Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

Women’s work: 12 stories of female success and struggle in male-dominated fields

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts, Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts of Sciences, and Julie Engiles of the School of Veterinary Medicine were interviewed for a photo-essay about being women in the workplace.

Historical image of the first International Women's Day march in Petrograd in 1917

Q&A

The history behind International Women’s Day

Kristen R. Ghodsee, professor of Russian and East European studies, talks to Penn Today about the global holiday’s history, and why America has been late to embrace it.

Women’s unpaid labor is worth $10,900,000,000,000

In honor of International Women’s Day, Kristen Ghodsee of the School of Arts and Sciences co-wrote a piece about women’s unpaid labor, which is not factored into GDP calculations: “Women provide a huge unacknowledged subsidy to the smooth functioning of our economies, which would grind to a halt if women stopped doing this work.”

A woman and a man sitting side by side in an office working on laptops, she is holding an oversized "thought bubble" sign over her head and smiling

Why don’t women promote themselves?

Wharton’s Judd Kessler co-authored a study, “The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion,” which measured confidence and self-promotion among women about their performance at work.

Person in middle of open market in Seoul

Less and later marriage in South Korea

Sociologist Hyunjoon Park sheds light on why marriage rates are falling in South Korea, particularly among highly educated women and low-educated men.

a flag with three horizontal stripes with the words Votes for Women in the center

Q&A

A hallmark year in voting history

This year marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment as well as the bicentennial of Susan B. Anthony’s birth. Penn experts reflect on Anthony’s legacy and voting rights today.

With 2020 election, Women’s March on Philadelphia ‘more important now than ever,’ organizers say

Dawn Teele of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about the Women’s March, calling it “a cathartic show of solidarity rather than a solid movement with a specific end.”

Alice Paul and the ERA

After almost a hundred years, the Equal Rights Amendment may finally be ratified as an amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Mary Frances Berry, Kathleen M. Brown and Maria Murphy discuss what ratification could mean.

The 96-year-history of the Equal Rights Amendment

Mary Frances Berry of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about the Equal Rights Amendment and the obstacles that have prevented it from being ratified and added to the Constitution.

African American person sitting in a wooden chair, feet up on a wooden table that holds a ball jar filled with sweet tea.

Seeing life through their eyes

Through the voices and stories of seven men, a feature-length documentary co-produced and directed by Annenberg Dean John L. Jackson Jr. and graduate student Nora Gross illustrates what it means to be black and gay in the south.

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