To strengthen the study of gender and promote the advancement of women scholars at UC Davis, a new research collaboration is being launched this fall. Gender studies, a relatively recent academic field, focuses on relationships, behaviors, cultures and attitudes among men and women. Called the Pro Femina (on behalf of women) Research Consortium, the new program recognizes the emergence in recent years of gender studies at UC Davis, according to Mary Jackman, professor of sociology and chair of the faculty group that developed the plan. "This campus has a very exciting group of scholars doing research that bears on gender in a variety of ways," she says. The consortium aims to establish and support research that analyzes issues related to gender; provide research and professional support to women scholars in work settings populated primarily by men; nurture junior women scholars, especially those in fields with few women; and seek outside funding from various sources to support graduate fellowships and training, and individual and group research projects.