MISSION
The Rhodes Project was established in 2004 as an independent scholarly initiative to study the lives and careers of Rhodes Scholar women. Our mission has evolved since our founding to study the gender-based leadership gap. Our aims are now:
To advance the scholarship on women’s careers, achievement, and barriers to professional success.
To raise public awareness and to initiate discussion about policy changes, legal reforms, and cultural shifts to provide women with equal opportunity in the workplace.
To provide insights into the career trajectories, successes, and struggles of women Rhodes Scholars, often through comparison with their male peers.
To deepen knowledge about high-achieving women in the fields of business, education, and women’s studies.
To promote gender equality in all areas of society, and to raise awareness of gender issues more generally.
To serve as an independent source of advocacy and insight into the history and future of the Rhodes Scholarship. The Project is a registered non-profit or charity in the UK and the US (New York State). We are not affiliated with The Rhodes Trust or the University of Oxford.
ACTIVITIES
RESEARCH. Since its founding in 2004, researchers at The Rhodes Project have collected and analysed hundreds of hours of life histories from Rhodes Scholars, as well as quantitative and qualitative data from several surveys. Researchers at the Project have presented papers on these data at the Academy of Management (US), the European Group for Organisation Studies, the Canadian Association of Administrative Sciences, the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University (US), and more. We have also issued working papers and executive briefings, and have drawn on Project data in newspaper columns and legal publications.
PROFILES. Our Profile Series, which boasts more than 220 profiles of women Rhodes Scholars, celebrates the many versions of what women can be by highlighting a diverse range of careers and life paths among a diverse group of elite women.
BLOG. The Rhodes Project blog "News and Views" provides updates on our work and features a variety of material relating to women, gender, feminism, and, of course, Rhodes Scholars, ranging from brief articles to creative prose and short videos. We publish original material as well as external submissions from around the world. Please get in touch if you would like to tell us in blog form about any aspect of your work or life at info@rhodesproject.com.
(image credit: https://immediateedgeapp.org/)
ACTIVISM & ADVOCACY. The Rhodes Project is committed to working with wider movements for gender equality. We are keen to network with feminists and feminist organisations around the world. We believe we are stronger together. Additionally, the Project undertakes special initiatives. Because representation and visibility matter, the Project, for example, commissioned the first portrait of a woman Rhodes Scholar to hang in Rhodes House. On the 110th anniversary of the Rhodes Scholarship, Ann Olivarius and the Project also co-commissioned an artwork to celebrate the more than 1,100 women elected since our admission in 1977. It is part of the permanent collection of Rhodes House.
LEGAL ADVICE. In our work with high-achieving women - both Rhodes Scholars and otherwise - we often encounter those who struggle to reach their full potential due to discrimination or sexual misconduct, harassment, or assault at work, school, and online. At the Rhodes Project, we are passionate about women's rights to equal education and professional opportunity, and to safely and freely be visible and active in digital spaces. We therefore work to dismantle barriers to women’s achieve,e3nts and success by offering access to legal advice through McAllister Olivarius, our supporter and an international law firm specializing in employment law, digital reputation, and Title IX litigation.