Rutgers Recognized for Representation of Women Leaders

Rutgers University-New Brunswick is a national leader in higher education for elevating women from diverse backgrounds to leadership roles, according to a study conducted by the Eos Foundation’s Women’s Power Gap (WPG) Initiative.

The Women’s Power Gap at Elite Universities: Scaling the Ivory Tower ranks Rutgers 13th among the 130 major U.S. research universities in its comprehensive gender index. The report, conducted with the American Association of University Women, tracked women in top university leadership positions, analyzed data regarding tenured full professors that is reported to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and used race/ethnicity categories from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report placed Rutgers-New Brunswick among the top 13 universities, citing leadership positions held by Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway and Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke as the vice provost of academic affairs.

Created in 2018 to increase the number of women from diverse backgrounds among CEO and C-suite leaders nationally, the WPG Initiative conducts and commissions research on prominent economic sectors and measures power and wage gaps to highlight progress. The Women's Power Gap at Elite Universities: Scaling the Ivory Tower is the second of two reports examining compensation and top leadership among the country’s major research universities.

“We chose to focus on higher education because we believe the sector could and should be the first to achieve gender parity and fair representation of people of color at the top,” the report notes. “These institutions have the clout to drive change within their own bodies and to inspire action and motivate change throughout our country.”