UMass Boston

Policy-Relevant and Action-Oriented

The center conducts policy-relevant and action-oriented research to inform policymaking and initiatives to ensure equity, well-being, and justice for all of those who identify as female and gender expansive individuals. The center also examines public leadership with an emphasis on women of color to help strengthen diverse forms of women’s leadership. Building on its long-term commitment to explore the combined impacts of gender, race/ethnicity, class and other aspects of identity on policymaking and politics, the center prioritizes the experiences of underrepresented, low-income, and marginalized women.

The center’s research team is actively engaged in the following projects, all of which are collaborative and multidisciplinary:

From Lived Experience to Indicators: The Status of Women, Girls, and Gender Expansive Individuals

The center is embarking on an initiative to equip the nonprofit, philanthropic, government, business, and other sectors with essential information on the status of women, girls, and gender expansive individuals living in Massachusetts. Center researchers are currently analyzing available data sources for use as metrics in the context of a shifting data landscape. Following a regional pilot, the center plans to deploy a mixed-methods approach emphasizing local contexts for understanding how women, girls, and gender expansive persons are faring across a range of indicators using an intersectional, anti-racist lens. The center is collaborating with the Women’s Fund SouthCoast on this initiative.

Boston Women’s Fund Partnership: Greater Boston’s Grassroots Organizations Led By and For Women, Girls, and Gender Expansive Leaders of Color

A research partner to the Boston Women’s Fund, the center has completed data collection to understand the organizational, financial, leadership well-being of grassroots organizations led by and for women and gender expansive leaders of color in Greater Boston. Check out key findings released in October 2025 in advance of the release of the full report

UMass Boston Early Education Cost & Usage Simulator Project (CUSP)

Led by Early Education Leaders, an Institute at UMass Boston, and Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, the UMass Boston CUSP Project has developed a statistical model to produce estimates of key impacts of proposed legislation in Massachusetts to expand access to affordable, quality childcare and early education.

Related Policy Briefs