The following member centers of the National Council for Research on Women have important information available on their website as well as newsletters and e-updates regarding tax and expenditure policies:

American Association of University Women (AAUW)
http://www.aauw.org

The AAUW's Public Policy and Government Relations department deals with three issues of significant importance to women's economic security: access to education, women in the workplace, and retirement security. AAUW's "Take Action" portion of their website contains useful summaries of the important issues under each of these topics - from Title IX rollbacks to privatization of Social Security - and also "Action steps" on how they can be addressed: http://www.aauw.org/issue_advocacy/actionpages/index.cfm. AAUW also offers Action Network, an e-advocacy program that provides weekly updates on the latest legislative action and a quick, simple way to share your views with Congress. To sign up visit: http://www.aauw.org/issue_advocacy/actionnetwork/index.cfm.

Contact: Lisa Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations, maatzl@aauw.org

Babson College
Center for Women's Leadership
http://www3.babson.edu/cwl

The Center for Women's Leadership at Babson College is working on a project entitled "The Impact and Effectiveness of Women's Business Centers," in collaboration with the Association of Women's Business Centers, the National Women's Business Council, and the Level Playing Field Institute. The project surveys Women's Business Centers nationwide to look at the key programs and strategies for potential and active women entrepreneurs. Women's Business Centers were created through Congressional action in the late 1990s and are funded by the Small Business Administration. The report for this project is expected to be available in 2005. Details of the project can be found online: http://www3.babson.edu/Newsroom/Releases/CWL-Grant-Fund.cfm.

Contact: Professor Nan Langowitz, Director, langowitz@babson.edu

Brandeis
National Center on Women and Aging
http://www.heller.brandeis.edu/national

The NCWA researches critical issues facing older women today, including Social Security. The Center [which will transition to a program in late 2005] has looked specifically at the impact of rising the age of Medicare benefits to women, and has completed a series of monographs to examine how privatization will affect women. The monographs present a cross-national comparison of women's experiences in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States, looking specifically at the impact of privatization on retirement funding. Older Women and Private Pensions in the United Kingdom, Older Women and Private Pensions in Australia, and Older Women and Private Pensions in the United States are available to order from the NCWA website: http://www.heller.brandeis.edu/national

Contact: Dr. Phyllis H. Mutschler, Executive Director, mutsch1@brandeis.edu

Business and Professional Women
http://www.bpwusa.org

Business and Professional Women/USA (BPW/USA) is involved in lobbying on various tax issues, noting the ways in which they negatively or positively affect women. A member of the Fair Taxes for All Coalition, BPW/USA supported legislation signed into law in 2004 to permit civil rights plaintiffs receiving back-wage awards to be taxed over the number of years for which the award was designed to compensate, rather than in a single year. Their current work includes a focus on Social Security and tax-related support for long term care. They support legislation that would include tax deductions for qualified long-term care insurance and the extension of the Child Tax Credit to those women who care for the elderly, the ill, or those with disabilities.

Contact: Elisabeth Gehl, Director of Public Policy, egehl@bpwusa.org

Center for Policy Alternatives
http://www.stateaction.org

In 2000, the CPA, along with Lifetime Television for Women, produced an extensive polling and research project on economic policies and priorities for women, titled: Women's Voices 2000. Some key findings of this report are relevant nearly five years later:

• Women have urgently and consistently placed juggling time and family and equal pay and benefits as the most dominant economic concerns in their lives.
• There has been a shift in women's support for the role government can play in partnering with them to help find solutions for their concerns, with nearly 60% of women saying government can and should help.

The Center for Policy Alternatives' 2005 version of its Progressive Agenda series focuses specifically on progressive ways to deal with budget and taxation policy at the state level.

Contact: Bernie Horn, Policy Director, bhorn@cfpa.org

Center for Women Policy Studies
http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org

The Center has done substantial research around TANF reauthorization and the effects on women, including research into the positive effects of postsecondary education, which increases women's ability to be self-sustaining once they no longer receive benefits. A report, titled From Poverty to Self-Sufficiency: The Role of Postsecondary Education in Welfare Reform, expands on earlier findings that former TANF recipients with a college education are more likely to stay employed and less likely to return to TANF. The report is available online: http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/report_download.cfm?ReportID=75

Contact: Leslie Wolfe, President, lwolfe@centerwomenpolicy.org

Consortium on Race Gender and Ethnicity
University of Maryland, College Park
http://www.crge.umd.edu

The Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity (CRGE), with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has produced three Research and Action briefs that document the policies, practices, ideologies, and interactions that produce racial and gender disparities in welfare, education, and civic participation. Current tax policy exacerbates these disparities by weakening social services, like welfare and public education. Research and Action briefs offer promising strategies, tools, interventions, and other resources intended to reduce those disparities and suggest several directions for revised social policies. For more information on Racial, Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Early School Leaving (AKA Dropping Out of School); Racial, Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Access to Jobs, Education and Training Under Welfare Reform; and the Research and Action Brief on civic participation, contact CRGE directly, or visit their website at http://www.crge.umd.edu/research/caseysummary.htm.

Contacts: Bonnie Thornton Dill, Director, btdill@umd.edu; Amy McLaughlin, Assistant Director, amclaugh@umd.edu; Ruth Zambrana, Graduate Director and Director of Research, rz23@umail.umd.edu

Cornell University
Institute for Women and Work
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/extension/iww/default.html

The Institute for Women and Work is involved in several initiatives that work to further the economic independence of women. The Institute is launching a women's financial literacy campaign, headed by an advisory council of prominent New York women in major financial sectors. In June 2004, they hosted an Asian Women's Business Conference, and in October 2004, a Caribbean and Hispanic Women's Business Association Conference. The Institute is also committed to moving women's economic agendas by encouraging unionization and promoting public policies that address such issues as overtime pay, increasing the minimum wage and the gender wage gap. The Institute's agenda also recognizes that women are disproportionately affected by federal, state and municipal cuts in child and elder care provisions for working families, and hosts forums and educational seminars on the status of working families both nationally and internationally.

Contact: Francine Moccio, Director, fam5@cornell.edu

Girls Incorporated®
http://www.girls-inc.org

As consumers and workers, most girls also are taxpayers. At age 14, 59% of young women compared to 55% of young men had jobs. Yet fewer girls than boys say they are very knowledgeable about finance and money management. Girls Incorporated developed a program to enhance girls' financial competence and confidence, to empower girls to recognize early on that they can exercise control over their financial future, and to promote within girls a sense of economic justice. Girls Inc. Economic Literacy® fosters the development of skills that girls need to make informed decisions.

Go to http://www.girlsinc.org/ic/page.php?id=3 for resources on Girls and Economic Literacy.

Contact: Heather Johnston-Nicholson, Director of Research, hjnicholson@girls-inc.org

International Association for Feminist Economists (IAFFE)
http://www.iaffe.org

The International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) is a non-profit membership organization that seeks to advance feminist inquiry of economic issues and to educate economists and others on feminist points of view on economic issues. IAFFE has approximately 600 members in 43 countries, including the top feminist economists working in the field. IAFFE publishes a journal, Feminist Economics. More information about the journal is available online: http://www.iaffe.org.

Contact: Cinda Smith, Executive Director, clsmith@iaffe.org

Institute for Women's Policy Research
http://www.iwpr.org

IWPR is a leading national resource on issues that are critical to the economic stability of women, including tax and budget issues, poverty and welfare, employment and earnings, work and family issues, the economic and social aspects of health care and safety, and women's civic and political participation. IWPR's recent work includes: the effect of the recession on women; the effect of federal budget cuts on Medicaid for women; the cost of not providing paid sick leave; women's access to pensions; and the impact of welfare reform on children. IWPR also releases biennial reports on the social, political, and economic status of women in the states. The 2004 Status of Women in the States reports can be accessed online at: http://www.iwpr.org/States2004/SWS2004/index.htm.

IWPR recently launched a new website on the income security of women in retirement and the possible effects of social security privatization on women, online at: http://womenandsocialsecurity.org. Its new email alert on women and social security is going to thousands of people across the country who are using it to stay informed on how proposed changes in Social Security, including changes in taxes and benefits might affect them.

Contacts: Heidi Hartmann, President, hartmann@iwpr.org; Barbara Gault, Director of Research, gault@iwpr.org; Avis Jones-DeWeever, Study Director for Poverty and Welfare, jones-deweever@iwpr.org; Amy Caiazza, Study Director for Democracy and Society, caiazza@iwpr.org; Sunhwa Lee, Study Director for Older Women's Economics, including women and social security, lee@iwpr.org; and Vicky Lovell, Study Director for Employment and Earnings and Work and Family, lovell@iwpr.org

International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
http://www.icrw.org

In 2003 ICRW was commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of its series of economic policy studies, to write a report on Gender Impacts of Government Revenue Collection: The Case of Taxation (http://www.icrw.org/html/projects/projects_poverty.htm). This book reviews the gender dimensions of taxation and makes recommendations to improve gender equity in tax policy in developing countries. ICRW has organized workshops and presentations on this issue for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and representatives of international agencies such as the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development. ICRW also developed a module on Gender and Taxation in Developing Countries for the Knowledge Networking Program on Engendering Macroeconomics of the International Working Group on Gender and Macroeconomics based at the University of Utah.

Contact: Kathleen Barnett, Vice President of Programs, kbarnett@icrw.org

Legal Momentum
http://www.legalmomentum.org

Women and Poverty Project
Legal Momentum's Women and Poverty Project focuses on issues related to women's disproportionate poverty, including TANF, domestic violence, childcare, and women's rights. Legal Momentum's has also created a coalition, The BOB ("Building Opportunities Beyond" Welfare Reform) Coalition of hundreds of groups working to end women's poverty.) Please visit http://www.legalmomentum.org/issues/wel/reastatement.shtml for more information about the Coalition.

Contact: Sherry Leiwant, Senior Staff Attorney, Sleiwant@legalmomentum.org

Family Initiative
http://www.familyinitiative.org
Legal Momentum's Family Initiative works for strong public investment in child care, preschool and afterschool. The Initiative's goal is to yield solid economic returns: to the children whose school performance and retention are enhanced; to the millions of families for whom care is the most costly item in the household budget after rent; to businesses that experience lower absenteeism and greater productivity; and to communities and states that benefit from job creation, school success, a better trained workforce, and reduced crime.

Contact: Nicole A. Brown, Policy Attorney, nbrown@legalmomentum.org

Ms. Foundation for Women
http://www.ms.foundation.org

The Ms. Foundation for Women supports the efforts of women and girls to influence the world around them and to control their own lives. The Ms. Foundation is especially interested in the intersections of gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, immigration status and ability which both distinguish and connect every woman's lived experience. The goal of economic stability is a major impetus for much of the work of the Foundation, as is a vision of building a world free from violence. Using a feminist and human rights framework in working on economic security issues across the United States, the Ms.Foundation funds organizations who build the collective power and leadership of women and girls in the workplace and in society at-large. The Foundation uses a range of strategies-from supporting groups who advocate for better wages and working conditions to groups who promote programs, policies and best practice that foster women's business and asset development-all toward the goal of enabling women to support themselves and their families. Among other strategic efforts, the Ms. Foundation is a member and supporter of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, the Fair Taxes for All Coalition, the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard Coalition, and the Grantmakers Income Security Taskforce. Beyond grantmaking, the foundation also produces books and conducts public education on economic security and economic empowerment.

Contacts: Sara Gould, President & CEO, sgould@ms.foundation.org; Mia White, Program Officer, mwhite@ms.foundation.org

National Research Center for Women and Families
http://www.center4research.org
(formerly the National Center for Policy Research on Women and Families)

The National Research Center for Women and Families examines the implications of tax policies for the health and safety of women, children, and families. Major concerns include: the effects of privatization of Social Security on the lives of women, and on children and adults with disabilities; the impact of welfare reform on women, children, and families; and the impact of tax policies on federal and state funding available to improve the quality and availability of health care and child care. Recent papers include: Children and Social Security: So Much More than a Retirement Plan (Issue Brief) http://www.center4research.org/sschildren.html, Welfare Reform Needs Reform http://www.center4research.org/welreform.html, and The Evolution of Welfare Reform: Policy Changes and Current Knowledge http://www.center4research.org/poverty4.html.

Contact: Dr. Diana Zuckerman, President, dz@center4policy.org

National Women's Law Center (NWLC)
http://www.nwlc.org

NWLC works on tax-related issues such as child care and state and federal tax policy, and includes useful information on tax issues on their website: http://www.nwlc.org/display.cfm?section=tax. NWLC also publishes updates, press releases, and fact sheets on tax and budget issues and the effects of budget cuts on programs targeting women. NWLC recently published a report titled Social Security: Women, Children, and the States, which provides an analysis for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia about the importance of Social Security to women, children and the states and the impact of cuts in Social Security benefits that would result from the current proposed privatization plan. The report is available on the NWLC website in PDF format: http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/sswomen&states2005.pdf. NWLC is co-chair of the Fair Taxes for All Coalition.

Contact: Joan Entmacher, Vice President and Director of the Family Economic Security Program, jentmacher@nwlc.org

Rutgers University
Center for Women and Work
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cww

The Center for Women and Work researches programs that seek to increase access to education and skills training for low-income single mothers. It assessed a pilot program funded by the New Jersey Department of Labor in which single working low-income mothers received skills training via online learning in their homes. Building on this program, the Center documented an effective way to deliver skills training to an underserved population, finding that online learning democratizes access to education and skills training. The Center, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is working with New Jersey to increase the scale of the project and to implement similar programs both in New Jersey and nationally.

Contacts: Eileen Appelbaum, Economist and Director, eappelba@rci.rutgers.edu; Mary Gatta, Director, Workforce Policy and Research, gatta@rci.rutgers.edu

Towson State University, Institute for Teaching and Research on Women
http://www.towson.edu/itrow

Towson's Institute for Teaching and Research on Women is currently developing a program for low-income women, called Pathways. The program will enable greater access to higher education for both low-income students and those receiving TANF, with the ultimate goal of promoting long-term economic self-sufficiency. ITROW is also involved in debates surrounding social security and women. In April, 2005, ITROW was a co-sponsor and organizer, along with the Center for Productive Aging at Towson, of the conference: Women at Risk: The Future of Social Security, an "Official White House Conference on Aging" event.

Contact: Karen Dugger, Director, kdugger@towson.edu

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program
http://www.ips.uiuc.edu/wggp

The Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program (WGGP) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign addresses transnational migration and human security issues in much of its work. A current interdisciplinary research project focuses on gender and human security of immigrants in the Midwest, stressing health care, housing, and income security. For example, recent immigrants are usually paying more in taxes than they receive in benefits. In light of the proposed changes in the social security system, WGGP is preparing forums and publications on the importance of the insurance [as well as the retirement] function of social security and illustrating how women, minorities, and immigrants would be particularly disadvantaged by movement to private accounts.

Gender and Human Security: Latina/o Immigrants in the Midwest, summary of WGGP's March 2004 symposium is available online at: http://www.ips.uiuc.edu/wggp/immigration.html.

Contact: Gale Summerfield, Director, summrfld@uiuc.edu

University of Memphis
Center for Research on Women
http://cas.memphis.edu/isc/crow

The Center for Research on Women focuses in part on women in low-wage workplaces, particularly in the U.S. South. The Center has published research papers that deal with workplace issues such as the living wage, and race and class differences in women's workplace experiences. All publications are available from their website at: http://cas.memphis.edu/isc/crow/publications.html A recent focus at the Center has been the growth of Latino immigration to the South, and the workplace experiences of new immigrants.

Contact: Barbara Ellen Smith, Director, bsmith2@cc.memphis.edu

University of Oregon
Center for the Study of Women in Society
http://csws.uoregon.edu

The Center for the Study of Women in Society, Women in the Northwest Research Initiative, has focused on a host of social policy issues confronting women, most particularly income security and the larger issue of human security. They have published a major study of welfare restructuring in Oregon, Welfare Restructuring, Work & Poverty (2002) available online at http://wnw.uoregon.edu/policymat.shtml, hosted national conferences on welfare (2000) and on human security (2003), and have participated actively in the NCRW project on economic security through the involvement of the Center's director, Sandra Morgen, co-author of this report and chair of the NCRW Advisory Committee on Economic Security.

Contact: Sandi Morgen, Director, smorgen@uoregon.edu

Women's Research and Education Institute (WREI)
http://www.wrei.org

WREI addresses women's economic security in several ways. WREI produces a biannual book, the "American Woman," which has a large statistical section on women's changing position, including data about their economic position. The Women in Uniform program is the oldest and largest ongoing program about women in the military among progressive women's centers, and it follows women veterans' health and employment issues. Crossing Borders, an immigration program, follows statistics on employment and increasingly, on remittances, data which deals with women's economic security. WREI also has a new program on women and religion, Connecting the Dots, which includes information about women in relation to family obligations and religious behavior that touches on economic security.

Contact: Susan Scalan, President, scanlan@wrei.org

Other Centers working on Tax Issues