violence) became the ninth member of the consortium under the direction of Judy Postmus. In October 2020 the Center for Women in Business, Rutgers Business School, directed by Lisa Kaplowitz, became the tenth consortium member. Institute