The International Gender Studies Centre (IGS) was formally established at Queen Elizabeth House in 1983 (as the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research on Women) to advance research on gender, culture and development. Before that, it had existed for over ten years as a group convening weekly seminars at Queen Elizabeth House on women from cross-cultural perspectives. The Centre's members form a multi-disciplinary research unit with backgrounds in social anthropology, human geography, history, literature, law, sociology and politics.

Research - Members have carried out research throughout the developing world - in Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, China, Latin America and Europe.

Seminars - The Centre convenes weekly research seminars during the academic year, usually with a specific theme for each term.

Workshops - Each year the Centre organises several major workshops on current issues in gender and development, drawing speakers and participants from around the world.

Publications - the Centre has a long established publications programme with over fifty volumes written or edited by members. Twenty-five books have been published in its current series with Berg.

Visiting scholars - Highly qualified scholars of many nationalities come to the Centre with diverse research projects on gender and development. The Centre facilitates their research, and they have access to libraries, lectures, seminars and other resources of the University of Oxford.

Teaching - Members teach for the Oxford degrees of Human Sciences and of Archaeology and Anthropology and co-ordinate the gender option at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology.