Fall 1997 – Ruth Mandel

*On October 6, 1997, Ruth Mandel presented the lecture “Women’s Progress in Politics.”

Mandel has served as the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University since 1995, where she has also held a faculty appointment as Board of Governors Professor of Politics. From 1971 through 1994, Mandel served as director of Eagleton’s Center for American Woman and Politics (CAWP), where she remains affiliated as a senior scholar.

Beginning in 1991, Mandel held a presidential appointment as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, the governing body of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She also served as vice chairperson of the board after being named by President Clinton in May 1993. Mandel is a member of the Museum’s Executive Committee and its Academic Committee. She chaired the task group charged with proposing a governing structure for the museum. She also led the process to create the museum’s Committee on Conscience, which was established in 1996 with Mandel as its founding chair.

Mandel is a member of the board of the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Her service has also included membership on the board of the National Council for Research on Women, the National Commission for the Renewal of American Democracy, Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life, the Mercer County Commission on the Status of Women, and various editorial boards for scholarly journals and academic publishers.

Mandel writes and speaks widely about women and leadership, with particular emphasis on women as political candidates, women in office, women’s political networks, and the “gender gap.” She teaches courses on women and American politics and political leadership. As an observer and analyst of emerging trends in leadership, Mandel appears frequently on radio and television. She is the author of numerous publications about women and political leadership.

Mandel holds numerous awards for her research, education and public service activities. These include the Governor’s Pride of New Jersey Award (1992); the Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Award presented by the Ms. Foundation (1996); the Twenty-First Century Leadership Award, presented by the President of the National Women’s Hall of Fame; the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award from Women Executives in State Government (1998); and an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Chatham College (1998).

Ruth Mandel earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Brooklyn College and a PhD. in English and American literature from the University of Connecticut.