History
The Working Group on Women, Gender, and Health (WGH) was founded in 1996 by Harvard School of Public Health faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and students interested in advancing the study of women, gender, and health at the School. In 2002, the school-wide faculty approved the Interdisciplinary Concentration on WGH. This concentration is now governed by a Steering Committee comprised of faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, and students who meet monthly to discuss ways to promote curriculum development and public health research and practice regarding women, gender, and health at HSPH.
Meetings
The Working Group—comprised of faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, and students—meets monthly. Everyone is invited to attend and a light lunch is served at in-person meetings. In addition to discussing the administrative aspects of the concentration, there is also a pedagogical component. Students are encouraged to:
-Chair and facilitate the meetings
-Participate in all decisions needed for WGH
-Meet others who share interests
In addition to the Working Group, we also have subcommittees focused on events and curriculum.
Events
Each academic year, we sponsor various WGH events. Events happen monthly and generally feature a speaker/facilitator who introduces a gender-related topic of interest, followed by an engaging small-group discussion. WGH speaker events bring speakers who address a wide variety of gender-related public health research and practice issues in a small-group or larger seminar setting. All are welcome at speaker events, and meals are provided at in-person events.
Conference Stipends
We sponsor conference stipends each semester open to all students, whether attending, presenting, organizing, or moderating, for conferences that have a clear gender analysis component relevant to public health research or practice. The stipend is to support recipients to participate in conferences: (1) they are attending for educational and professional benefit and connections, to strengthen capacity to use a gender analysis; (2) to which they are submitting abstracts (oral or poster presentations) that have a clear gender analysis component to the research, in relation to any chosen health topic or public health field; or (3) in which they have a major role in organizing aspects of the conference concerned with connections between gender and health (e.g., organize and/or moderate a session).
The stipend is dispersed following the submission and approval of a Conference-Stipend-Application. Applications are due via email (deadline specified in WGH newsletter). Stipends can cover expenses to be used for travel, accommodation, incidental costs, and registration for the conference. The limit for funding is US$750 for US-based conferences and US$1,000 for international (non-US) conferences. Recipients approved for the stipend are required to report back on their conference experience at a WGH Steering Committee meeting following the conference. Some examples of successful applications can be found here.
Last Updated: August 24, 2020
