Institute Mission
The Institute for Women's Leadership (IWL) consortium comprises eight units of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Founded in 1991, the consortium examines leadership issues and advances women's leadership in education, research, politics, science, the arts, the workplace and the world. Individually, each participating consortium member is nationally and internationally recognized for groundbreaking work on women's education and advancement. As a group, the consortium represents the most comprehensive set of university resources in the nation dedicated to issues of women's leadership. Since its founding, the Institute has developed model programs to educate women for and about leadership and has contributed to the emerging research on women's leadership for social change.

Excerpts from Remarks by IWL Director Alison R. Bernstein
at her Welcome to Rutgers Reception
September 15, 2011

“Over the past decades, I have worked on and witnessed the difference an academic and activist focus on women and gender can make in higher education. Through my many career moves and shifts back and forth between academia and philanthropy, I have always maintained a feminist lens – in other words, a perspective that focuses on advancing social justice, and on reducing the systemic barriers that deny women and girls of all races, classes, ethnicities and sexualities the opportunity to serve, shape, and lead their communities and societies.

In claiming that feminist lens, I also proclaim that what is good for girls and women ultimately is good for boys and men. To live in a more just and fair society improves all our life chances. But giving up certain privileges and powers is never easy. Not for powerful men, and not for women of privilege either. And in helping more women, especially Rutgers students develop their leadership skills, I know we are working to make the next generation of women even more committed to leveling the playing field and perhaps, if they are smart, determined, and committed to a feminist vision – to changing the game itself.

I am thrilled to be the second director of the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL), following in the extraordinary footsteps of Mary Hartman, IWL’s founding director. Our goal is to build upon the distinguished achievements of this unparalleled consortium.

As we undertake a strategic planning process at the Institute to envision our next decade of growth, I am committed to some overarching values that I believe can guide our vision.

The first is valuing diversity – diverse perspectives, diverse experiences, diverse politics. Rutgers is one of the most diverse research universities in the country, especially in terms of its student body. And Rutgers has an impressive array of centers, institutes, programs and offices focused on women. One of the university’s challenges is to increase the diversity of its faculty and administrative leadership, and I affirm the IWL’s commitment to that goal

The second value that guides me is the comparative gaze. Most American institutions of higher education have recently – since the end of the Cold War – been bitten by the ‘globalization’ bug or taken the ‘internationalizing the curriculum pill.’ I think this is an important realization. Especially since 9/11, it’s been pretty clear that there’s a lot about the rest of the world that U.S. citizens need to know, understand, and most important, learn from.

So I value the comparative gaze – focusing on how other societies deal with their challenges, their struggles, their aspirations and successes. For example, when it comes to women’s leadership for a more just world, there’s a lot we can learn from places like Sweden and Brazil or India. Importantly, the comparative gaze doesn’t only mean looking across national boundaries, it can also encompass comparisons right here at home.

We need to avoid ‘universalizing’ women’s experience. The comparative gaze allows us to get beyond simplistic assumptions about what is happening to women and ask: Which women? Where are the disparities? Are rural women less likely to have access to the internet than those who live in cities? And why are black women seven times more likely to contract the HIV virus than white women? Or more specifically, within black communities, which women are most vulnerable and why?

Valuing diversity and employing the comparative gaze are the cornerstones of who I am and I bring them to Rutgers knowing that so many colleagues share them.

In this my first year as Institute director, there are three themes I am especially interested in exploring with IWL colleagues and other interested individuals across the university and outside Rutgers. These themes are:

Women’s Health and Environmental Sustainability
Women and the Media
Women’s Philanthropy

I look forward to reaching across departments and schools to learn about the many resources at Rutgers we can tap to pursue these themes and to forging new collaborations. Of course our future growth also depends on new resources, new friends, new collaborators, and I hope, new donors who become as excited about our vision as I am.

I hope by now you have some idea of who I am and my enthusiasms as I take leadership of the Institute. It is the job of my lifetime and I am very grateful to Rutgers for giving me this opportunity. But I cannot do it alone – indeed my concept of women’s leadership requires shared responsibility and inclusive leadership. I liken my approach to leadership to that of a symphony orchestra conductor. There are many different choirs in the orchestra and each makes a distinctive and beautiful sound. But this is nothing quite like all of the choirs playing together with someone who aspires to help all of us make thrilling music together.

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The Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building The Institute is located in the Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building in the Women's Scholarship Complex at Douglass Residential College. Dedicated in 1999, the building is also home to the Department of Women's and Gender Studies.	Wittenborn Scholars' Residence The Institute has a year-round scholars' residence for visitors to the consortium and its member units. Located across the street from the Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building, the Wittenborn house provides scholars and visiting lecturers a comfortable and convenient home away from home during their extended visits to campus.	Women's Scholarship and Leadership Complex The Women's Scholarship and Leadership Complex includes two buildings on Ryders Lane at Douglass Residential College in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Four of the Institute for Women's Leadership eight member units are housed in the complex. The Institute for Research on Women and the Center for Women's Global Leadership are located in the first building at 160 Ryders Lane.