The Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy offers educational opportunities for Humphrey School students and the broader community. Drawing on the strengths of the Humphrey School, an engaged alumni network, and faculty affiliates across the University, the Center delivers course content, specialized training, and public events that address gender policy issues at the local, national, and global levels.
Concentration in Gender and Public Policy
The Humphrey School is unique among top public policy schools in offering a pre-designed concentration in gender and public policy. Students from across the world come to the Humphrey School to integrate a gender lens into their master's degree studies. Faculty from diverse Humphrey School areas contribute courses to the concentration, and students can also count gender-focused courses offered elsewhere in the University (such as in law, sociology, or public health) towards the requirements.
The concentration is ideal for students who seek a career specifically in gender and policy, or who wish to bring a gender focus to their work more generally. Learn more about the Gender and Public Policy Concentration here.
GAINS: Gender and Intersectional Network Series
The GAINS workshop series prepares students with the skills to lead effectively and challenge institutional norms that perpetuate gender and other forms of bias. GAINS engages 15-30 graduate students in a network of practice, focusing on topics related to gender and intersectionality in relationship to leadership development and institutional change. This one-credit, two semester course is offered every other year and meets for four workshops per semester. Learn more about GAINS here.
Internships in Gender and Public Policy
The Center provides grant funding to support master’s students who seek training at organizations that address gender inequality and who may not otherwise be able to afford an unpaid internship. The Center also maintains a database of gender and public policy internship opportunities. Learn more about internships here.
Gender Policy Report Summer Fellowship
One Gender Policy Report Summer Fellowship will be available to eligible Humphrey School PhD and master’s students in 2021, with preference given to PhD students. The fellowship is a $4,000 award that will be paid during the summer. For the fellowship, students must apply to work with a Gender Policy Report faculty curator on a project to translate and transmit analysis on key areas of gender policy and produce two blog posts for the Gender Policy Report website. Learn more about this summer fellowship opportunity.
University of Minnesota Gender Scholars
The Center maintains a list of faculty across the Twin Cities campus whose research or teaching relate to women or gender. We also maintain a list of recent graduate course offerings by these faculty as a resource for students to identify courses of interest. If you are a University of Minnesota faculty member and would like to be added to this list, please contact us.
Case Study Project
The Center's case study project, led by former Center Director Sally Kenney from 2000-2010, produced case studies in women and public policy. The Center's comprehensive research of the existing databases of public policy cases (such as the Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, the University of Washington's Electronic Hallway, and others) showed that less than 1% of the thousands of existing cases raised women's issues or even had a female protagonist. Several of the cases produced have been used in classes at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the sociology department at the University of Toronto, and Mills College, to name a few.
Cases
- A Fair Representation: Advocating for Women’s Rights in the International Criminal Court by Barbara Frey
- Blagojevich Steps Up by Coral Butson
- Casa de Esperanza by Jodi Sandfort
- Caucus at Your Own Risk: Senator Shelia Kiscaden and the Minnesota Republican Caucus by Amy Strauss
- Conflicting Generations in Feminism: Crystal Plati and Choice USA by Amber Shipley
- DVIP: Unconditional Shelter? by Sally J. Kenney
- Fighting for Access to Midwifery Care and Home Birth: The Minnesota Story by Mary M. Lay
- Finding a Safe Space: Prioritizing Safety Considerations for Trans Youth in the Portland Homeless Youth Continuum by Sarah Taylor-Nanista
- From a Hostile Work Environment to Hostile Courtroom: Heroes, Victims, and Martyrs by Kate Troy
- Gag Me: Money versus Mission? by Rebecca Burch
- Hmong Women’s Action Team: Advocating for Social Change by Seng Vang
- How to Best Serve Planned Parenthood of Minnesota/South Dakota: Defining its Place in the Pro-choice Landscape by Nicole Courneya
- Jane Swift: Motherhood in the Massachusetts Governor's Office by Steffany Stern
- Rising Up and Plowing Down: How Can Two Women Make the Land and Arena for Justice by Dianna Hunter
- Thank you for being ready: Minnesota's First Supreme Court Justice, Rosalie Wahl by Sally J. Kenney
- The Power and Pain of Partnerships: The Minnesota Bulgaria Connection by Cheryl Thomas
- The Power to Choose by Sara M. Evans
- The Value of Women’s Words and Women’s Work by Kathy Magnuson
- The Welfare of Feminism: Struggle in the Midst of Reform by Bethany Snyder
- The Women’s Refugee Initiative by Raya Hegeman
- To Strike or Not to Strike: The University of Minnesota Clerical Workers’ Decision by Kristen Houlton