CENTER DESCRIPTION

The Center for Women Policy Studies was founded in 1972 as the first feminist policy institute in the USA and the first to address the impact of public policy on women. The Center’s mission now is what it was then, to promote public policy that improves women’s lives and ensures women’s human rights. A hallmark of the Center’s work is the multiethnic lens through which it views all policy issues affecting women and girls and which shapes all of its policy research, analysis, and advocacy programs. During the first decade of the 21st century, the Center addresses difficult and complex women’s human rights issues in the policy arena. Guided by our Contract With Women of the USA®, the Center works with a national network of women state legislators in the USA and with Members of Parliament worldwide.

AREA(S) OF EXPERTISE

US foreign policy and its impact on women worldwide; the women’s HIV/AIDS epidemic in the USA and globally; international trafficking of women and girls as a global women’s human rights crisis; alleviation of women’s poverty and ensuring access to college for low income women; reproductive rights and justice; workplace diversity and the work/family balancing act.

RECENT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

<     Economic and Social Status of Women

Contract with Women of the USA.  The contract was developed by the center and the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and consists of a dozen principles that advance women's equality and human rights.  Through this contract, the center and WEDO bring home the promises made within the international Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.  The center is dedicated to furthering the contract's principles to expand women's rights.

<     Family

Multiethnic Feminist Visions of Fatherhood: Promoting Feminist Family Policy.  In 1998, the center hosted a Symposium on Multiethnic Feminist Views of Fatherhood.  The center continues to be concerned with the new focus on the men's roles in families and how father-focused agendas may undermine women's equality in the family.

<     Health and Health Care

Women and AIDS.  The center established the National Resource Center for Women and AIDS Policy to develop strategies in which to address women's diverse perspectives and experiences with AIDS.  The center increases resources for women-focused AIDS research and the expansion of the eligibility of women with HIV/AIDS for social security disability benefits.  Current attention is devoted to prevention, access to quality care, and Medicaid managed care.  Projects within the center include the Metro DC Collaborative for Women with HIV/AIDS, which is designed to reduce barriers to care for women with HIV/AIDS by involving women in policy leadership; training service providers; conducting policy analysis and advocacy activities; holding meetings designed to share information; and publishing reports and the newsletter, WomanCARE News.

Medicaid Managed Care focuses on Medicaid managed care issues that inform the debate on managed care consumer protections and safeguards in the public and private sectors.

<     Reproductive Rights

Reproductive Rights for Women with HIV/AIDS.  The center develops materials for policymakers to encourage the exploration of alternatives to mandatory HIV testing on pregnant women and/or newborns, HIV names reporting, and that criminalize maternal-fetal HIV transmission. 

<     Violence Against Women

Violence Against Women and Girls.  The center has been a pioneer in the recognition and study of violence against women and girls and continues to conduct research in this subject area.  It is currently involved in a Girls and Violence project, which examines the connection between violence against girls and women and the rise in the number of violent acts committed by girls and young women.  In 1997, the center also held a Summit on Girls and Violence.

<     Welfare Reform

Getting Smart About Welfare: Postsecondary Education for Low-Income Women.  This project gives state and federal policymakers the research findings, policy options, and program strategies to assist them in the development of strategies to better understand the work requirement of the 1996 federal reform.  The project focuses on keeping the postsecondary education doors open to low-income women. 

<     Women of Color
Employment Issues

Women of Color in the Workplace: Reporting the Results of the Center's Research to Corporate Partners.  In an effort to assess how race and gender issues affect professional women of color, the center surveyed 1,500 women of color in Fortune 1000 companies.  The center also gathered information from corporate roundtables and conferences.

PUBLICATIONS

<     AIDS and Women

The center’s National Resource Center on Women and AIDS Policy, founded in 1987, is a leader in addressing critical AIDS issues from women’s diverse perspectives and in developing strategies to bring women’s voices to AIDS policy debates.  The national resource center has contributed to the development of legislation and directives to increase federal support for woman-centered research and prevention, including woman-controlled microbicides, and has produced more than 25 research, advocacy, and policy reports.  Current emphases include prevention, access to quality care, and Medicaid managed care.

AIDS: The Women’s Epidemic, by Brynn Gaberman and Leslie R. Wolfe (1999).  This Research and Data in Brief report includes the latest research findings and statistics on women and HIV/AIDS in the United States and worldwide and also focuses on access to care and services, HIV prevention, surveillance and testing issues, and reproductive rights.

Building a Woman-Focused Response to HIV/AIDS: Policy Recommendations from the Metro DC Collaborative for Women with HIV/AIDS, by Belinda Rochelle and Leslie R. Wolfe (1999).  This report includes policy recommendations derived from the Collaborative’s work on reaching underserved women with HIV/AIDS—including incarcerated women and women ex-offenders, young women, lesbians, rural women, and immigrant women.  The report also makes recommendations on improving women’s access to comprehensive woman-focused services—including medical and psychosocial care, support services, case management, and housing.  Finally, the report addresses issues of domestic violence, confidentiality and discrimination, and advocacy. 

The Metro DC Collaborative for Women with HIV/AIDS—Telling the Story: An Evaluation and Replication Report, by Leslie R. Wolfe, Wendy Smooth, Rose Ann Renteria, and Brynn Gaberman (1999).  This final report of the Collaborative is designed to help local groups nationwide to adapt and replicate the Collaborative model in their own communities.  The report begins with a description of the elements of the model—the Steering Committee, the qualitative research with women, the cadre of women with HIV/AIDS, the series of information sharing meetings and policy roundtables, the extensive publications program, the policy advocacy work, and the “Fighting for Our Lives” advocacy training.  The rest of the report then “tells the story’—demonstrating how the Collaborative evolved and built its model of leadership nurturance for women with HIV/AIDS.

Inaccessible Miracles?: Women’s Access to HIV/AIDS Medications, Lisa Bowleg, Leslie R. Wolfe, Edna Amparo Viruell-Fuentes, and Rosa Castañeda (1999).  This report of the center’s survey research with women living with HIV/AIDS examines factors that promote or restrict women’s access to HIV/AIDS medications, including protease inhibitors.

State Legislators’ Action Kit on Women and HIV/AIDS (1998).  This kit includes policy briefs on a range of HIV/AIDS issues that affect women, including HIV prevention strategies, HIV partner notification and domestic violence, Medicaid eligibility, and reproductive rights.

“Telling My Story”: Women with HIV Speak Out About Their Lives, Edna Amparo Viruell-Fuentes, and Leslie R. Wolfe (1998).  This report of in-depth interviews with 36 women living with HIV/AIDS reveals barriers to care as well as the resilience and resourcefulness of women with HIV/AIDS.  Also available in Spanish: “Relato Mi Historial”: Las Mujeres con VIH Hablan Sobre Sus Vidas (1998).

Meeting the Housing Needs of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (1998).  This report of a roundtable with housing service providers, policymakers, and women with HIV/AIDS describes the barriers women face in securing safe, affordable housing and includes recommendations.  Also available in Spanish: Las Necesidades de Vivienda de las Mujeres con VIH/SIDA (1998).

Managed Care: Serving the Needs of Women? 116 Recommended Consumer Protections and Safeguards for Managed Care Plans & An Analysis of State Standard Medicaid Managed Care Contracts (1998).  This report, based on a review of state Medicaid managed care contracts, assesses whether they serve the needs of women and contains a checklist to evaluate managed care contracts and consumer protection laws.

Fighting for Our Lives/Luchando por Nuestras Vidas (1998).  This special issue of WomanCARE News, the center’s bilingual newsletter for women with HIV/AIDS and their advocates, describes the center’s first Metro DC Collaborative for Women with HIV/AIDS leadership development and advocacy training session for women living with HIV/AIDS.

Women and AIDS: The National Facts (1999).  This Research and Data in Brief paper includes the most recent statistics and information on HIV/AIDS and women.  Updated regularly.

Young Women Living with HIV/AIDS: Report of the Metro DC Collaborative for Women with HIV/AIDS Information Sharing Meeting (1998).  This report summarizes young women’s needs for HIV education, family and peer support, and access to care; it also describes barriers to care, breaches of confidentiality, and problems with providers – in young women’s own words.  Also available in Spanish: Los Jovenes que Vivencon la Infeccion del VIH (1998).

Women with HIV/AIDS Speak Out: The Maryland Report (1998) and Women with HIV/AIDS Speak Out: The Virginia Report (1999). These two reports summarize women’s discussions at information-sharing meetings in these two Metro DC Collaborative states.  Also available in Spanish: Los Mujeres con VIH/SIDA en Maryland Hablan Sobre sus Experiencias (1999) and Los Mujeres con VIH/SIDA en Maryland Hablan Sobre sus Experiencias (1999).

What A Woman Should Know About HIV/AIDS and Gynecological Care (1998).  This practical guide answers women’s questions about gynecological infections and treatment for women living with HIV/AIDS.  Also available in Spanish: Lo que la Mujer Debe Saber Sobre Acerca del VIH/SIDA y el Cuidado Ginecologico (1999).

What a Woman Should Know About Protease Inhibitors (1998).  This practical guide for women with HIV/AIDS answers some of the most commonly asked questions about this new class of AIDS drugs.  Also available in Spanish: Lo que la Mujer Debe Saber Sobre los Inhibidores de Proteasa (1999).

We Know We’re Not Alone – The Voices of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in the Metropolitan DC Area: A Content Analysis of Focus Groups with African-American, Latina, and White Women (1997).  This report of four focus groups with women living with HIV/AIDS illuminates barriers to health care and non-medical services such as case management and housing.

Medicaid Managed Care: Serving Women with HIV/AIDS (1997).  This report identifies the experiences of women with HIV/AIDS to ensure that their expertise and that of their advocates and health care providers become central to Medicaid policy debates; the report also includes recommendations.

Breaking Walls: Women Ex-Offenders Living with HIV/AIDS – Report and Recommendations from the Metro DC Collaborative for Women with HIV/AIDS Information Sharing Meeting (1996).  This report portrays experiences with insensitive treatment and breaches of confidentiality, as well as lack of counseling, education, and medical care in the District of Columbia correctional system as described by women with HIV/AIDS.

Roundtable of Service Providers for Latinas with HIV/AIDS (1996).  This bilingual (English/Spanish) report summarizes a roundtable discussion with service providers about barriers to serving Latinas with HIV/AIDS and includes recommendations.

Women With HIV/AIDS Speak Out on Domestic Violence (1996).  In this special issue of WomanCARE News, women discuss the intersection of domestic violence and HIV/AIDS in their lives, underscoring the need for HIV strategies and programs that respond to domestic violence.  Also available in Spanish: Las Mujeres con VIH/SIDA Denuncian la Violencia Domestica (1997).

The AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP): A Resource Guide for Women Living with HIV/AIDS (1996).  This resource guide provides information about the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, and offers guidance in applying for ADAP in each jurisdiction.

<     Education and Welfare Reform 

The center promotes access to postsecondary education as a key component of welfare reform and as an effective and permanent route out of poverty for low-income women.  The staff produces briefs and research reports, convenes seminars, speaks at conferences, and works with policymakers and coalition partners to promote policy change to permit low-income women to attend college and maintain their welfare benefits.

Getting Smart About Welfare (1998).  This report describes research that shows that postsecondary education is an effective route out of poverty; it includes policy options for states and strategies for colleges to encourage low-income women to attend college while complying with current welfare law.

Reforming Our Thinking on Welfare: Strategies for State Action (1996).  This policy report includes information on women in poverty, an analysis of federal law, and recommendations to help state legislators shape policies that promote low-income women’s economic self-sufficiency.

Women, Welfare, and Higher Education: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, Erika Kates (1992).  These summaries of research are useful for policymakers and advocates working on welfare reform.

More Than Survival: Higher Education for Low-Income Women, Erika Kates (1991).  This monograph reports the results of two studies of low-income women who attended college and includes strategies for colleges to create supportive environments for low-income women students.

<     Equity Issues: Education 

The center brings national attention to the issue of sex and race bias in education, with a focus on bias on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) college entrance exam. It has published landmark research showing that gender bias on the SAT results in lower test scores for young women and the under-prediction of their first-year college grades. The center has conducted focus groups, a national opinion survey of parents in partnership with Lake Sosin Snell and Associates, and public education to bring the findings of these studies to the public.  The center also has studied the status of women and girls in mathematics and science education, and the role of educational equity in promoting equality in the workplace.

The SAT Gender Gap: An Action Kit (1997).  This action kit provides strategies and materials to confront and overcome gender bias on the SAT and includes The SAT Gender Gap: Identifying the Causes, The SAT Gender Gap: ETS Responds – A Research Update, fact sheets, polling information, and advocacy materials.

The SAT Gender Gap: ETS Responds – A Research Update, Phyllis Rosser ( 1992).  This update contains an analysis of studies conducted by ETS researchers that confirm Rosser's earlier findings about sex bias on the SAT.

The SAT Gender Gap: Identifying the Causes, Phyllis Rosser (1989).  This landmark research explains how the SAT underpredicts women’s first-year college grades and identifies biases in the SAT that account for women’s lower scores.

Women of Color in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering: A Review of the Literature, Beatriz C. Clewell and Bernice Anderson (1991).  This report reviews research on barriers to full participation in math and science by women and girls of color, and includes policy recommendations.

Women, Work, and School: Occupational Segregation and the Role of Education, edited by Leslie R. Wolfe (1991).  This collection of essays examines the link between sex and race stereotyping in education and occupational inequities in the workplace.  Published by Westview Press, available from UMI Books on Demand, 300 North Zeeb Road, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346.  

<     Reproductive Rights and the Law

Since 1989, the center has focused on the second generation of complex reproductive rights issues to ensure that anti-choice attempts to define a legal status for the fetus do not restrict women’s reproductive rights.  The center has  produced reports and resource collections on the legal and reproductive rights implications of mandatory HIV testing of pregnant women and newborns, punishment of pregnant women who use drugs and alcohol, access to reproductive and contraceptive technologies, and pregnancy exclusions in state medical proxy and living will laws.

Mandatory HIV Testing: A Threat to the Reproductive Rights of All Women (1997).  This briefing paper presents the case for how mandatory HIV testing policies erode the legal and public health framework of women’s reproductive rights.

HIV Surveillance, Reporting and Testing Policies: Controversial Issues for Women (1995).  This policy brief reports on two think tanks convened by the center to explore the impact of HIV names reporting, partner notification, and mandatory HIV testing of pregnant women.

Unjust Punishments: Mandatory HIV Testing of Women Sex Workers and Pregnant Women, Lisa Bowleg (1992).  This policy paper analyzes the arguments against mandatory HIV testing of two groups of women and proposes policy options.

Pregnancy Exclusions in State Living Will and Medical Proxy Statutes, Kathleen D. Stoll (1992).  This policy paper provides an in-depth analysis of state pregnancy exclusion laws that invalidate a woman’s living will or advance directive if she is pregnant.

Women, Pregnancy, and Substance Abuse, Dorothy Roberts (1991).  This report discusses the legal, social, and medical aspects of substance abuse among pregnant women in the context of reproductive rights and proposes policy options that emphasize treatment over punishment.

More Harm Than Help: The Ramifications for Rape Survivors of Mandatory HIV Testing of Rapists, Lisa Bowleg and Kathleen D. Stoll (1991).  This policy paper addresses the complex issues regarding mandatory HIV testing of charged or convicted rapists and proposes strategies to address the needs of rape survivors.

<     Violence Against Women and Girls 

The center has been a leader in research, policy analysis, and advocacy on violence against women since the 1970s.  The center contributed to the definition of rape and domestic violence as federal policy issues and to the passage of the Rape Prevention and Control Act. The center also was the first to place rape and battering in the context of bias-motivated hate crimes.  Today, the center focuses on girls and violence, gender bias-motivated hate crimes, and violence against women with disabilities.

Violence Against Disabled Women, Barbara Waxman Fiduccia and Leslie R. Wolfe (1999).  This Research and Data in Brief paper summarizes available data and research on violence in the lives of women and girls with disabilities, and includes recommendations for federal policy initiatives.

Facts About Violence Against Women (1999).  This Research and Data in Brief paper provides an overview of statistical and research data on violence against women.  Updated regularly.

Report of the Summit on Girls and Violence (1998).  This report summarizes the center’s summit with researchers, advocates, educators, policymakers and funders, who came together to consider feminist responses to violence against and, increasingly, by girls and young women.

Victims No More: Girls Fight Back Against Male Violence, Jennifer Tucker and Leslie R. Wolfe (1997).  This report presents the findings of the center’s research and data suggesting a link between violence against girls and violence by girls.

Violence Against Women as Bias-Motivated Hate Crime: Defining the Issues, Lois Copeland and Leslie R. Wolfe (1991).  This policy paper places violence against women in the context of accepted definitions of hate crimes, evaluates flaws in the federal data collection system, and reviews federal and state hate crime laws.  Revised edition published in late 1999.

Legal Help for Battered Women, Lisa Lerman (1989).  This handbook contains information about the law and legal remedies for women confronting domestic violence.

<     Women’s Health Decision Making 

The center has conducted original research to examine the reasons for the decisions women make about their own health, including health care behaviors and relationships with providers.  The center also has conducted focus groups, a survey of Mirabella magazine readers, and a nationwide survey.  In addition, the center has convened a symposium for employers, policymakers, health industry executives, and women’s health advocates to discuss the center’s research and to consider the implications for managed care delivery systems and policy debates.

Symposium on Building Partnerships for Women’s Health: Implications for Managed Care (1997).  This report summarizes the center’s symposium about creating partnerships between women and their physicians in the context of managed care, and includes findings from the center’s national survey on women’s health decision making.

Women’s Health Decision Making: A Review of the Literature (1994).  This report summarizes research on how women make health care decisions within the context of women’s health activism, patients’ rights, feminist theories of medical ethics, and self-care behaviors.

<     Work and Family

The center’s research on how women of color define and experience work and family roles documents how workplace cultures affect both women’s career advancement and personal lives.  This research provides a basis for recommended corporate policy changes.  The center also develops multiethnic feminist responses to the conservative fatherhood movement and to public policy that threatens the economic and social status of women.

Multiethnic Feminist Visions of Fatherhood: Promoting Feminist Family Policy (1999).  This report summarizes the center’s symposium with scholars, activists, and policy analysts that produced criteria for assessing father-focused policy options and building a multiethnic feminist family policy agenda.

No More ‘Business as Usual’: Women of Color in Corporate America – Report of the Nation Women of Color Work/Life Survey, Jennifer Tucker, Leslie R. Wolfe, Edna A. Viruell-Fuentes, and Wendy Smooth (1999).  This report presents the findings of the center’s national survey of 1,500 professional women of color in 16 Fortune 1000 companies on the link between balancing work and personal responsibilities and workplace diversity issues.

New Frontiers for Worker-Friendly Companies: Report of the Corporate Symposium on Linking Work/Family and Workplace Diversity (1996).  This report summarizes the center’s symposium with corporate leaders on strategies to transform workplaces to respond to the needs of women of color based on the center’s research findings.

Workplace Cultures: A Reality Check – Listening to the Voices of Women of Color, Jennifer Tucker, Edna A. Viruell, and Leslie R. Wolfe (1995).  This report presents the center’s qualitative research with women of color that explores the link between workplace diversity and work/family policies and practices.

Defining Work and Family Issues: Listening to the Voices of Women of Color, Jennifer Tucker and Leslie R. Wolfe (1994).  This report of the center’s pilot study illustrates how race and sex biases in the workplace negatively affect the ability of women of color to balance work and family responsibilities.

 

<     Special Publications

Women and Girls with Disabilities: Defining the Issues—An Overview, by Barbara Waxman Fiduccia and Leslie R. Wolfe (1999).  Prepared for the first-ever conference for grantmakers on women and girls with disabilities, convened by Women and Philanthropy in June 1999, this report briefly addresses a wide range of issues—including physician assisted suicide, access to health care, reproductive rights and health, family life, education and employment, violence against disabled women and girls, and disabled women’s leadership.  The report also considers how applying a “disability lens” and reflecting the values and vision of disability feminism can help us to bring the voices and visions of disabled women and girls to the policy arena and to feminist research, policy and advocacy agendas.

On the Cutting Edge: The Center for Women Policy Studies at 25 (1998).  This special report contains oral history accounts of the first 25 years of the center’s history and observations from dozens of colleagues, Board members, elected officials, staffers, and funders.

“Feminism Lives: Building a Multicultural Women’s Movement in the United States,” Leslie R. Wolfe and Jennifer Tucker, in The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective  (1995), edited by Amrita Basu with essays by women scholars and activists about women’s movements in 17 countries and regions.  Available in bookstores or from Westview Press, Inc., 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301.

Earnings Sharing in Social Security: A Model for Reform (1988) by the Technical Committee on Earnings Sharing.  This proposal for a modified earnings sharing plan shows how the social security system can be reformed to eliminate gender-based inequities that contribute to older women’s poverty.

<     Newsletters

NEWS from the Center for Women Policy Studies. This quarterly newsletter includes updates on the Center’s programs.