Q&A with Professor Peter Edelman

Honoring the Outgoing Faculty Director of the Center on Gender Justice & Opportunity

Q: You’ve spent decades working on poverty, civil rights, and public policy. What drew you to support the creation of what would become the Center on Gender Justice & Opportunity?

A: From the beginning, I understood the Center’s work as part of a larger fight for dignity and fairness for people whose experiences are too often ignored or misunderstood. Much of my career has focused on poverty, children, and systems that fail vulnerable communities. When Rebecca and others brought forward this vision, it was clear that girls of color—particularly Black girls—were facing profound inequities that were not receiving the attention they deserved.

What has been important to me from the beginning is bringing public and policy attention to marginalized girls. The Center is committed to elevating their voices and learning from them. That work and the approach align closely with values I’ve tried to carry throughout my career.

Q: The Center began as a relatively small initiative and has grown into a nationally recognized voice on gender justice. What has it been like to watch that evolution?

A: It has been enormously gratifying. In the early days, this was an idea supported by a single grant and a small team with a very ambitious vision. Over time, the Center earned trust by producing research that was both intellectually rigorous and deeply connected to solutions for real-world injustices. 

Our work on adultification bias is one example—it changed national conversations in education and juvenile justice. Watching the Center grow from a promising idea into an institution that policymakers, judges, advocates, and researchers look to for leadership has been extraordinary.

Q: A common thread throughout your career has been advocating for people whose voices are often marginalized or dismissed. Why has that remained such a defining focus for you?

A: I think a just society is measured in large part by whose voices are heard and whose humanity is recognized. Too often, our systems treat poverty, race, gender, or youth as reasons to discount people’s experiences instead of understanding them.

Whether I was working alongside Bobby Kennedy, teaching students, or serving in government, I’ve tried to stay focused on the people most affected by policy decisions. The Center’s work reflects that same principle: those closest to injustice should be the focus of the work.

Q: The Center’s work, as you said, has helped shape national conversations about girls in schools and the judicial system. Why do you think the work resonates so widely?

A: It reveals inequities that many people experience or witness, but the public and policymakers haven’t been aware of or articulated so clearly. The research gave language and evidence to patterns of discrimination that were hiding in plain sight.

One of the Center’s great strengths has always been its ability to connect rigorous scholarship with real human consequences. For example, when people understood that even very young Black girls are perceived as older, less innocent, or more culpable than their peers, it forced institutions to confront uncomfortable facts about bias and power. That combination of research and moral urgency is what made the work have such an impact.

Q: You resigned from the Clinton administration in protest of welfare reform legislation because you believed it would harm vulnerable families. Looking back, how did that experience reflect your approach to public policy and advocacy?

A: Policy debates are about human lives, not abstractions. And silence in the face of injustice, even if well-intended, is not acceptable.

Throughout my career, I’ve tried to encourage students and colleagues to think carefully about the real-world consequences of public policy—especially for people with the least political power. The Center has carried that forward by insisting that gender justice work be grounded in evidence, accountability, and lived experience rather than rhetoric alone.

Q: What has Georgetown Law offered as a home for this work?

A: Universities represent a profound opportunity—and responsibility—to bridge scholarship and action. Georgetown Law provides an environment where interdisciplinary work can flourish and where research can engage directly with policy and practice.

What has been especially meaningful is seeing the Center bring together scholars, advocates, practitioners, young people, and policymakers in ways that are powerful and unique. Some of the most important ideas emerge when academic research is in conversation with the realities people face every day.

Q: As you step down as Faculty Director, what gives you hope about the future of the Center and the broader fight for gender justice?

A: What has always given me hope is the next generation of leaders. I see extraordinary intelligence, determination, and moral seriousness in the people carrying this work forward.

The challenges we face are significant, but the Center has built something durable: a community committed to rigorous data, honest storytelling, and practical solutions. I believe the work will continue to grow because it responds to real needs and because the people leading it understand both the urgency of the moment and the long arc of change.

The Center’s future is very bright, and I feel deeply proud to have been part of its journey.