UMass McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies

A report called “ Parenting from Prison: Family Relationships of Incarcerated Women in Massachusetts” was released at the State House on June 26, 2008. To find out more, contact Paige Ransford, Project Director, at 617.287.5541.

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On June 9, 2008, almost 300 women came together for the “Women, Wages and Work Policy Conference.” Featured speakers included Lilly Ledbetter, plaintiff in the Supreme Court case against gender wage discrimination; Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy; Teresa Heinz Kerry; and many more. The conference also featured strategy sessions on how to close the wage gap for women and issued a fact sheet on pay equity. Click here to find out more about the conference.

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In April 2008, the Center and its Graduate Certificate Program received the 2008 “Progress in Equity Award” from the American Association of University Women – Massachusetts.

Carol Hardy-Fanta (left) receives the award from Patricia Ho , AAUW Association Board, New England Regional Director

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On March 11, 2008, the Center celebrated International Women’s Day by hosting the first-ever panel of women serving as mayors in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Seven of the 11 women serving in these top-level elected positions spoke movingly about the challenges of their jobs, where they oversee thousands of personnel and hundreds of millions of dollars in municipal budgets. Paige Ransford, Senior Research Associate at the Center, provided an overview and released a fact sheet she authored: “Women in Municipal Government in Massachusetts.”

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On November 15, 2007, the Center joined the MassGAP project in “Women of Talent: Gender and Government Appointments in Massachusetts, 2002–2007,” a research report by Carol Hardy-Fanta and Kacie Kelly (WPPP Class of 2008).

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Carol Hardy-Fanta, Center Director, joined her co-principal investigators, in releasing results from the Gender and Multicultural Leadership (GMCL) Survey of Elected Officials on November 7, 2007, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC. Watch a webcast of the presentation. Read the executive summary and other publications. The project received media attention, including an article in USA Today.

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Carol Hardy-Fanta, Pei-te Lien, Dianne Pinderhughes and Christine Sierra presented a paper presented on September 1, 2007, at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association: “A New Look at Paths to Political Office: Moving Women of Color from the Margins to the Center.”

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Research on gender and racial diversity in state and local politics featured Carol Hardy-Fanta, Director, and Donna Stewartson, Associate Director, in the following news stories: “Moving govt. toward more diversity,” Boston Herald (2 April 2007); “Diversity still lagging in Bay State boardrooms,” Boston Globe (11 May 2007); an editorial in the Boston Globe, “Vision for a diverse Boston” (11 May 2007); a column in the Boston Globe, “Finally, a new Boston” (23 May 2007); “Diversity: A Seat at the Table?” Women’s Business Journal (June 2007, vol. 9, no. 9); and “Study finds lack of diversity in major Mass. institutions,” Bay State Banner (17 May 2007).

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An article called “Women in New England Politics,” by Paige Ransford, Carol Hardy-Fanta, and Anne Marie Cammisa, was published in the spring 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy.

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Carol Hardy-Fanta, Director, was interviewed on WBUR radio on 11/7/06 to discuss gender and race in the state’s recent gubernatorial election.

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In May 2006, Associate Program Director, Donna Stewartson, received a Community Service Award from The Honorable Elizabeth Malia, Massachusetts State Representative. Rep. Malia is a graduate of the Program (‘89).

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Carol Hardy-Fanta, Director of the Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy, coauthored “The Voting Rights Act and the Election of Nonwhite Officials,” in PS: Political Science & Politics 40(3). She also published “Gender, Race, and Descriptive Representation in the United States: Findings from the Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project,” in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. This article appears in a special issue of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 28 (3/4), of which she was guest editor. This volume was also released as a book: Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race, and Political Representation in the United States (New York: Haworth Press, 2006).

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In 2006, Prof. Christa Kelleher published “The Physical Challenges of Early Breastfeeding,” in Social Science & Medicine.

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On October 21, 2005, the Program received the “Innovative and Creative Programming Award” from the University Continuing Education Association of New England.

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The Program received an award for “Progress in Equity” from the American Association of University Women at its “Speaking out for Justice Award Dinner” on June 26, 2005. Associate Program Director Donna Stewartson traveled to Washington D.C. to receive the award.