10 Best Gender Studies Experts of 2024

Marian Baird, Ph.D., is a Professor of Gender and Employment Relations and Co-Director of the Sydney Employment Relations Research Group at the University of Sydney Business School. Dr. Baird’s research focuses on the relationship between gender and employment, and the differing labor market outcomes for men and women.

The bulk of Dr. Baird’s research attends to organizational efficiency and equality, particularly how they relate to women, parental leave, and the demographics of the Australian labor market. Dr. Baird is a member of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s reference group on sexual harassment in the workplace survey, and her work has contributed to policy changes that improve the lives of women in the workplace.

Best for: Considering Gender While Forming Labor Policies

Professor Jeni Klugman, Ph.D., is the managing director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security and the lead academic advisor on the World Bank’s Gender Dimensions of Forced Displacement research program. Dr. Klugman’s work looks at the ways gender, migration, and access to justice interact with each other.

Dr. Klugman is the author of many publications, including articles that explore poverty reduction, labor markets, gender, and education. With the World Bank, Dr. Klugman manages country and regional studies and has co-authored over 25 reports.

Best for: Perspective on Migration, Work, & Gender

Iris Bohnet, Ph.D., is the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government and the co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Her educational background is in economics, and her research bridges perspectives between behavioral economics and gender studies.

Dr. Bohnet is the author of “What Works: Gender Equality by Design,” a book that provides tried-and-true strategies for making workplaces more equitable for women. Her work focuses on workplace bias and discrimination as it relates to gender and what businesses and governments can do to ensure workplaces are designed for everyone.

Best for: Connection Between Economics & Gender Studies

Professor Gayatri Gopinath, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality at NYU. Dr. Gopinath’s educational background is in Latin American studies and Comparative Literature, and her current areas of research include transnational queer, feminist, and postcolonial studies, along with Asian diaspora studies and visual art.

Dr. Gopinath’s research explores the places where postcolonial and diaspora studies meet with queer and feminist studies. Her past scholarly works include “Queer Visual Excavations: Akram Zaatari, Hashem El Madani, and the Reframing of History in Lebanon” and “Who’s Your Daddy?: Queer Diasporic Reframings of the Region.”

Best for: Gender & Diasporas

Professor Justin Garcia, Ph.D., is an evolutionary biologist and sex researcher at the Kinsey Institute of Indiana University. Dr. Garcia has served as the Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute since 2019. His work focuses on romantic and sexual relationships across the lifespan through the lens of evolutionary and biocultural foundations. 

Dr. Garcia’s academic work investigates many distinct topics related to intimate relationships, including intimacy, dating, desire, and monogamy. His research incorporates approaches from different disciplines, from gender studies to biology, to explore why and how we form intimate relationships and how gender shapes these connections.

Best for: Evolutionary Biology Approach to Gender Studies

Professor Kristen Mark, Ph. D., is the Jocelyn Elders Chair in Sexual Health Education at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. Her interdisciplinary approach to gender and sex studies is informed by her diverse degrees and backgrounds in psychology, family science, biostatistics, and public health.

Dr. Mark’s work explores sexual well-being in many areas, including the maintenance of sexual and relationship satisfaction in long-term relationships, sexual function and dysfunction, and sexual trauma. She is an advocate for comprehensive sexual health education and works to change sex education policies at state and national levels. 

Best for: Comprehensive and Pleasure-Based Sex Education Research

Sabra Katz-Wise, Ph.D., is a Professor in Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and a Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Katz-Wise’s research looks at the ways sexual orientation and gender identity influence health outcomes and medical treatment for adolescents and young adults.

Dr. Katz-Wise’s work focuses on how young LGBTQ+ individuals function within the healthcare system and the inequities and challenges they face in this area. Beyond her research, Dr. Katz-Wise is involved with advocacy efforts through Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School to improve patient care for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Best for: Research on Medical Care for LGBTQ+ Youth

Professor Leslie Salzinger, Ph. D., is the Chair of Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley. Her work considers the ways gender, capitalism, nationality, and race inform and interact with one another. She focuses particularly on how these forces manifest in Mexico and Latin America.

Dr. Salzinger is the author of several books, including “Genders in Production: Making Workers in Mexico’s Global Factories” and “Re-Marking Men: Masculinity as a Terrain of the Neoliberal Economy.” Dr. Salzinger is currently working on a publication called “Model Markets,” which looks at the peso-dollar exchange in the context of gender and race.

Best for: Relationship Between Gender & Work in Latin America

Professor Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Ph. D., is the Faculty Director of the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford University. She is also a Professor of History, and her academic work focuses on the functioning of intimacy and romance in colonial and postcolonial French-speaking areas on both sides of the Atlantic.

Dr. Jean-Baptiste’s work explores how different cultures hold gender and how these views of gender extend into everyday life, governance, and politics. Her approach attends to the ways colonialism has shaped views of gender and gender dynamics and how these colonial ideas are still informing and, often, damaging modern-day perspectives.

Best for: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Colonialism

Lilia Cortina, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan. Dr. Cortina studies workplace victimization with a focus on gendered abuse targeted at workplace minority groups. Dr. Cortina explores the connections between gender, socioeconomic status, and experience in the workplace.

In 2018, Dr. Cortina co-authored a report investigating sexual harassment in the workplace with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The bulk of Dr. Cortina’s work addresses where issues of gender and workplace violations meet.

Best for: Gendered Workplace Inequity