RTI is committed to empowering women and promoting gender equality—both within RTI, and through the diverse programs and research that we carry out in the United States and around the world.

This year, RTI is excited to observe International Women’s Day with several special events at our North Carolina headquarters. We will also be reflecting on some of the ways that our work empowers women and promotes gender equality, and sharing some of these stories through this year’s social media theme, #EachforEqual.

2020 RTP International Women’s Day Forum

On Thursday, March 12, RTI will host the 2020 RTP International Women’s Day Forum from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. EDT. This is now a virtual event only. Please visit the event page for more information.

Presented by RTI International, Lenovo, and Randstad, the first RTP International Women’s Day Forum will address the challenge of breaking bias against women in the arena of science and technology.

Keynote speaker Sue Harnett, founder and president of Rewriting the Code, will address preparing college and early-career women to advance in tech. Two panel sessions will follow, exploring the opportunities and challenges related to technology as an equalizer and why equal representation in science and technology matters.

Our Work

Through programs such as the RTI Global Gender Center and the Women’s Global Health Imperative, and the Women in Rwandan Energy Initiative, RTI is a leader in researching, developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally sensitive strategies to promote gender equity.

The goal of the RTI Global Gender Center is to foster collaboration by building a network of multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary scientists, program evaluators, and technical assistance staff whose work has focused on gender-based issues and interventions. The RTI Global Gender Center brings together experts from across numerous disciplines including health policy; substance abuse; HIV, sexual and reproductive health; education and economic development; and gender-based violence.

The Center also includes a global network of prestigious external affiliates who are internationally known gender scientists and leaders of institutes for women. Through its global network, the Global Gender Center aims to cross-pollinate expertise and build collaborations that will foster new research with the potential to significantly influence practice and policy to improve gender inequities globally.

Over the past 15 years, RTI’s Women’s Global Health Imperative (WGHI) has conducted rigorous research with diverse populations in Africa, Asia, and North America to address health inequities and improve women’s lives. Key populations WGHI has worked with include adolescents and young women, women and their male partners, couples, commercial sex workers, and men who have sex with men. Throughout WGHI’s work, one thing has been made clear, women want choices to address their sexual and reproductive health needs. Our mission will continue until we reach an equitable world where all populations can live healthy and fulfilling lives.

We also strive to make women equal partners and beneficiaries of the international development programs we implement – from expanding opportunities for women in energy, to empowering women entrepreneurs, to improving family health, and more.

We hope you’ll join us as we explore these important topics, celebrate the successes, and work together to do even more in the future.