February 14, 2023

We will be forever grateful to our founding co-director, Ruth B. Mandel, for her foresight in leading CAWP through its formative years; for helping to create a fertile ground of research, education, and community in the women and politics movement; and for remaining a champion of the Center throughout her life. One of the first initiatives Ruth spearheaded in the early years of her directorship was the Florence Peshine Eagleton Grants program. In an effort to stimulate research about the largely unexplored subject of women’s political participation, CAWP awarded grants to scholars conducting their own research projects. The funded projects resulted in a variety of influential publications and promoted a network of scholars across the country who created a new research field devoted to women and politics. That ever-expanding network carries on that work today. Now, thanks to the generosity of Ruth’s family, we are proud to announce what is, for us, a full-circle moment for Ruth’s legacy at the Center, the Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awards.

These awards will support dissertation research on women, gender, and U.S. politics. Eligible recipients include advanced doctoral students from any relevant discipline at U.S.-based institutions who have successfully defended their dissertation proposal. We encourage applications from scholars who are traditionally underrepresented in the academy, and we welcome applications for research that analyzes gender in addition to or in conjunction with other categories such as race/ethnicity, class, immigration status, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

Up to four Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awards will be awarded annually, with the expectation that at least one award will be designated for a Rutgers University student. The application deadline for 2023 awardees will be May 1, 2023. Learn more about eligibility, requirements, and award details and submit an application here.

You can read more about Ruth and her extraordinary career here.

Lock in a reduced rate for Ready to Run® New Jersey by REGISTERING NOW! CAWP’s flagship Ready to Run® program in New Jersey returns to an in-person format this March 17-18 in New Brunswick. CAWP’s Ready to Run® campaign training program provides two tracks: track one provides detailed information for women who are preparing to launch a political campaign, while track two caters to women who are expanding their engagement with politics and government. Ready to Run® 2023 sessions include:

• Digital Strategies for Candidates, Campaigns, and Advocates
• Strategic Campaign Communications
• Launching Your Campaign
• Finding Your Political Voice and Influence – Elected or Not
• Navigating New Jersey’s Political Parties for Candidates
• Legislative Advocacy
• Fundraising for Success

Learn more and register at our early-bird rate here.

With today's announcement from Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, declaring her presidential candidacy, CAWP wanted to provide a historical context for women seeking the Republican nomination for president of the United States. While numerous women have sought the Republican presidential nomination, including some who received votes in straw polls and primary contests, not all meet CAWP’s criteria for prominent presidential candidacies. By CAWP’s criteria, Haley will become the fifth prominent Republican woman candidate for president. The previous women that meet these criteria include Margaret Chase Smith (1964); Elizabeth Dole (2000); Michele Bachmann (2012); and Carly Fiorina (2016).

In addition, Haley will be the first woman governor (former or current) from either party to enter a presidential primary. She is also the first Asian American woman with a significant national profile to campaign for the Republican nomination for president.

Twelve Democratic women have made significant efforts in seeking the Democratic nomination for president, including six in the most recent presidential primary. Two Black women and two Asian American or Pacific Islander women, as well as one woman – Vice President Kamala Harris – who identifies as both Black and Asian American, have campaigned for the Democratic nomination for president.

Learn more about the history of women and the presidency at our fact sheet, Women Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates: A Selected List, and keep up with women’s role in the 2024 presidential election at CAWP’s Presidential Watch 2024

Kelly Dittmar, CAWP scholar and director of research, joins Forbes as a contributing writer, with a focus on the intersection of gender and politics. In her first piece, More Women Are Winning U.S. Elections. It’s Not The Only Way To Build Political Power, examines the interaction between greater representation and building political influence. “Numbers alone are inadequate to fully disrupt the gendered and racialized norms of political institutions,” Dittmar writes. “That patriarchal culture has direct effects on who holds power and how its wielded, as well as if and how they are held accountable… Norms, rules, and structures that privilege white men can also damage retention among women officeholders or discourage women from seeking this type of political power at all.” Read the full piece on the Forbes website.

Join New York Times reporter and Eagleton Visiting Associate Kate Zernike at Symphony Space in New York City on March 1 at 7pm for the launch of her second book, The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science. Zernike will be joined in conversation by Michael Barbaro of NYT’s The Daily. Tickets are available here.

Based on a story Zernike broke as a reporter for the Boston Globe, the book is the inspiring account of the sixteen female scientists who in 1999 forced MIT to publicly admit it had been discriminating against its female faculty for years — sparking a nationwide reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science. It begins with Nancy Hopkins as a college junior in 1963, wary of feminism, and falling in love with the promise of genetics in a lecture by James Watson, four months after he and Francis Crick shared the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the double helix. Hired as one of the first women at MIT, Dr. Hopkins becomes a leader of the sixteen and a hero to two generations of women in science.