2026 Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awardees Challenge Assumptions About Gender in U.S. Politics
Research Tackling Timely Questions Around Gendered Hostility, Immigrant Communities, Party Inclusion, and Black Women’s Political Leadership
The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, is pleased to announce the 2026 recipients of the Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awards. In the program’s fourth year, four scholars were selected for their research on the role of gender in American political life.
“This year’s Mandel Awardees challenge common thinking about gender in American politics and posit novel explanations for phenomena we have long observed,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at CAWP. “Their projects reflect not just the breadth of the field today, but new avenues of exploration regarding misogyny, masculinity, party culture, and Black women’s pathways to elected office. We are proud to support this next generation of scholars and grateful to Ruth’s family for helping make this work possible.”
The 2026 Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awardees:
Sara Jozer (University of California, Berkeley)
Three Essays on Misogyny in American Politics
Using novel experimental and observational survey data across three papers, this project aims to provide evidence that women experience political bias not because of taste-based discrimination against all women, but for violating patriarchal norms in a particular context.
Zhaozhi Li (Washington University in St. Louis)
How Masculinity Shapes Political Attitudes
This project uses interviews, surveys, and a four-wave longitudinal study to show that status loss predicts conservative shifts in both gender attitudes and broader political ideology among immigrant men. Under the precarious manhood framework, disruptions to men’s occupational prestige, domestic authority, and sense of social belonging heighten sensitivity to status threats and make hierarchical messages more appealing.
Hyacinth Miller (Rutgers University–Newark)
The Garden State’s Black Politics: Black Women in New Jersey’s Elected Offices
Using data collected from a survey of and semi-structured interviews with Black women elected officials, this project aims to explore what New Jersey’s Black women elected officials believe is the pathway to elected office. This project will create a unique dataset about Black women elected officials in New Jersey, from school boards to Congress.
Cecilia Ritacco (Georgetown University)
Gender Friendly Parties? A View from the States
This dissertation proposes a theory of “Gender-Friendly Parties,” asking whether the Democratic Party’s culture maps onto the ideals they hold. It answers this question by leveraging a mixed-methods approach and a critical feminist epistemology and examining party signposting on gendered issues, the lived experiences of women who are active in and around their state Democratic Party organization, and state political ecosystems.
The Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awards were established in honor of our founding director, Ruth B. Mandel, whose leadership was critical in building CAWP into a national center with multi-faceted research, education, public service, and information programs, helping to define and build the field. The Mandel Awards support dissertation research on women, gender, and U.S. politics and are $2,000 each in value.
Learn more about the 2026 Ruth B. Mandel Dissertation Research Awardees here, and discover the history and purpose of these awards, including the inspirational life of Dr. Mandel, here.