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Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Associations and Organizations

Welcome! This research guide is designed for students doing research on women, gender, and sexuality. Use the tabs along the top edge of this box to find information on articles, books and primary sources.

Advocacy, Policy Development, and Research: Associations and Organizations

American Association of University Women
Advancing gender equity through research, education and advocacy.

Association for Women in Science
For individuals seeking equity for women in science, engineering, technology and math, AWIS provides career development, networking, mentorship, and leadership opportunities. In addition, our thought leadership, research, and advocacy benefit all women in science.

The Black Women's Agenda, Inc.
The BWA conducts continuing assessments of the status and roles of Black women and recommends data-based public policy changes which enhance the status of Black women.

Catalyst: Workplaces that Work for Women
Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women.

Center for Health and Gender Equity
Based in the U.S., CHANGE is a non-profit organization that works to advance a reproductive health and rights agenda within US international population and health policies and programs.

Institute for Women's Policy Research
As a leading national think tank, we build evidence to shape policies that grow women’s power and influence, close inequality gaps, and improve the economic well-being of families.

International Center for Research on Women
Driven by our vision of equity for all, our researchers dig into the ways gender shapes societies and the ways people’s lives are diminished by power imbalances.

League of Women Voters of the United States
Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.

National Indigenous Women's Resource Center
The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Inc. (NIWRC) is a Native-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against Native women and children. The NIWRC provides national leadership in ending gender-based violence in tribal communities by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty.

National Women's History Alliance
The National Women’s History Alliance formerly, the National Women’s History Project, is a leader in promoting Women’s History and is committed to the goals of education, empowerment, equality, and inclusion.

National Women's Studies Association
Established in 1977, the National Women's Studies Association has as one of its primary objectives promoting and supporting the production and dissemination of knowledge about women and gender through teaching, learning, research and service in academic and other settings.

National Organization of Women
As the grassroots arm of the women’s movement, the National Organization for Women is dedicated to its multi-issue and multi-strategy approach to women’s rights, and is the largest organization of feminist grassroots activists in the United States. NOW has hundreds of chapters and hundreds of thousands of members and activists in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since our founding in 1966, NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

Organization for Research on Women and Communication (ORWAC)
Promotes dialogue, discussion, research, and scholarship concerned with women, feminism, gender, oppression, and social change. ORWAC seeks to advance understandings of the intersections of gender and race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, sexuality, and class, including transgender politics, masculinity, dis/ability, labor, transnationalism, postcolonialism, and critical race theory.

Women Impacting Public Policy
WIPP is a national nonpartisan organization advocating on behalf of women entrepreneurs—strengthening their impact on our nation’s public policy, creating economic opportunities, and forging alliances with other business organizations.

Women in Technology, International:
Women in Technology International (WITI) is the leading organization for the advancement and inclusion of women in business and technology.

Zonta International
Zonta International is a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. Zonta International envisions a world in which women's rights are recognized as human rights and every woman is able to achieve her full potential. In such a world, women have access to all resources and are represented in decision making positions on an equal basis with men. In such a world, no woman lives in fear of violence.