The Women and Public Policy Program’s faculty, research fellows, and students are committed to advancing women and gender equity globally. Through rigorous research, we offer gender insights into work, politics, and conflict that have the potential to reduce or eliminate barriers so all people can fulfill their life aspirations unconstrained by gender bias.

Spotlight

WAPPP Spring Seminar Series: Make Work Fair

Missed the live sessions? You can still explore how to build workplaces that work for everyone through our recorded seminar series. Based on insights from Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi’s book Make Work Fair, each virtual session dives into research and strategies that help organizations make fairness count, make it stick, and make it “normal.” 

 

WAPPP's Gender Equity Summer Reading List

Explore bold ideas and research-driven solutions on workplace equity, women’s leadership, feminism, and intersectionality in recent books by WAPPP and Harvard affiliates. 

View the full reading list
 

Reimagining Care by Making Men Part of the Solution

In Stanford Social Innovation Review, Hannah Riley Bowles and colleagues show how policy and global insights can reshape male caregiving for a more compassionate future. 

Read the article
 

Restoring Fairness and Meritocracy in the Workplace

In EDGE Magazine, Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi show that fairness and meritocracy go hand in hand, and the future of work depends on using modern tools to assess talent equitably.

Explore the research insights

Research & Programs

Work and Gender Equity (WAGE)

The WAGE research initiative focuses on data-driven strategies organizations can use to "debias" their systems and create more inclusive workplaces, as well as interventions that enhance individuals’ agency in negotiating more gender-equitable work arrangements, including paid and unpaid labor.

WAGE

Gender and Politics

The Gender and Politics initiative aims to advance research on representative democracy and equitable participation in governments across the globe. Our "Oval Office" training program inspires and supports nontraditional candidates to run for public office. 

Gender & Politics

Gender and Conflict

The Gender and Conflict initiative unites faculty, students, and researchers at Harvard Kennedy School and beyond to study gender in non-violent and violent social movements and the social and institutional factors influencing the prevalence of gender-based violence.

Gender & Conflict

Gender Action Portal (GAP)

GAP is an online collection of research evaluating the impact of specific policies, strategies, and organizational practices to advance gender equity.  

GAP

Research Fellowship Program

The fellowship's mission is to support and advance academic and practitioner-scholars in their gender-related research.

Fellowship Program

Other Programs and Initiatives

Explore all the programs, projects, and initiatives at the Women and Public Policy Program.

Other Initiatives
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News
DEI Study Proves Better Training Leads to More Diverse Hiring
How Meritocracies Make the Rich Richer
Jacinda Ardern on Her Documentary 'Prime Minister'
Publications
Iris Bohnet headshot
Can gender and race dynamics in performance appraisals be disrupted? The case of social influence
Industrial policy for competitiveness in the energy transition
An Insider’s Perspective on How to Reduce Fraud in the Social Sciences
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF LAND AND PEOPLE

The Women and Public Policy Program and the Harvard Kennedy School are located on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary unceded homeland of the Massachusett people, the surviving descendants of the first people of Massachusetts and of the Neponset band of the Massachusett. We honor this tradition and work toward a gender equity agenda that addresses the needs of all women, including Indigenous women and Indigenous communities. For more information, please visit our GAP Land Acknowledgement resource page.