The Women & Politics Ph.D. Program was established in the 1980s after a external review identified expertise in gender and politics as a unique strength among faculty in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University. As a result, Rutgers  became the first university in the United States to offer Women & Politics as a formal field of study toward the Ph.D. in Political Science. The first cohort of graduate students was admitted for the 1986-1987 academic year. The Proseminar in Women and Politics, the entry-level course in the Ph.D. field of Women & Politics, was offered for the first time in the fall of 1986 and has been offered every year since. 

​

The Women & Politics Program aims to apply the theoretical prism of gender to the study of governing institutions, political processes, and theories of politics, thereby provoking a rethinking of traditional analyses and expanding and enriching the discipline of political science. The program has graduated more than 70 Ph.D.'s in Women & Politics and trained scores more graduate and undergraduate students in gender and politics analysis. The prominence of the program has grown over the years as the innovative scholarship of Rutgers faculty and newly minted Ph.D.'s has made its mark on the disciplines of political science and women’s and gender studies. In recent years, faculty, graduates, and current students have also been involved in editing three of the major disciplinary journals related to women, gender, and politics: the Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy; Politics, Groups, and Identities; and, since 2022, Politics & Gender. 

​

The Program enjoys close working relationships with two important gender and politics centers on campus: the Center for American Women and Politics, established in 1971, and the Center for Women's Global Leadership, created in 1989.