The Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy brings multidisciplinary research expertise to bear on real-world policy problems. In collaboration with a network of faculty affiliates, community partners, governments, and national nonprofit and research organizations, our research provides a rigorous basis for policy decision-making.
Our research is guided by an intersectional lens, seeking to understand how underrepresented and marginalized groups such as Indigenous, Black, and women of color, and transgender and gender non-conforming individuals experience unique policy impacts due to their position at the intersection of multiple forms of inequality.
Fact Sheets
Research Projects
10 Years Later: WESA in Numbers (PDF)
Women - especially Black, Indigenous, and other women of color - earn less, pay more for goods and services, and have less wealth than white men. Center Director Ewig served as a Core Task Force research member on Attorney General Keith Ellison’s Advisory Task Force on Expanding the Economic Security of Women. The report offers 100+ recommendations for how we can improve women’s economic security.
To mark the 10-year anniversary of WESA, Center Director Professor Christina Ewig and Humphrey Ph.D student, Xiting Zhang, evaluated the impact of WESA on women’s labor force participation and the gender wage gap.
Essential and Exiting: COVID-19’s Impact on Low-Wage Healthcare Workers (PDF)
Nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal care aides provide crucial supports and often lifelines for ill, disabled, and elderly individuals and their family members. The COVID-19 pandemic led many of these workers to leave their jobs, resulting in a veritable crisis of care in Minnesota. This report helps to understand why these workers have exited, and what can be done to bring them back.
A Race and Gender Lens on COVID-19 (PDF)
Taking stock of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact in Minnesota requires an intersectional analysis. Through analysis of state-level occupational survey and unemployment data, as well as interviews with community service organizations and unions, this report provides a clearer picture of which Minnesota workers have been most impacted by COVID-19 and proposes short and long-term recommendations to build a strong social safety net for all Minnesota workers.
Research Archives
Status of Women and Girls+ in Minnesota
The Status of Women and Girls+ in Minnesota is an ongoing collaborative research project between the Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
Previous reports:
- 2022 Status of Women and Girls in MN Report (PDF)
- 2020 Status of Women and Girls in MN Report (PDF)
- 2018 Status of Women and Girls in MN (PDF)
- 2014 Status of Women and Girls in MN Research Overview (PDF)
- 2012 Status of Women and Girls in MN Research Overview (PDF)
- 2010 Status of Women and Girls in MN Report (PDF)
Paid Family Leave
In 2016, the Center led the research team that wrote the most comprehensive report (PDF) of its kind detailing design and implementation options for a paid family and medical leave insurance program in Minnesota. This report laid the foundation for legislation that would be introduced in subsequent sessions; the paid family leave program was signed into law by Gov. Walz in 2023.
Reimagining Expungement
This faculty–student research collaboration explored how individuals with prostitution-related offenses can utilize expungement law to seal their criminal records. Learn more.