Welcome to CRGP!

Our mission is to increase the understanding of gender inequality and gender equity in the professions, in business, and in other demanding careers. We foster rigorous social scientific research that advances basic knowledge and supports the efforts of employers and policy makers to create more equitable and productive workplaces. We promote interdisciplinary conversations to integrate what is currently known about gender, work, and family and to assess future directions for exploration. We take into account that men's and women's professional opportunities are shaped by race, ethnicity, nationality and sexual identity as well as gender.  We promote in-depth studies of particular professions as well as broader comparative research across different professions and societies. We also support the work of young scholars in order to contribute to the continuing vitality of gender research. For example, CRGP Graduate Student Affiliates in Sociology, History, and Art History have received funding from the UCSD Dean of Graduate Studies for their Chancellor's Interdisciplinary Collaboratories project "Gender Inequality: Ideologies and Consequences."

View our Spring 2013 newsletter for an update on our most recent activities!

NSF Research

An important research site for understanding how gender shapes careers is science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. CRGP affiliates Mary Blair-Loy, Jeanne Ferrante, and Erin Cech have received funding from a National Science Foundation Advance PAID-Research grant to conduct a longitudinal study about how disadvantages for women, minorities, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual faculty in STEM fields accrue over time. They analyze how individual, departmental, and disciplinary factors translate into inequalities in salaries, advancement, productivity, and sense of conflict between work and family. Their project examines how individual biases, departmental networks and climate, and disciplinary culture and demography shape careers over time. The research question is how gender and racial inequality is created, reproduced, and redressed in a top-ranked, meritocratic university, in which individuals care about ensuring fairness and transparency. The researchers have already conducted a survey of academic scientists, as well as 65 in-depth interviews with faculty members. (This grant is entitled Divergent trajectories: A longitudinal study of organizational and departmental factors leading to gender and race differences in STEM faculty advancement, pay, and persistence).

Join Us

Scholars and students at UCSD and beyond, employers and community members are invited to participate in Center events. Contact us to request to be added to our mailing list for news and announcements or to join as an affiliate. Learn more about our exciting programs (PDF) and how you can support our work (PDF).

Mary Blair-Loy, Founding Director

News and Events

Gender in STEMM Professions Workshop

UCSD GradWISE presents the Gender in STEMM Professions Workshop, which will be held on Thursday, May 9, 2013, from 5:30-7:30 pm in Bonner Hall Room 2130 at UCSD. CRGP Director Mary Blair-Loy will begin the event by delivering the keynote speech, which will provide a framework of the obstacles women in STEMM face as they attempt to advance and become leaders in their fields. This lecture will be immediately followed by interactive tasks with participants to train leadership skills for navigating the aforementioned obstacles, facilitated by a member of the UCSD Center for Communication and Leadership. Register for this free event here; please see the flyer for additional details.

Funding for the Institute of Social Research, Oslo

The Institute for Social Research, located in Oslo, Norway, where CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Sigtona Halrynjo serves as Senior Research Fellow, has received funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion to become the Norwegian National Center for Research on Gender Equality.

Women and the Gun Control Debate

CRGP Senior Academic Affiliate Ronnee Schreiber, author of Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics, has analyzed the positions of women across the political spectrum regarding gun control. In a KPBS interview, she discussed the comments made by Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and conservative Independent Women's Forum activist Gayle Trotter. Although the two women differ on their political stances, they both utilize motherhood as the frame for their arguments.

New Research by Erin Cech and Mary Blair-Loy

A new issue of Gender News, published by Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research, cites CRGP Affiliate Erin Cech and Director Mary Blair-Loy's new research about high-powered women's beliefs in the glass ceiling. Cech and Blair-Loy find that women recognize glass ceilings when they are exposed to work-family balance issues (such as working long hours, being the family breadwinner, and having very young children) themselves. Women tend to not recognize glass celings when they have advanced business degrees, are married, and hold the highest positions in their organization. Whether organizational leaders believe success is affected by personal achievement or organizational factors may impact whether they implement policies in their workplaces designed to help employees overcome structural barriers.

Mary Blair-Loy's Book One of Most Cited Works in Sociology

Competing Devotions (2003), by CRGP Founding Director Mary Blair-Loy, is listed as one of the top 102 works cited in sociology between the years of 2008-2012. The list, in full here, was created by UNC Assistant Professor Neal Caren.