Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality

Full equality for women and girls can be attained only when they have the information and services they need to lead healthy lives and make informed and independent decisions about their health, reproductive health and sexuality. Health for women depends on many factors, including access to safe water and nutritious food; affordable care and insurance; disease prevention and access to comprehensive reproductive and maternal health services; and awareness and support for women with HIV/AIDS and other diseases and disabilities. Health is not limited to physical well-being but extends to sexuality, mental health and body image as well. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

IN THE NEWS: Special Healthcare Reform Edition

November 6, 2009 posted by Vivienne Heston-Demirel


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New Resources on Women’s Poverty and Health

URL: 
http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=3732&section=child%20and%20family%20support

The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)

URL: 
http://www.nwlc.org

Institute for Research on Women and Gender

Contact

204 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290
Ph. (734) 764-9537
Fx. (734) 764-9533
http://www.umich.edu/~irwg/
irwg@umich.edu


The Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at the University of Michigan was established to promote and support gender-related research endeavors by faculty at the university. Specifically, IRWG aims to facilitate and monitor ongoing interdisciplinary research efforts, to offer support and coordination for these projects, and to heighten the presence and impact of the University of Michigan in the field of gender scholarship. The institute also supports study groups centered on topics of interest to a self-defined community of scholars.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Carol Boyd, Director
E-mail: caroboyd@umich.edu

Deborah Keller-Cohen, Senior Associate Director
E-mail: dkc@umich.edu

Janet Malley, Associate Director
E-mail: jmalley@umich.edu

Debra M. Schwartz, Public Relations
E-mail: schwarde@umich.edu

Beverly Kissel, Financial & HR Specialist
E-mail: bkissel@umich.edu

Lisa Parker, Research Administrator
E-mail: wooliver@umich.edu

Patricia Smith, Business Administrator
E-mail: pssmith@umich.edu

Terri Torkko, Event Coordinator
E-mail: torkko@umich.edu

Tammy Culler, Computer Support Specialist
E-mail: tammy@umich.edu

Nicole Perry, Secretary to the Director
E-mail: msnicole@umich.edu






Areas of Expertise:

Access & Disparities, Advancing Women's Leadership, Body Image & Wellness, Globalization, Arts & Activism, Barriers & Opportunities, Diversity & Inclusion, Communications, Media & Gender, Culture & Identity, Educational Leadership of Women & People of Color, HIV/AIDS, International Organizations, Diversity & Inclusion, Higher Education, Mental Health, Older Women, Globalization, Sexuality & Gender, Women in History, Communications, Culture & Society, Globalization, Human Rights & Security, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

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Reports & Resources

Adolescents and Girls

Children's Time with Fathers in Intact Families, Pamela Davis-Kearn.

Gender, Puberty, and Objectification, Karin Martin.

 

Arts

Tharp, Feminism, and Postmodern Dance, Sally Banes.

Art/Girl: Graffiti, Femininity, and the Career of Lady Pink, Kristina Milnor.

No Place for a Woman? Critical Narratives and Erotic Graffiti from Pompeii, Kristina Milnor.

Family Stories/Family Pictures: Mothers With Cameras, Joanne Leonard.

Representation of Women in Art History: An Overview, Patricia Simons.

 

Censorship

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Law, Abigail Carter.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Sociology, Susannah Dolance.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Literature, Leslie Dorfman Davis.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Feminist Theory and Philosophy, Troy Gordon.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Education, Edwina Hansbrough.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in the Mass Media, Edwina Hansbrough.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Psychology, Zaje Harrell.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Visual and Performing Arts, Libby Otto.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in Economics, Lucie Schmidt.

Studies in Gender Based Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography in American History, Chris Talbot.

 

 

 

Feminist Thought and Scholarship

Objectification Theory: Emotional Consequences of Sexual, Barbara Fredrickson.

Feminist Foundations: Practicing Feminism in the Community. A transcript of a panel at the conference, Feminists at Work: Multicultural, Feminist Influences on Practice, sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Program in Feminist Practice, The University of Michigan, October 16-17, 1998.

Giving It Up: Disrupting White 'Innocence,' Re-Educating White Feminism, Gail Griffin.

 

International Issues - Religion

The Home and Garden are a Small Paradise for Women: Men and Women Gendering Bosnjak Nationalism in Muslim Bosnia-Hercegovina, Elissa Helms (1997).

 

Health and Health Care

Dual Autobiography and AIDS Witnessing, Ross Chambers.

Improving Pregnancy Outcomes during Imprisonment

Initial Exposure to Nicotine in College-age Women smokers and Never-smokers, Cynthia Pomerlau.

Mental Illness and Substance abuse: Implications for Women's Health and Health Care Access, Beth Glover Reed and Carol Mowbray.

Representations of Women's Bodies and Birthing, Carolyn Sampselle.

Women and Stress, Elizabeth Young.

 

Mental Health

Rumination and Depression in Women, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema.

Serious Mental Illness: Women and Parenting, Carol Mowbray.

 

History

Telling An Untellable Story: White "Daughter" Black "Mother" After the Cuban Revolution, Ruth Behar.

Prison Discipline, Reform and Debate: Negotiating the Female Prisoner in Nineteenth-Century England, Susanna Calkins.

The Figure of the Adulteress in the Construction of the "Cult of True Womanhood" in the19th-Century American Moral Reform Literature, Lisa Cochran.

Remembering a Forgotten Past, or Why Have We Only Heard of Ballerinas, Lynn Garafola.

The Pasha's Prostitutes: Rethinking Women, the State, and Female Prostitution in Nineteenth Century Egypt, Mario Ruiz.

 

International Issues - Prostitution

Making A Spectacle: The Nightly Transformations of Egyptian Nightclub Performers in a Conservative Age, Katherine Zirbel.

Contraband Women, Immigration Tricks of the Sex Trade, and State Visions of Migrant Women Workers' Rights? The 1997 Toronto Massage Parlour Raids, Cheryl Harrison.

 

Politics

Institutional Gender Analysis: Running for the Russian Duma, Janet Johnson.

Visions of Citizenship: Questioning the Liberal Promise of Equality, Elizabeth Wingrove.

 

Reproductive Rights

Informed Consent Issues in Assisted Reproduction, Nancy Reame.

Recent Trends in Abortion Legislation in Central Europe, Eleonora Zielinska.

Rural Women - International Issues

The (Wo)man in the Cashew: Gender and Development in Rural Belize, Melissa Johnson.

 

Sexuality

Images of Fashion: Constructing the Visible Body, Olga Vainshtein.

 

Sports and Fitness

Your Hair is Caked, Your Limbs are Sore: Gender, "Roughing It," and Class in Early Yosemite Tourism, Stephanie Palmer.

Violence Against Women

Assessing Sexual Harassment among Latinas, Lilia Cortina.

Domestic Violence Against Women in Serbia, Zorica Mrsevic.

Offender Interventions to End Violence Against Women, Daniel Saunders.

 

Women of Color

Dis/Arming the Black Champ: Joe Louis and the Legacy of Racial Uplift in the Post-Civil Rights Movement, Marlon Ross.

 

Violence

Seng, Julia, and Mickey Sperlich. 2008. Survivor Moms: Women’s Stories of Birthing, Mothering, and Healing after Sexual Abuse.

 

IRWG Newsletter 

Click here to download the latest newsletter.

 

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Visiting Scholar Program

The Institute for Research on Women and Gender invites applications for Visiting Scholar positions from post-doctoral scholars and researchers whose work focuses on women or gender. The goal of the Visiting Scholar program is to enhance disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship on women and gender at the University of Michigan. Visiting Scholars will have full access to the Institute’s community, and will be automatically affiliated with the Women’s Studies
Program.
 
 
The Institute encourages new scholarship by offering seed money for new research ventures, housing visiting scholars and encouraging the work of graduate students. Developing relations with the media contributes to the public discourse on important issues affecting women and gender.

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Southwest Institute for Research on Women

Contact

925 N Tyndall Ave
Tucson, AZ 85721-0438
Ph. 520-621-7338
Fx. 520-621-1533
http://sirow.arizona.edu
sstevens@dakotacom.net
sirow@email.arizona.edu

The Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW) is a regional research and resource affiliated with the Gender & Women's Studies Department at the University of Arizona committed to developing interdisciplinary research, professional development, and outreach programs. SIROW conducts research on projects centered around women and gender in the Southwest and Northwestern Mexico, including education, employment, health, history, literature, culture, and the advancement of women and girls in science and engineering. The institute is connected to 30 campuses in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, and with El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and El Colegio de Sonora in Mexico.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Admin. Staff:

Sally Stevens, Ph.D., Executive Director
Ph. 520-626-9558
Fax: 520-621-1533
E-mail: sstevens@email.arizona.edu

Erin Durban, Graduate Research Assistant
Ph. 520-626-4911
Fax: 520-621-1533
E-mail: durban@email.arizona.edu

Terry Mullin, Business Manager, Senior
Ph. 520-621-7339
Fax: 520-621-1533
E-mail: mullin@email.arizona.edu

Lupita Loftus, Accounting Specialist
Ph. 520-621-3839
E-mail: loftusm@email.arizona.edu


Program Staff and Grad Students:

Jeri Alexander, Research Technician
Ph. 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: jla3@email.arizona.edu

Thomas Bogart, Instructional Specialist
E-mail: tbogart@email.arizona.edu

Corrie Brinley, Research Specialist/Health Educator
Ph. 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: cbrinley@email.arizona.edu

Monica Davis, Health Educator
Ph. 520-295-9339
E-mail: midavis@email.arizona.edu

Linda Shaird, Research and Prevention Specialist
Ph. 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: llshaird@email.arizona.edu

Stephanie Springer, MPH, Program Coordinator
Ph. 520-295-9339
E-mail: stephks@email.arizona.edu

Andrea Verdin, Therapist
Phone: 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: averdin@email.arizona.edu


Areas of Expertise:

Barriers & Opportunities, Culture & Identity, Girls & STEM, Diversity & Inclusion, Family & Society, Higher Education, Women in STEM, Women in History, Women's, Gender & Feminist Studies, Communications, Culture & Society, Education & Education Reform, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality, Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

The projects that SIROW undertakes either focus on women and gender in the Southwest and the Mexico-U.S. border region from a multicultural perspective, or are developed because they interest scholars in the region.  They are divided into the following topics categories:
 

 

Projects

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reports & Resources

Ruiz B., Stevens, S., Fuhriman, J., Bogart, J., & Korchmaros, J. 2009. "A juvenile drug court model in southern Arizona: Substance abuse, deliquency, and sexual risk outcomes by gender and race/ethnicity." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 

Ruiz, B., Hedges, K., Greene, A., Arnold, A., Colonna, H., Stevens, S., Andrade, R., & O'Neill, S. 2009. "School and community counseling collaboration: A promising approach to address youth substance abuse." School Counseling Research and Practice.

Rabin, N. 2009. Unseen prisoners: A report on women in immigration detention facilities in Arizona. University of Arizona, SIROW.

Stevens, S., Andrade, R.A.C., Ruiz, B.S. 2009. Women and substance abuse: Gender, age and cultural consideration.
Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse.

 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Get Involved!

SIROW is open to those who want to make a difference in the lives of women and families through collaborative and innovative research and the integration of new knowledge into policy and practice.

There are various way you can become involved with SIROW.   Including collaboration, financial contribution, internships, work study and volunteer positions, and participation on one our advisory boards. Please click on the links to the left to find out more about each of these valuable contributions.
If you are interested in developing further connections with SIROW, please contact Sally Stevens at sstevens@u.arizona.edu

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National Women's Law Center

Contact

11 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Ph. (202) 588-5180
Fx. (202) 588-5185
http://www.nwlc.org/
info@nwlc.org


The National Women's Law Center was founded in 1972 as a non-profit advocacy organization working to advance the progress of women, girls, and families with emphasis on employment, education, reproductive rights and health, and family issues. The Center has been at the forefront of the major legal and public policy initiatives in this country to improve the lives of women: educating state, local, and federal policy-makers as well as members of the public about critical women's issues; building and leading coalitions; litigating ground-breaking cases and informing landmark Supreme Court decisions. The Center is a sponsor of human rights, helping to resonate women's voices through the minds of public policy-makers, advocates, and the public alike.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Nancy Duff Campbell, Founder and Co-President
E-mail: campbell@nwlc.org

Marcia Greenberger, Founder and Co-President
E-mail: mgreenberger@nwlc.org

Nancy Boyd, Executive Assistant
E-mail: nboyd@nwlc.org

Areas of Expertise:

Access & Disparities, Awareness & Education, Economic Development & Microfinance, Employment & Unemployment, Family & Society, Population & Reproductive Rights, Reproductive Health, Economic Development & Security, Education & Education Reform, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

Child Care

The Center on Fathers, Families, and Public Policy. The Center has formed a partnership with the Center on Fathers, Families, and Public Policy to foster better collaboration between the organizations when addressing the needs of low-income fathers and mothers on child support and related family law issues.

The Child Care and Development Block Grant ( CCDBG) and Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC). The Center appeals for the expansion of both the CCDBG and the DCTC which would better assist low-income families with their child care needs. The current Senate CCDBG and DCTC proposals offer relief for some low-income families, not affecting those between 133% and 202% of the poverty line. The Center's expansion proposal would support these poverty stricken families.


Economic Development

Women and Bankruptcy. The Center is currently fighting the S. 625 bill which if passed, would intensify the adversity facing women who file for bankruptcy, making the filing process more complex than ever before. Over 500,000 women were expected to file for bankruptcy in 1999, making bankruptcy a central issue challenging many of today's contemporary women.


Law and Legal Issues

Title IX. The Center is working to uncover and reconcile the injustices that accompany the Title IX compliance. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination on every level. Most often, Title IX is exercised within academic walls, requiring an equal distribution of women and men's organizations. On the collegiate front, Title IX has been used to more fully develop female athletic programs. Still, there is room for improvement. Most women's athletic teams are experiencing a unevenly distributed finances, receiving one dollar for every three dollars spent on their male counterparts.


Reproductive Rights

Women's Health Report Card. The Center has extended a new partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Medical School's program on women's health to develop a Women's Health Report Card. The Report Card documents the happenings in public policy addressing local and national women's health issues, keeping the public informed of public policy.

 

Social Security

Women and Social Security Reform. The Center is working to strengthen the current social security system, which was implemented to specifically benefit the elderly. Since statistically, women usually live longer than men, social security seems to benefit more women than men. That the system remains strong, is an important issues for the women's movement.

 

Click here to learn more about the Center's Program Areas. 

Reports & Resources

Child Care

Be All That We Can Be: Lessons from the Military for Improving our Nation's Child Care System. This report tells the story of the military's success in transforming its child care system into a model for the nation and offers valuable lessons for policy makers and others on how similar improvements can be made in civilian child care. To view or download a copy of this report, visit the Child Care section of this site.

Making Care Less Taxing: Improving State Child and Dependent Care Tax Provisions. Geared toward state policymakers and advocates, this report analyzes and provides recommendations on ways to improve state tax assistance for child and dependent care.

Making Ends Meet: A Woman's Guide to Collecting Child Support. This is a convenient brochure that provides women with an overview of their child support rights and information on how to exercise those rights through state child support offices. To view or download a copy of this brochure, visit the Child and Family Support section of this site.

Como Hacer Alcanzar El Dinero: Guia de la Mujer el Cobro de P

ensiones de Manutencion Infantil. This is a convenient Spanish-language brochure that provides women with an overview of their child support rights and information on how to exercise those rights through state child support offices. To view or download a copy of this brochure, visit the Child and Family Support section of this site.


Health Care

Hospital Mergers and the Threat to Women's Reproductive Health Services: Using Antitrust Laws to Fight Back. A first-of-its-kind resource guide, this publication is designed to provide health care advocates and others seeking to preserve access to reproductive health services with an understanding of how to use the nation's antitrust laws to challenge proposed hospital mergers that threaten to reduce or eliminate these services.


Law/Legal Issues

Career Education

Putting the Law on Your Side: A Guide for Women and Girls to Equal Opportunity in Career Education and Job Training. For girls in middle or high school, or women in post-secondary or job training programs, this publication explains the laws that apply to career education and offers advice about how to deal with sex discrimination in such programs.


Sports and Fitness

Breaking Down Barriers: A Legal Guide to Title IX. This detailed guide includes comprehensive analyses of Title IX's legislative history and regulatory framework as it relates to athletics, as well as settlement agreements and other legal issues.


Sexual Harassment

Righting the Wrongs: A Legal Guide to Understanding, Addressing, and Preventing Sexual Harassment in Schools. Directed at attorneys and advocates, this manual focuses on sexual harassment of students and the legal obligations placed on schools to address it.

Do the Right Thing: Understanding, Addressing, and Preventing Sexual Harassment in Schools. Designed for teachers, parents, and other non-lawyer types, this manual focuses on sexual harassment of students and the legal obligations placed on schools to address it.

 

Annual Reports

National Women's Law Center Annual Report 2007-2008 

National Women's Law Center Newsletter

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Fellowships

The National Women’s Law Center is seeking a college graduate with excellent quantitative,  research, and communications skills and relevant experience for a one-year paid public policy fellowship starting September 2010 in its Family Economic Security and Education and Employment programs.

Pro Bono Opportunities 

The Center will consider applications from lawyers who are available for a sustained period of time, whether through a law firm program or a fellowship program sponsored by an organization such as Equal Justice Works or Georgetown’s Women’s Law and Public Policy, or who are otherwise interested in supporting the Center’s work on a volunteer basis.

Pro Bono Opportunities and Fellowships Education and Employment Program

The Education and Employment program of the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) is looking for a lawyer who is available for at least six months, whether through a law firm program or a fellowship program sponsored by an organization such as Equal Justice Works or Georgetown’s Women’s Law and Public Policy, or who is otherwise interested in supporting the Center’s work on a volunteer basis.

Internships:

Communications Intern

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) seeks an energetic, detail-oriented intern with an interest in media and public policy to provide support to NWLC’s Communications department. The intern would work with Communications staff on media monitoring and analysis, maintaining press lists and expanding social networking.

Online Outreach Intern

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) seeks an energetic, detail-oriented intern to provide support to NWLC’s Outreach team. The intern’s responsibilities would focus on social networking and blog outreach.

Outreach Intern

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) seeks an energetic, detail-oriented intern to provide support to NWLC’s Outreach team.


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Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Contact

1200 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Ph. (202) 785-5100
Fx. (202) 833-4362
http://www.iwpr.org
iwpr@iwpr.org


The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) is a public policy research organization dedicated to informing and stimulating the debate on public policy issues of critical importance to women and their families. IWPR focuses on issues of poverty and welfare, employment and earnings, work and family issues, the economic and social aspects of health care and domestic violence, and women's civic and political participation.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Heidi Hartmann, Ph.D., President
E-mail: hhartmann@iwpr.org

Research:

Barbara Gault, Ph.D., Executive Director & Vice President
E-mail: gault@iwpr.org

Ariane Hegewisch, Study Director
E-mail: hegewisch@iwpr.org

Jane Henrici, Ph.D., Study Director
E-mail: henrici@iwpr.org

Cynthia Hess, Ph.D., Study Director
E-mail: hess@iwpr.org

Jeffrey Hayes, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate
E-mail: hayes@iwpr.org

Kevin Miller, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate
E-mail: miller@iwpr.org

Layla Moughari, Research Program Associate
E-mail: moughari@iwpr.org

Claudia Williams, Research Analyst
E-mail: cwilliams@iwpr.org

Allison Helmuth, Research Assistant
E-mail: helmuth@iwpr.org

Frances Zlotnick, Mariam K. Chamberlain Fellow
E-mail: zlotnick@iwpr.org

Sunhwa Lee, Ph.D., Affiliated Researcher
E-mail: lee@iwpr.org

Avis Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D., Affiliated Researcher
E-mail: jones-deweever@iwpr.org

Lois Shaw, Ph.D., Affiliated Researcher
E-mail: shaw@iwpr.org

Lynette Osborne, Ph.D., Affiliated Researcher
E-mail: osborne@iwpr.org


Development and Communications:

Ryan Koch, Development Director
E-mail: koch@iwpr.org

Elisabeth Crum, Communications Manager
E-mail: crum@iwpr.org

Jennifer Clark, Development Assistant
E-mail: clark@iwpr.org


Administration:

Ashley English, Special Assistant to Dr. Heidi Hartmann
E-mail: english@iwpr.org

Elisa Garcia, Office/Program Assistant
E-mail: garcia@iwpr.org

Areas of Expertise:

Disparities & Access, Employment & Unemployment, Family & Society, Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development, Poverty, Safety Nets, Economic Development & Security, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality, Violence

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

Activism and Organizing

Models for Action: Making Research Work for Women (Resource Book). The Insitute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) presents this resource as a way of helpig state-based advocates, researchers, and policymakers utilize The Status of Women in the States reports to further their policy agendas by drawing attention to issues critical to the status of women in their states.

Aging

How the Elderly Become Poor. The IWPR study, "How the Elderly Become Poor: The Economic Circumstances of Aged Women with Special Attention to Widows and Divorcees," analyzes why elderly widowed and divorced women have a high risk of poverty. The report additionally looks into how redesigning couple benefits may leave more to surviving spouses.


Dialogue with Women -- Work and Family

On Common Ground: Prominent Women Talk About Work and Family. This IWPR publication is based on interviews and dialogues with prominent women who are balancing work and family. The report includes perspectives on combining the two roles, personal decisions, perceptions of the larger problems plaguing working mothers, as well as personal and institutional recommendations for change.


Family

Work & Family covers:

Education and Job Training Build Strong Families (Fact Sheet) This Fact sheet demonstrates that improving the home life of children begins with expanding the opportunities and skills of the parents.

The Widening Gap: A New Book on the Struggle to Balance Work and Caregiving (RIB) This Research in Brief is based on selected findings from a new book by Jody Heymann, The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families are in Jeopardy and What Can be done About It. The book reveals the failure of our nation's employer-based support system to help families meet their caregiving responsibilities.

Family Leave for Low-Income Working Women: Providing Paid Leave Though Temporary Disability Insurance - The New Jersey Case (RIB) summarizes a research project that examined the proposals in New Jersey for paid family and medical leave programs. It discusses the policy context in which these programs are being considered and details the technical considerations behind estimating the cost of providing family-leave insurance.

Paid Family and Medical Leave: Essential Support for Working Women and Men (Fact Sheet) Women's employment patterns are becoming more like men's, but public policies and employers have not filled in the gap between the time and care that families need and the time workers have available to meet those needs.

Paid Family and Medical Leave: Supporting Working Families in Illinois (Testimony) Testimony to the Subcommittee on Unemployment Insurance for the New Workforce on the issue of paid family and medical leave.

Equal Pay for Working Families (RIB) An investigation into the size of the wage gap in the United States, as well as is in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Economic & Social Status of Women

Why Privatizing Government Services Would Hurt Women Workers (Report) Analyzes the implications of privatization for women workers, especially those employed in low-end occupations. Data analyzes show that women disproportionately depend on the public sector for jobs that pay decent wages and offer benefits. The evidence suggests that privatizing government services will have a negative impact on the women workers, especially those workers who are most vulnerable.

The Gender Wage Ratio: Womens and Men's Earnings (Fact Sheet) Examines the gender wage ratio from 1955 through 2000. The Gender wage ratio, which had remained virtually constant from 1955 through the 1970's, began to increase in the 1980's. Over the 1990's, the wage ratio moved up and down slightly.

The Gender Gap in Pension Coverage: What Does the Future Hold? (Report) Part of an on-going research project conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research to analyze the economics of women across the generations. This report documents pension coverage among male and female employees and examines voluntary and involuntary reasons why women and men do not participate in pension plans.

The Gender Gap in Pension Coverage: Women Working Full-Time Are Catching Up, But Part-Time Workers Have Been Left Behind (RIB) IWPR finds that women are participating in pension plans in greater numbers than ever before. Based on data from the Pension Topical Module of the Survey of Income and Program Participation collected in 1995 by the Bureau of Census, IWPR found that 60 percent of full-time female workers participate in a pension plan, compared with 62 percent of full-time male workers. However, part-time workers, who are disproportionately women, remain much less likely to participate in an employer-sponsored pension plan.

Why Privatizing Government Services Would Hurt Women Workers (RIB) Using data from the 1998 Current Population Survey, this Research-in-Brief documents job growth in the public and private sectors and examines the quality of jobs in terms of wages and benefits. Overall this research finds that the public sector offers considerably better wages and benefits for women workers than does the private sector.

Strengthening Social Security for Women: A Report from the Working Conference on Women and Social Security (Report) This report documents three days of discussions among approximately 60 leaders of women's organizations and policy analysts. Aiming to develop proposals that would inspire women activists to engage in the public debate on Social Security reform. This report presents possible proposals for a women's agenda for Social Security reform based on the conference as well as earlier meetings of the NCWO Task Force on Women and Social Security.

Why Privatizing Social Security Would Hurt Women: A Response to the Cato Institute's Proposal for Individual Accounts (RIB) Both advocates for and against the privatization of Social Security claim their proposals benefit women. Among privatizers, The Cato Institute has been particularly vocal in courting women's support. The Cato institute claims that its proposals meet the National Council of Women's Organizations' (NCWO) "check list" for Social Security reform and hence deserve NCWO's support. This research in brief refutes this claim, drawing attention to four central problems with privatizing Social Security.

Part-Time Opportunities for Professionals and Managers: Where Are They, Who Uses Them (Report) Reports on a three year IWPR research project undertaken to assess reduced-time opportunities for professionals and managers throughout the economy. This study indicates that, compared with other U.S. employees, very few professionals and mangers are employed part-time and very few careers offer financial incentives to work part-time.

Part-Time Opportunities for Professionals and Managers (RIB) While it is often assumed that part-time work in professional or managerial jobs would provide parents with increased flexibility to juggle work and family responsibilities while also earning a good income, a recent study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) show that few professional and managers are employed part-time.

Employment Issues

Equal Opportunity of the Skill Standard System. An upcoming IWPR report, Enhancing the Equal Opportunity Capacity of the Skill Standard System, analyzes how to address the current biases in skill evaluation systems that disadvantage women and minorities. The study looks at characteristics of occupations held by women and members of minority groups, earnings by industry cluster and education level compared to their white male counterparts. The research additionally analyzes how skill standards can be implemented to increase workplace diversity and also act as a barrier to hiring and promotion.

Equal Pay for Working Families: A National Overview. IWPR and the AFL-CIO have completed work on the size of the wage gap in the United States, demonstrating the costs of pay inequity to both individuals and working families. Findings indicate how much family income drops as a result of the wage gap and unequal pay for comparable work in the case of women and minority workers.

Glass Ceiling and Structural Changes. IWPR's report on The Impact of the Glass Ceiling and Structural Change on Minorities and Women, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Glass Ceiling Commission, provides a review and synthesis of how women workers fared in the 1980s during extensive industrial restructuring. Suggestions in the report include the improvement of enforcing equal opportunity laws and regulation; developing new ways to encourage corporations to adopt longer-term perspectives over short-term profits; and considering new "family-friendly" workplace policies.

Unemployment Insurance. IWPR has completed research on the likelihood that women and part-time workers receive unemployment compensation, with support from the National Commission for Employment Policy. Findings, published in An Analysis of Unemployment Insurance Benefits Recipiency Rates with Special Attention to the Barriers Faced by Women and Part-Time Workers, identifies those women and men disqualified from insurance due to seven screening factors and concludes that women are much less likely than unemployed men to receive UI benefits.

Family

Education and Job Training Build Strong Families (Fact Sheet) This Fact sheet demonstrates that improving the home life of children begins with expanding the opportunities and skills of the parents.

The Widening Gap: A New Book on the Struggle to Balance Work and Caregiving (RIB) This Research in Brief is based on selected findings from a new book by Jody Heymann, The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families are in Jeopardy and What Can be done About It. The book reveals the failure of our nation's employer-based support system to help families meet their caregiving responsibilities.

Family Leave for Low-Income Working Women: Providing Paid Leave Though Temporary Disability Insurance - The New Jersey Case (RIB) summarizes a research project that examined the proposals in New Jersey for paid family and medical leave programs. It discusses the policy context in which these programs are being considered and details the technical considerations behind estimating the cost of providing family-leave insurance.

Paid Family and Medical Leave: Essential Support for Working Women and Men (Fact Sheet) Women's employment patterns are becoming more like men's, but public policies and employers have not filled in the gap between the time and care that families need and the time workers have available to meet those needs.

Paid Family and Medical Leave: Supporting Working Families in Illinois (Testimony) Testimony to the Subcommittee on Unemployment Insurance for the New Workforce on the issue of paid family and medical leave.

Equal Pay for Working Families (RIB) An investigation into the size of the wage gap in the United States, as well as is in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.


Global Issues

Why Gender Matters in Understanding September 11: Women, Militarism, and Violence This paper analyses women's roles as victims, supporters, and opponents of violence, terrorism, and militarism and proposes policy recommendations from its findings. It outlines important links between economic development, violence, women's activism and peace-building efforts.

Health and Health Care

Making Birth Control More Accessible to Women: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Over-the-Counter Oral Contraceptives (Briefing Paper) A cost-benefit analysis to determine whether switching oral contraceptives to OTC status is more beneficial to women and society than continuing to regulate them as prescription drugs.

Disability Insurance. The IWPR report, An Assurance of the Potential for Extending Temporary Disability Insurance," funded by the Ford Foundation, looks into the technical feasibility and the costs and benefits of extending Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) to additional states. TDI can be used to pay for family care in addition to illness and disability, pregnancy, and childbirth. Findings were presented at a hearing of the U.S. Commission on Family and Medical Leave.

Preventive Health. An IWPR study, Preventive Health Services for Women: Benefits and Cost Effectiveness, uses financial and other data to measure the costs and benefits of eight preventive treatments for women. A resource kit of information for policymakers and activists emphasizes the need and effectiveness of preventive treatment and recommends that such measures be included in health care reform efforts.

Silicone Breast Implants. IWPR research in the area of silicone breast implants demonstrates the need for systematic, long-term studies that expand research to investigate other side effects and symptoms of implants to ensure that this surgical procedure is indeed a safe and healthy option for women.

Microenterprise and Small Business -- Poverty

Microenterprise and Poverty. IWPR, with help from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, has completed a study on self-employment as a strategy for alleviating poverty. The report, Microenterprise and Women: The Viability of Self-Employment as a Strategy for Alleviating Poverty, analyzes the income earned through microenterprise and identifies the barriers to self-employment in past and current welfare regulations. A forthcoming new study, Microenterprise and Low-Income Families: Enhancing Income Packages as a Strategy for Alleviating Poverty, further explores the strategy of microenterprise for self-sufficiency for low-income women and men.


Politics

Women's Status and Social Capital Across the States (Briefing Paper) This Briefing Paper analyzes the relationship between social capital and indicators of women's status. Using data from Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone and data collected by IWPR for its Status of Women in the States project, the paper assesses trends across the states on both dimensions. Overall, findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between levels of social capital and women's status.

Does Women's Representation in Elected Office Lead to Women-Friendly Policy? (RIB) This Research-in-Brief analyzes whether having more women in elected office is, in fact, associated with more women-friendly policy in the United States. It does so by examining whether variations in women's levels of elected representation coincide with trends in women-friendly policy across the 50 states, based on an evaluation of data from IWPR's work on the The Status of Women in the States.

Come Together: Progressives After 9-11 (Speech Pamphlet) Remarks given to the Fourth Annual EARN (Economic Analysis Research Network) Conference in Lisle, IL on October 18, 2001 by Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation.

Women's Community Involvement: The Effects of Money, Safety, Parenthood, and Friends (RIB) This Research-in-Brief suggests that gender plays an important role in determining who participates in the United States. Women choose to participate, or not to, for different reasons than men. Efforts to increase civic participation by both sexes need to take these differences into account if levels of civic and political participation are to increase in the United States.

The Political Glass Ceiling: Gender, Strategy and Incumbency in U.S. House Elections, 1978-1998 Using data collected from primary and general House elections from 1978 to 1998, this paper analyzes trends in women's representation and explores factors related to the rate of integration of women into elected office.

2000 Status of Women in the States (Report) This report is part of an ongoing research project conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research to establish baseline measures of the status of women in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This report presents data for each state on 30 component indicators as well as five composite indices that capture the states' rankings in each of the five domains: Political Participation, Employment and Earnings, Economic Autonomy, Reproductive Rights, and Health and Well-Being.

Overview of Status of Women in the States (RIB) This fact sheet describes how selected measures of women's rights and equality vary among the states. It summarizes data from the IWPR report, The Status of Women in the States, 3rd edition, which presents data for each state on 30 component indicators as well as five composite indices that capture the states' rankings in each of the five domains: Political Participation, Employment and Earnings, Economic Autonomy, Reproductive Rights, and Health and Well-Being.

Transforming the Political Agenda: Gender Differences in Bill Sponsorship on Women's Issues (RIB) This Research-in-Brief summarizes an article by Michele Swers, Ph.D., Mary Washington College, presented at Women Transforming Congress: Gender Analyses of Institutional Life, a conference sponsored by the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma, April 2000. Dr. Swers analyses bill sponsorship patterns during the 103rd and 104th Congresses in order to examine gender differences in attention to legislation concerning women's issues. Dr. Swers finds that willingness to support and advocate for women's issues bills is constrained by characteristics of the political and institutional context.

Women's Political Participation. Forthcoming research by IWPR will center around women's political participation and representation. Potential topics include: factors that determine whether women will vote; factors influencing gender differences in political attitudes and choices, otherwise known as the "gender gap," and how these differences influence voting behavior or governing decisions; the effects of women's voting behavior on electoral outcomes; the impact of female elected officials on electoral politics; and factors shaping the effectiveness of commissions on women and other women's policy groups and coalitions.

Social Security

Social Security Reform and Women. IWPR research notes that women are heavily reliant on social security benefits due to different patterns of labor force participation and thus especially vulnerable to reform. IWPR reports highlight the importance of safeguards for women and the effects that even moderate reforms will have on women's ability to collect benefits. New IWPR research is also investigating social security benefits and spousal benefits in other industrialized countries, including Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

Socioeconomic Status of Women

The Status of Women in the States. The Status of Women in the States is part of an ongoing research project to assess baseline measures of the status of women in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The effort is part of a larger IWPR Economic Policy Education Program, funded by the Ford Foundation, which aims to enhance the ability of advocates and policymakers at the state level to address women's socioeconomic status.
Women's Economic Policy Agenda. IWPR's major educational campaign, the Women's Economic Policy Agenda, addresses women's economic issues and targets the administration, Congress, women's leaders, and the media. Funded by the Ford Foundation, IWPR activities include, but are not limited to: IWPR Director Heidi Hartmann co-chairs the Commission on Women's Voices for the Economy, which brings together women leaders working on economic issues affecting women at the state level; Hartmann participates in the Economists' Policy Group on Women's Issues, which unveiled a welfare reform plan, Help for Working Parents; and IWPR participates on the affirmative action, labor law, and welfare task forces of the Council of Presidents of national women's organizations.

Socioeconomic Status of Women
Health and Health Care

Socioeconomic Status and Health. Currently, IWPR is analyzing the Commonwealth Survey of Women's Health data to study the impact of poverty, income, education, and work status on the health of low-income women and the extent to which income level, educational attainment, and employment status predict women's health.

Violence Against Women

Domestic Violence. IWPR research on domestic violence, conducted in collaboration with Victim Services and the Domestic Violence Training Project, aims to assess the social cost of domestic violence. The analysis will assess direct and indirect costs to society and the cost-effectiveness of intervention. The project will also consider that the range of problems and services contributing to the existence and costs of domestic violence.

Welfare Reform

Marriage Promotion & Low-Income Communities: An Examination of Real Needs & Real Solutions (Briefing Paper) This analyses points out various obstacles that may arise when using marriage promotion as a means of poverty elevation and suggests alternatives to moving women and their families out of poverty, such as income and work supports and education and job training.

Disabilities Among Children and Mothers in Low-Income Families (RIB) This Research-in-Brief presents selected findings from an IWPR analysis examining disabilities among children and low-income families. The findings indicate that single mothers receiving TANF are more likely than other low-income mothers to have a child with a disability. Furthermore, they themselves are more likely to have a disability.

Life After Welfare Reform: Low-Income Single Parent Families, Pre- and Post-TANF (RIB) This Research-in-Brief is based on selected findings from a forthcoming Institute for Women's Policy Research study, Life After Welfare Reform: The Characteristics, Work, and Well Being of Low-Income Single Parent Families, Pre- and Post-PRWORA. The findings in this study underscore the need to make improvements to the welfare system to address gender and racial inequities and focus on poverty reduction.

Marriage and Poverty: An Annotated Bibliography (Bibliography) This annotated bibliography is designed to provide researchers, policymakers, advocates, and the general public with an overview of the debate and research surrounding the promotion of marriage as a solution to reducing poverty. In addition to newspaper articles familiarizing the reader with the current debate, topics covered in this bibliography include: economic insecurity and single motherhood, child welfare and single motherhood, factors that influence marital decisions, race and family formation, the conservative and feminist perspectives, and current policy proposals.

Job Training and Education Fight Poverty - Fact Sheet The current federal welfare law limits the availability of education and training programs. The reauthorization of the federal Temporary Assistance to Need Families Block Grant offers an opportunity to make job training and education a central focus of welfare. This Fact Sheet is a synthesis of the data about benefits of these programs and makes recommendations on incorporating them into the current law.

Utilizing Workforce Investment Act Programs & TANF to Provide Education and Training Opportunities to Reduce Poverty Among Low-Income Women (Testimony) This transcript of Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness discusses the importance of coordination of the Workforce Investment Act and TANF programs.

Feminist Perspectives on TANF Reauthorization: An Introduction to Key Issues for the Future of Welfare Reform (Briefing Paper) The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the key issues and goals that are emerging in TANF reauthorization discussions and to consider what a feminist agenda for TANF reauthorization might look like. The paper begins with an overview of the key elements and impacts of TANF, followed by a discussion of some critical TANF reauthorization issues and advocacy goals, and closes with some thoughts on how these issues and goals relate to feminist understandings of women's poverty and welfare reform.

Working First But Working Poor: The Need for Education and Training Following Welfare Reform (Report & Executive Summary) This report by IWPR, funded by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, reveals a pattern of gender segregation in referrals to job training programs that could increase women's hourly wages by as much as a third.

Today's Women Workers: Shut Out of Yesterday's Unemployment Insurance System (Fact Sheet) This Fact Sheet discusses two aspects of the UI system that prevent many women from receiving the UI benefits they have earned. It also reviews policy changes that would extend support of this fundamental employment-based program to more working women.

The Georgia Unemployment Insurance System: Overcoming Barriers for Low-Wage, Part-Time & Women Workers (Report by NELP & IWPR) This report examines both the "benefits" side and the "financing" side of Georgia's UI program. In addition, the report surveys the specific feature of the Georgia laws that contribute to the problems of access to the UI program.

Unemployment Insurance and Welfare Reform: Fair Access to Economic Supports for Low-Income Working Women (RIB). Unemployment Insurance is not fully accessible to women and low-wage workers, and this unequal access particularly disadvantages welfare recipients. Because former welfare recipients tend to get unstable jobs, equitable access to UI will be critical to preventing excessive hardship between spells of employment.

Women and Unemployment Insurance (Fact Sheet). This fact sheet describes the UI system and discusses specific features of the system that tend to deny benefits to low-income women. It also proposes a set of recommendations for changing UI to provide better income security for unemployed women.

Unemployment Insurance Reform for the New Workforce (Report). This report is intended to capture the exchange of ideas and strategies discussed at a forum of over 50 unemployment insurance advocates, researchers and policymakers brought together to discuss improving unemployment insurance policies for women, low-wage and contingent workers.

The Effects of Welfare Reform on Housing Stability and Homelessness: Current Research Findings, Legislation, and Programs (RIB). Early findings on the effects of welfare reform suggest that benefit loss makes it more difficult for families to pay rent and can worsen hardship. Improved access to affordable, safe, and stable housing would decrease hardship and improve families' chances of moving successfully from welfare to work.

Low-Wage Work and Welfare Reform. IWPR, with help from the Ford and Russel Sage foundations, continually investigates the survival strategies of single mothers through various stages of welfare reform. A 1995 report, Welfare that Works: The Working Lives of AFDC Recipients, illustrates that nearly half of women who receive welfare during a two-year period also work, and that welfare functions as a supplement to income.

Welfare Reform Research Coordination Project. In response to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, IWPR is coordinating a research project to investigate potential barriers to employment and self-sufficiency and the impact of reform on women's access to higher education and job training. A team of researchers, service providers, advocates, and policymakers will develop a research agenda and comparable projects to study the effects of welfare reform on women. IWPR also produces a monthly newsletter, IWPR Welfare Reform Network News, that reviews topical issues and summarizes current research and policy.

Click here for more information on recent projects. 

 

Reports & Resources

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action in Employment: An Overview - A Briefing Paper, Jodi Burns (1996). An analysis of the employment and wages of white women, black men, and black women during the time period in which affirmative action policies were implemented.

"The Effectiveness of Equal Employment Opportunity Policies," Heidi Hartmann and M.V. Lee Badgett (1995). A chapter published in Economic Perspectives on Affirmative Action, edited by Margaret C. Simms, it reviews the major quantitative research literature assessing the effectiveness of federal equal employment opportunity policies; reviews federal policy and legal requirements for firms; discusses papers that examine how policies affect firms' performance and profits; and suggests questions for further research.

Child Care

The Economic Realities of Child Care, Heidi Hartmann (1988). Testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources suggesting an analysis of public subsidies for child care and public regulation of child care providers.

Tax Benefits for Low-Income Families with Children: Two Competing Proposals, Parts I and II - A Briefing Paper, Heidi Hartmann and Celia Star Gody (1990). Reports that low-income families with child care expenses are likely to receive greater benefits from the Senate bill, the Act for Better Child Care, than the House bill, the Early Childhood Education and Development Act.

Wages and Salaries of Child Care Workers: The Economic and Social Implications of Raising Child Care Workers' Salaries, Diana M. Pearce (1988). Testimony before the Subcommittee on Children, Drugs, and Alcoholism, describing who are the child care workers, their salaries, reasons the salaries are so low, and the effects of low salaries.

Economic Literacy

The Impact of Social Security Reform on Women (1998).

Arlington Hill Working Paper, Arlington Hill Working Group (1993). Working paper on a meeting of 50 women leaders who crafted an economic agenda for President Clinton, including demands for a flexible work schedule, equal pay for equal work, expansion of women's entrepreneurship, and a restructuring of the nation's income support system.

A Feminist Perspective on the Federal Budget: A Summary - A Briefing Paper, Heidi Hartmann (1996). Argues for an adjustment in public policy to match the new realities of a narrowing economic gap between men and women and includes a feminist analysis of federal expenditures.

Research-In-Brief:
Transition Documents and Economic Agendas (1993).

Employment Issues

IWPR. 2010. Gender Wage Gap Narrows only Slightly Even though Women’s Earnings are More Important than Ever to American Families.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C350.pdf

IWPR. 2010. Women and Men's Employment and Unemployment in the Great Recession.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C373womeninrecession.pdf

IWPR. 2010. The Workforce Investment Act and Women's Progress: Does WIA Funded Training Reinforce Sex Segregation in the Labor Market and the Gender Wage Gap?

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C372WIA.pdf

Improving Employment Opportunities for Women, Heidi Hartmann and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1991). Testimony describing the importance of women's earnings for family survival; wage and job discrimination; and the effectiveness of civil rights and anti-discrimination policies.

Pay Equity as a Remedy for Wage Discrimination: Success in State Governments, Heidi Hartmann and Stephanie Aaronson (1994). Testimony concerning the Fair Pay Act of 1994 before the Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights that argues that the Fair Pay Act would be an effective way to raise women's wages to a level comparable to men's and would provide a better standard of living for women workers.

Looking Toward the Workplace of the 21st Century: Closing the Policy Gap for Working Women, Heidi Hartmann (1996). A lecture given at George Washington University, Washington, DC, March 28, 1996, as part of the Annual Nancy Yulee Lecture Series on women's labor force participation, women's educational attainment, the wage gap, and family roles, as well as public policy changes that could help to alleviate gender inequities.

Pay Equity and Women's Wage Increases: Success in the States, A Model for the Nation, Heidi Hartmann and Stephanie Aaronson. A paper summarizing the results from The Economic Effects of Pay Equity in the States, a multi-year project that examined pay equity programs in 20 states' civil services.

What Do Unions Do For Women?, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Nancy Collins (1994). Presented at the conference Labor Law Reform: The Forecast for Working Women, this report explores the impact of union membership on wages and job stability.

Why Privatizing Government Services Would Hurt Women Workers (Report) This report analyzes the implications of privitization for women workers, especially those employed in low-end occupations. Data analyzed show that women disproportionately depend on the public sector for jobs that pay decent wages and offer benefits.

The Benefits of Unionization for Workers in the Retail Food Industry (Report and RIB)This report is an analysis of the benefits of unionization in the retail food industry. This project compared the wages and benefits of unionized and nonunionized workers in the retail food industry, particularly for women, single mothers, cashiers, part-time workers, and part-time women workers.

The Impact of the Glass Ceiling and Structural Change on Minorities and Women, Lori B. Shaw, Dell P. Champlin, Heidi Hartmann, and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1993). Discusses the problems and opportunities for minorities and women as a result of corporate restructuring.

Increasing Working Mothers' Earnings, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1991). Viewing working mothers as primary earners, this study finds that the best indicators of women's wages are human capital and job characteristics.

Increasing Working Mothers' Earnings, Executive Summary, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1991).

Women in Telecommunications: Exception to the Rule of Low Pay for Women's Work, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann, with Linda Andrews and Taleria Fuller (1992). Analysis of women in telecommunications, including racial and gender comparisons of wages and union membership.

Raises and Recognition: Secretaries, Clerical Workers, and the Union Wage Premium, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1990). Describes strategies to increase wages, secure work and family leave, provide flexible scheduling, and encourage career development.

Low Wages for Secretaries and Clerical Workers in Indiana: A State Without a Collective Bargaining Agreement, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1990). Examines the wages and family incomes of secretarial clerical workers, women's largest occupational category.

Unemployment Insurance: Barriers to Access for Women and Part-Time Workers, Young-Hee Yoon, Roberta Spalter-Roth, and Marc Baldwin (1995). Discusses the findings that only 30 percent of unemployed women received unemployment insurance and that women and part-time workers were most likely to be excluded from eligibility as a result of high quarter earnings requirements.

Mothers, Children, and Low-Wage Work: The Ability to Earn a Family Wage, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Linda Andrews (1990). Describes women's wage levels by race, ethnicity, and family responsibilities, and receipt of government income support by family type.

Research-In-Brief:

How Women Can Earn a Living Wage: The Effects of Pay Equity Remedies and a Higher Minimum Wage (1997.
The Wage Gap, Updated Tables (1995).

Pay Equity and the Wage Gap: Success in the States (1995).

Restructuring Work: How Have Women and Minorities Fared? (1995).

What Do Unions Do For Women? (1994).

Increasing Working Mothers' Earnings: The Importance of Race, Family, and Job (1992).

Part-Time Opportunities for Professionals and Managers, Shannon Garrett (1998).

Raises and Recognition: Secretaries, Clerical Workers, and the Union Wage Premium (1990).

Unemployment Insurance: Barriers to Access for Women and Part-Time Workers (1995).

Women and the Minimum Wage (1995).

Mothers, Children, and Low-Wage Work: The Ability to Earn a Family Wage (1991).

Low-Wage Work, Health Benefits, and Family Well-Being (1990).

Temporary Work (1990).

Entrepreneurship/Microenterprise

Contingent Work: Its Consequences for Economic Well-Being, the Gendered Division of Labor, and the Welfare State, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1995). Paper discussing findings that single mothers are the group most likely to be contingent workers and the most likely to receive AFDC.

Micro-Enterprise and Women: The Viability of Self-Employment as a Strategy for Alleviating Poverty, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Enrique Soto, and Lily Zandniapour, with Jill Braunstein (1994). Discusses the use of micro-enterprise as a strategy to enhance the income packages of AFDC recipients and other low-income women.

Exploring the Characteristics of Self-Employment and Part-Time Work Among Women, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Lois Shaw (1993). Compares male and female workers' job schedules and economic well-being, and examines how well alternative forms of employment meet women's increased needs to support themselves and their families.

Exploring the Characteristics of Self-Employment and Part-Time Work Among Women: Executive Summary, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Lois Shaw (1993).

Research in Brief:

The Economic Impact of Contingent Work on Women and Their Families (1995).

Micro-Enterprise and Women - The Viability of Self-Employment as a Strategy for Alleviating Poverty, Quantitative Findings (1994).

Self-Employment Versus Wage and Salary Jobs: How Do Women Fare? (1993).

IWPR Study Examines the Economic Benefits of Alternative Employment Patterns for Male and Female Workers (1993).

Feminist Thought and Scholarship

Third Annual Women's Policy Research Conference Proceedings (1994). A collection of papers from the conference on topics such as the social construction of race, gender, and nativity; globalization and immigration; the policy challenges of gender, diversity, and international exchange; strategies for meeting women's basic needs; and employment opportunity and economic restructuring.

Second Annual Women's Policy Research Conference Proceedings (1992). A collection of papers from the conference, including topics such as health care issues from a feminist perspective; marriage, reproduction, and the family; health care and public policy; employment issues; and the public policy process.

First Annual Women's Policy Research Conference Proceedings (1990). A collection of papers from the conference addressing issues such as feminist theory for feminist advocacy; changes in the status of women; welfare reform, family budgets, and child support; international human rights and women's rights; employment equity; family care; the changing structure of poverty; economic development and women's employment; and work and family interconnections.

Health and Health Care

Costs to Women and Their Families of Childbirth and the Lack of Parental Leave, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1987). Testimony before the Subcommittee on Children, Families, Drugs, and Alcoholism, U.S. Senate, using research from IWPR's study, Unnecessary Losses: Costs to Americans of the Lack of Family and Medical Leave.

Women's Access to Health Insurance, Heidi Hartmann with Young-Hee Yoon, Stephanie Aaronson, Lois Shaw, and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1994). Testimony before the Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, on the research showing that women use and pay for health care services more and are more responsible for ensuring their families' health, but women also fall through the cracks of the current health care system.

Safety of Silicone Breast Implants, Diana Zuckerman (1998).

Women's Access to Health Insurance, Young-Hee Yoon, Stephanie Aaronson, Heidi Hartmann, Lois Shaw, and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1994). Discusses the paradox that, compared to men, women use and pay for health care services more and are more responsible for ensuring their family's health, but many women have no health insurance.

Women's Access to Health Insurance, Executive Summary, Young-Hee Yoon, Stephanie Aaronson, Heidi Hartmann, Lois Shaw, and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1994).

Women of Color and Access to Health Care - A Briefing Paper, Young-Hee Yoon (1994). Examines the disparities in access to health insurance and the barriers women of color face in the current health care system.

Preventive Health Services for Women: Benefits and Cost-Effectiveness, Stephanie Aaronson and Nicoletta Karam, with Ellen Cutler (1994). An analysis of existing medical literature and an overview of the benefits and cost-effectiveness of eight preventive health services for women.

Women's Health in the United States, Heidi Hartmann (1991). Presented at a Congressional staff briefing by the Campaign for Women's Health, "Women and Health Care in the United States - A Women's Health Agenda for Health Policy of the ‘90s," and includes tables on causes of mortality by gender, race, and age.

Research-In-Briefs:
Measuring the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women (1996).

Summary Charts of Documented Cost Savings of Selected Women's Health Services (1994).

Health Services Fact Sheets:

Sexually Transmitted Disease Screening (1994).

Prenatal Care (1994).

Osteoporosis Screening and Treatment (1994).

Mental Health Screening and Treatment (1994).

Family Planning Services (1994).

Domestic Violence Screening (1994).

Cervical Cancer Screening and Treatment (1994).

Breast Cancer Screening (1994).

Microenterprise and Small Business

Micro-Enterprise Catalysts and Barriers: Voices of Low-Income and Poor Women (1994).

Micro-Enterprise and Women - The Viability of Self-Employment as a Strategy for Alleviating Poverty, Quantitative Findings (1994).

Micro-Enterprise and Women: The Viability of Self-Employment as a Strategy for Alleviating Poverty, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Enrique Soto, and Lily Zandniapour with Jill Braunstein (1994). Discusses the impact of micro-enterprise as a strategy to enhance the income packages of AFDC recipients and other low-income women.

Statistics on Women -- Socioeconomic Status of Women

The Status of Women in the States (1996). This IWPR report, funded by the Ford Foundation and part of a larger IWPR Economic Policy Education Program, establishes baseline measures for the status of women in each state to improve the ability of advocates and policymakers at the state level to address women's economic issues.

The Status of Women in California (1996). An IWPR individual state report resulting from the above project.

The Status of Women in the District of Columbia (1996).

The Status of Women in Georgia (1996).

The Status of Women in Illinois (1996).

The Status of Women in Maine (1996).

The Status of Women in Maryland (1996).

The Status of Women in Michigan (1996).

The Status of Women in New Jersey (1996).

The Status of Women in New Mexico (1996).

The Status of Women in New York (1996).

The Status of Women in North Carolina (1996).

The Status of Women in Texas (1996).

The Status of Women in Virginia (1996).

The Status of Women in Washington (1996).

Status of Women in the States: Fact Sheet (1996).

The Status of Women in California: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in the District of Columbia: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Georgia: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Illinois: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Maine: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Maryland: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Michigan: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in New Jersey: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in New Mexico: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in New York: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in North Carolina: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Texas: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Virginia: Highlights (1996).

The Status of Women in Washington: Highlights (1996).

Reproductive Rights

Resources for Reproductive Rights Research, edited by Stephanie Aaronson (1993). A directory of researchers in the areas of abortion rights, access to family planning, involuntary sterilization, and prenatal care.


Violence Against Women Measuring the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women and the Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions: An Initial Assessment and Proposals for Further Research, Louise Laurence and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1996). Designs a research strategy and develops an economic model for measuring the direct and indirect costs of domestic violence to society, and assesses the cost-effectiveness of intervention.
Welfare Reform

The Labor Market, the Working Poor, and Welfare Reform: Policy Suggestions for the Clinton Administration, Heidi Hartmann and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1992). Suggests strategies for alleviating poverty by focusing on the low-wage labor market and government transfers.

Supporting Work: The Relation Between Employment Opportunities and Financial and Other Support Programs, Roberta Spalter-Roth with Beverly Burr (1993). Testimony before the Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support, and Independence on the employment patterns of single mothers with a history of AFDC receipt.

Welfare that Works: Increasing AFDC Mothers' Employment and Income, Roberta Spalter-Roth (1995). Testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, on research on the economic survival strategies of single mothers who receive AFDC.

How Much Can Child Support Provide? Welfare, Family Income and Child Support, Kristine Witkowski (1999).

Welfare Reform Research: A Resource Guide for Researchers and Advocates (1998). A guide for researchers who are interested in how women and their families are affected by welfare reform policies, and for advocates who want to use research to improve policies affecting low-income women.

Combining Work and Welfare: An Alternative Anti-Poverty Strategy (1990). Discusses the concept of "income packaging," combining paid employment, welfare receipt, and income from other family members.

Food Stamps and AFDC: A Double Life-Line for Low-Income Working Single Mothers, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Enrique Soto (1996). Examines the importance of food stamps in the income packages of single mothers.

Welfare That Works: The Working Lives of AFDC Recipients, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Beverly Burr, Heidi Hartmann, and Lois Shaw (1995). Analyzes the factors that increase the likelihood that single mothers receiving AFDC also engage in paid employment, the kinds of jobs they obtain, and their ability to escape poverty through a combination of work and welfare.

"The Clinton Round: An Analysis of the Impact of Current Proposals to ‘Free' Single Mothers from Welfare Dependence," Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann with Beverly Burr and Jill Braunstein (1994). An IWPR paper presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association, Los Angeles, CA. Contains estimates and analysis of AFDC recipients.

"Income Insecurity: The Failure of Unemployment Insurance to Reach Working AFDC Mothers," Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Beverly Burr (1994). An IWPR paper presented at the Conference on Employment Law and Unemployment Compensation, Washington, DC. Discusses the idea that Unemployment Insurance as currently structured is not an effective substitute for AFDC in providing income security for single mothers.

"Making Work Pay: The Real Employment Opportunities of Single Mothers Participating in the AFDC Program," Roberta Spalter-Roth (1994). An IWPR paper and Congressional briefing using IWPR's research on income packaging of work and welfare to evaluate time-limited welfare reform proposals and their effect on women.

"AFDC Recipients as Caregivers and Workers: A Feminist Approach to Income Security Policy for Women," Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1994). An IWPR paper published in Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State, and Society; using IWPR's research on the economic survival strategies of single mothers who receive AFDC, it examines whether current employment-based welfare reform proposals will aid AFDC recipients in bringing their families out of poverty. "Dependence on Men, the Market, or the State: The Rhetoric and Reality of Welfare Reform," Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1993). A paper published in the Journal of Applied Social Science, it examines the dichotomy of welfare reform rhetoric - the negative moral implications of receiving AFDC vs. the positive implications of income dependence on the labor market or child support, and critiques the underlying assumptions of current welfare reform proposals that AFDC and paid employment are mutually exclusive and that the proper goal of policy should be to enforce transition of welfare to work.

"The Real Employment Opportunities of Women Participating in AFDC: What the Market Can Provide," Heidi Hartmann and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1993). An IWPR paper presented at Women and Welfare Reform: Women's Poverty, Women's Opportunities, and Women's Welfare, A Policy Conference to Break Myths and Create Solutions, it presents findings and policy strategies based on the ongoing IWPR research of "income packaging" by single mothers in the AFDC program and of the effect of time-limited welfare reform proposals.

Combining Work and Welfare, An Alternative Anti-Poverty Strategy, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Linda Andrews (1992). Discusses myths about welfare recipients and the consensus that welfare perpetuates dependence.

"Mothers, Children, and Low-Wage Work: The Ability to Earn a Family Wage," Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Linda Andrews (1990). A paper presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Session on Women and Public Policy, August 1990, and published in Sociology and the Public Agenda, it describes women's Resources, U.S. Senate, arguing that public policy assumes a predominantly white male wage levels by race, ethnicity, and family responsibilities and receipt of government income support by family type.

Women and Welfare Reform: Women's Poverty, Women's Opportunities, and Women's Welfare Conference Proceedings, edited by Gwendolyn Mink (1994). Sixteen papers focusing on welfare myths and women's lives, welfare reform proposals, women's employment opportunities, and alternatives to welfare.

Research-In-Brief:

What the United States Can Learn From France: A Summary of an Important New Book on Child Poverty (1997).

Child Care Usage Among Low-Income and AFDC Families (1996).

Food Stamp Participation and the Economic Well-Being of Single Mothers (1995).

Welfare to Work: The Job Opportunities of AFDC Recipients (1995).

Few Welfare Moms Fit the Stereotypes (1994; updated January 1995).

Combining Work and Welfare, an Alternative Anti-Poverty Strategy (1992).

How Much Will a Public Service Employment Program Reduce Welfare Costs? (1991).

Mothers, Children, and Low-Wage Work: The Ability to Earn a Family Wage (1991).

Work and Family

Women's Work, Family Diversity, and Employment Instability: Public Policy Responses to New Realities, Heidi Hartmann (1991). Testimony before the Committee on Labor and Human workforce, traditional families, and stable employment patterns, and suggests policy to reflect the increasing diversity in the workforce, family structure, and instability in employment.

The Dual Disadvantage of Displaced Homemakers: Findings from the Study, Low-Wage Jobs and Workers: Trends and Options for Change, Roberta Spalter-Roth (1989). Testimony before the Subcommittee on Employment and Productivity examining trends in the low-wage workforce including characteristics of low-wage workers, their relation to family poverty, and factors of upward mobility to provide a basis for policy development.

Improving Women's Status in the Workforce: The Family Issue of the Future, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1991). Testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Productivity, Committee on Labor and Human Resources, on research showing that women's wages are becoming more, not less, important for families' economic well-being.

Providing Paid Family Leave, Stephanie Aaronson (1995). Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Family and Medical Leave estimating the cost of expanding California's Temporary Disability Insurance Program and the feasibility of using the model as a means for paid family leave to workers.

Equal Pay for Working Families: A joint research project by the AFL-CIO and the Institute for Women's Policy Research (1999).

On Common Ground: Prominent Women Talk About Work and Family, with introduction and interviews conducted by Diana Zuckerman (1999).

"A Feminist Approach to Policy Making for Women and Families," Heidi Hartmann and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1994). Presented at the Seminar on Future Directions for American Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, this paper argues that public policy has not responded to an increasingly "androgynous worker/nurturer" in which women gain in education, work, and financial responsibility, and men take on more family roles.

Women, Work, and Households in Ciudad Juarez, Gay Young and Beatriz E. Vera (1993). A study of women's empowerment focusing on why women choose to work in the maquilla industry, why they decide to leave, and how the decisions are made within the context of their households.

Raising Women's Earnings: The Family Issue of the 1990s, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1992). Explores the impact on women's lives of the increase in women's economic responsibility for their families and the increase of women with children living poverty.

"Working Parents: Differences, Similarities, and Implications for a Policy Agenda," Heidi Hartmann and Roberta Spalter-Roth (1990, revised 1991). Presented at Women, Work, and the Family: Advancing the Policy and Research Agenda at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Columbia University, this paper describes working parents and their children in the U.S.; compares the economic situation, race, and ethnicity of the families; and explores their needs to consider how they may best be addressed by private and public policies.

Demographic and Economic Trends: Implications for Family Life and Public Policy, Heidi Hartmann (1990). Explores the history and implications of growing labor force participation by women and argues that this demographic trend is a result of women actively seeking greater economic autonomy and responsibility.

Children and Families in the District of Columbia: Child Care Needs, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Enrique Soto, and Teeshla Morgan (1995). Information on general trends in child care use and costs, an overview of the need for child care facilities, an examination of the number of children served, the cost and types of services, funding sources, and characteristics of child care workers.

Temporary Disability Insurance: A Modal to Provide Income Security Over the Life Cycle, Heidi Hartmann, Young-Hee Yoon, Roberta Spalter-Roth, and Lois Shaw (1995). Argues for the need to change the traditional social welfare system to allow for demographic changes and family diversity, and to take into account women's needs for income replacement across the life cycle.

Science and Politics and the "Dual Vision" of Feminist Policy Research: The Example of Family and Medical Leave, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1988, revised 1991). A discussion of using standards of mainstream social science for validity, reliability, objectivity, and replicatibility while guided by the principles of a feminist methodology with the example of a cost-benefit study on parental leave and childcare by IWPR.

Improving Employment Opportunities for Women Workers: An Assessment of the Ten-Year Economic and Legal Impact of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, Roberta Spalter-Roth, Claudia Withers, and Sheila R. Gibbs, with Linda Andrews and Celia Gody (1990). A report using a multi-method, cross-disciplinary research effort to study the economic, legal, and political effects of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Unnecessary Losses: Costs to Americans of the Lack of Family and Medical Leave, Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann (1990). Estimates of the costs to workers and to taxpayers of the lack of a national family and medical leave policy, and of the differential effects on workers by gender and race.

Unnecessary Losses: Costs to Americans in the States of the Lack of Family and Medical Leave. Summaries for each state.

Research-In-Brief:

Do Mothers Stay on the Job? What Employers Can Do to Increase Retention after Childbirth (1996).

Are Mommies Dropping Out of the Labor Force? NO! (1992).

Using Temporary Disability Insurance to Provide Paid Family Leave: A Comparison with the Family and Medical Leave Act (1995).

What is Temporary Disability Insurance? (1993).

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978: A Ten-Year Progress Report (1992).

Unnecessary Losses to African American Workers (1991).

Unnecessary Losses: Costs to Americans of the Lack of Family and Medical Leave (1990).

Briefing Papers on Social Security:

Women and Social Security: Benefit Types and Eligibility (2010)

Social Security: Vital to Retirement Security for 35 Million Women and Men (2010)

Fact Sheet on Social Security:

“Who Are Social Security Beneficiaries?” (2010)

 

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in Washington D.C., seeks a full-time Ph.D. researcher to conduct quantitative studies on women and the labor market, the costs and benefits of job quality policies such as paid sick and family leave, postsecondary education and job training access and benefits, health benefits of workplace flexibility, and other topics related to IWPR's mission (potentially including health economics, poverty, work/life balance, and retirement security).  Job duties will include research design, data analysis, writing reports and other policy documents, public speaking, and contributing to grant proposals. 
 
Qualifications: Ph.D. in economics or a related social science discipline, experience analyzing large data sets, strong quantitative skills, ability to write accessibly (in a nonacademic style), and demonstrated interest in policy issues affecting women.  Applied research, project management, STATA and/or SIPP, CPS, ACS experience a plus.  Position will be filled at the Research Associate or Senior Research Associate level depending on experience.
 
To apply for this position, please submit a cover letter, CV, a writing sample, and a list of three references with contact information to jobs@iwpr.org.  Applications will be accepted until position filled. Individuals from underrepresented groups encouraged to apply.

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International Center for Research on Women

Contact

1120 20th St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Ph. (202) 797-0007
Fx. (202) 797-0020
http://www.icrw.org
info@icrw.org


The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a private, nonprofit organization that focuses primarily on women in developing and transition countries. The organization is committed to economic and social development with women's full participation. ICRW's policy-relevant research provides information for development planning and policy to ensure that development interventions enhance women's earning power; strengthen their already significant participation in agriculture, industry, and commerce; expand their contribution to economic development, management of the environment and leadership in society; and to improve their health and social status. The center operates through three main program areas: policy-oriented research; program support and analysis; and a communications program in the United States.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Sarah Degnan Kambou, President

Lyric Thompson, Special Assistant to the President/Policy Advocate

Kristin Fack, Administrative Assistant

Areas of Expertise:

Economic Development & Microfinance, Violence Against Women, Global, Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development, Economic Development & Security, Environment, Sustainability & Energy, Globalization, Human Rights & Security, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality, Violence, Women's & Girls' Leadership

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

Health and Healthcare

Linking Agriculture and Nutrition: Institutional Lessons Learned. ICRW recently completed studies on ways to improve nutrition through the strengthening of women's roles and contributions to household food security in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Findings indicate that collaboration among institutions is critical in maintaining proper nutrition and national food security, and that although these collaborations may already exist, they need to be operationalized in a more efficient manner. Thus, ICRW is launching an initiative to support the USAID's Greater Horn of Africa Initiative Linking Food Security and Nutrition. ICRW aims to demonstrate how agriculture and nutrition linkages can reinforce institutional capacities to incorporate gender and strengthen women's roles in achieving food security.

HIV and AIDS. ICRW was one of the first organizations to focus on the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS among women in developing countries. Our first research program on women and AIDS in the early 1990s examined the social, economic and gender factors fueling the spread of HIV and AIDS among women. Today we continue to push the AIDS agenda forward.


International Development

Promoting Women in Development. ICRW and the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) are working in partnership on a grants program, Promoting Women in Development (PROWID). Funded by the Office of Women in Development at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), PROWID is a four-year program currently in its third year. The program supports innovative interventions, research, and advocacy activities that help reach women and enhance their full participation in the development process. PROWID aims to improve the lives of women in developing countries and economies in transition by promoting development that is based on practical insights gained from field-tested interventions.

Women in Development Technical Assistance Project (WIDTECH). WIDTECH is funded by the USAID and consists of a consortium of five development organizations. The program provided technical assistance and training services complementary to those being provided by USAID's Office of Women in Development (G/WID); the WIDTECH team works to support those efforts made by G/WID to identify and develop innovative approaches to enhance the effectiveness of the USAID development efforts by addressing women's roles and contributions to the development process.


Reproductive Rights

Adolescent Reproductive Health in Nepal. In a recent project, ICRW is implementing and testing the effectiveness of a community-based, client-centered participatory approach to improving adolescent health in Nepal. The study is being conducted in a project and control site on the outskirts of urban Katmandu and the rural district of Newalparasi and will include quantitative and qualitative data. This project is funded by the Mellon Foundation and in joint collaboration with AVSC International and Nepali partner organizations, New ERA and BP Memorial Health Foundation.

Factors Affecting the Safe Provision of IUDs in Resource-Poor Settings. In 1995, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ICRW and AVSC International, the Population Council and the Pacific Institute for Women's Health initiated a set of closely linked projects to research what is needed to provide IUD devices in a safer manner. Targeted areas for research are Asia, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. In June of 1999, ICRW held an event to disseminate the information gathered from these studies and to highlight the need for increased information and availability of IUDs in these parts of the world.

Population and Reproductive Health Policy Communications. In preparation for the 1999 UN Conference, ICRW received funding to accomplish the following: promote International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) dialogue and consensus among the public through educational forums that address population and reproductive care issues; produce an ICPD position paper aimed at policymakers that provides issue background, reviews progress on ICPD objectives thus far, and provides guidelines for what still needs to be accomplished.                                                       

 Violence Against Women

Violence against women is a global epidemic with serious health and development impacts on women and girls, their families and their societies. It takes many forms including domestic violence, femicide, harmful traditional practices, rape and sexual coercion, and trafficking. ICRW works to end violence against women by addressing its root cause: gender inequalities.

Adolescence

ICRW has studied how best to improve the life options of adolescents for more than two decades, beginning with research on factors that affect young girls' school attendance. Our research today focuses on areas such as child marriage, son preference and adolescent reproductive health.

Click here to learn more about ICRW's research areas.

Reports & Resources

International Development
Adolescents and Girls

Vulnerability and Opportunity: Adolescents and HIV/AIDS in the Developing World: Findings from the Women and AIDS Research Program, Ellen Weiss, Daniel Whelan, and Geeta Rao Gupta. Argues that the factors that influence sexual risk among youth, such as the lack of information and services, are social, cultural, and economic forces that result in gender differences in sexual experiences, expectations, and the ability to adopt HIV/STD preventive behaviors.

The Costs of Adolescent Childbearing in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mayra Buvinic. A working paper exploring the social and economic impacts of adolescent childbearing on mothers and children and the degree to which adolescent childbearing contributes to the perpetuation of poverty in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

The Nutrition and Lives of Adolescents in Developing Countries: Findings from the Nutrition of Adolescent Girls Research Program, Kathleen M. Kurz and Charlott Johnson-Welch. A synthesis report summarizing findings from ICRW's Nutrition of Adolescent Girls Research Program, which supported 11 research projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Behavior: A Review of the Evidence from India, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy. Documents the existing research on sexual and reproductive behavior, and explores sexual knowledge and attitudes among adolescents in India.


Employment Issues

Research Reveals Gender Divides of Globalization: Impact on Women's Employment. Examines globalization and the transition to market economies that has triggered dramatic changes in patterns of women's employment and earnings that are occurring worldwide.

Women Workers in a Globalizing Economy. Six papers presented at a series of ICRW policy forums held in Washington, New York, and The Hague that demonstrate the positive and negative effects of globalization and underscore the importance of gender-based research in order to understand the differential impact of global economic policies on women and men.


Environment

New Directions for the Study of Women and Environmental Degradation, Michael Paolisso. Reviews the available literature on the costs to women of environmental degradation and recommends more multi-disciplinary, gender-desegregated research that integrates concerns about the effects of environmental degradation on women into a wider range of environment and development initiatives.

Women's Responses to Environmental Degradation: Poverty and Demographic Constraints, Case Studies from Latin America, Michael Paolisso and Sarah Gammage. Case study research with partners in Chile, Ecuador, and Honduras on the environmental contributions of women to managing the negative effects of natural resource decline and environmental pollution on family welfare.


Family

Women's Roles in Household Decision Making: A Case Study in Nigeria, Sarah Gammage. Report presenting findings from a study carried out with a sampling of households in three states in Nigeria to examine women's role in household decision making and the factors associated with their level of participation and influence in this process. The study also explored the hypothesis that where women are able to influence the decision making process, they are able to achieve welfare improvements for themselves and their children.


Health and Health Care

Working Paper. Modelling the Impact of Stigma on HIV/AIDS Programmes: Preliminary Projections for Mother-to-Child TransmissionCharlotte Watts, Cathy Zimmerman, Traci Eckhaus and Laura Nyblade. 2010.   

Knowledge of HIV status, sexual risk behaviors and contraceptive need among people living with HIV in Kenya and Malawi.  Aberle-Grasse, John M; Diaz, Theresa; Anand, Abhijeet; Shiraishi, Ray W; Bunnell, Rebecca E; Jacobs, Krista; Solehdin, Nadia; Abdul-Quader, Abu S; Marum, Lawrence H; Muttunga, James N; Kamoto, Kelita. 2009.  

Gender Differences Among Children 0-5 Years: An Opportunity for Child Survival Interventions, Kathleen Kurz and Charlotte Johnson-Welch. In an examination of mortality, health, and nutritional status, and psycho-social development, this report describes how bias against girls was shown consistently for health care utilization, feeding patterns, and attention from health care providers.

Health Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing in Developing Countries, Kathleen Kurz. A working paper focusing on indicators that include maternal morality and morbidity, physical growth during pregnancy, and birthweight and prematurity in infants. A discussion of programmatic efforts to reduce poor health consequences of childbearing by adolescents is also included.


Human Rights

Innovation for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality. Anju Malhotra, Jennifer Schulte, Payal Patel, Patti Petesch. 2009.

Recasting WID: A Human Rights Approach, Daniel Whelan (1998). A working paper discussing the premise that economic and social development is the realization of all human rights.


Leadership and Leadership Development

From Beneficiaries to Change Agents: The Rise of Women's Leadernship in International Development. Gill, Kirrin; Warner, Ann; Weiss, Ellen; Rao Gupta, Geeta. 2009.  

Global Women's Leadership: Lessons From Advancing Women, Jill Merrick with Virginia Clarke-Laskin (1998). Summarizes the discussion at a four-day session organized by the ICRW and the Salzburg Seminar to study progress made worldwide in advancing women's leadership, and highlights the observations made by the participants.

Increasing Women's Involvement in Community Decision Making: A Means to Improve Iron Status. This report summarizes the findings from the intervention research project implemented by the Center for the Study and Promotion of Nutrition (CEPREN) in Peru, which explored the use of participatory methodologies to engage women members of community kitchens in peri-urban Lima in the design, implementation, and evaluation of a trial intervention to reduce iron deficiency among women of reproductive age.


Poverty

Household Response to Soil Degradation: Gender, Poverty, and Demographic Dynamics in Honduras, Linda Casey and Michael Paolisso. Discusses how rural families in Honduras, most of whom are poor with few resources, are affected by and respond daily to increased resource degradation and changing economic conditions.


Socioeconomic Status of Women
Statistics on Women

ICRW's Global Fact Sheet Series includes fact sheets on women and credit and on women's health.

Women . . . A World Survey (2nd ed.), Ruth L. Sivard. Discusses indicators of women's progress in the last 10 years in the areas of education, the economy, health services, political participation, and legal rights, as well as data on historical trends in the global gender gap.


Quality of Life
Socioeconomic Status of Women

Communiqué to the Second Summit of the Americas. The Women's Leadership Conference of the Americas' recommendations for action to enhance opportunities for women in the Americas.

Improving the Quality of Life of Girls, Kathleen M. Kurz and Cynthia Prather. Explores the constraints limiting the quality of life of girl children, especially related to their health, education, and social well-being.

Investing in Women: Progress and Prospects for the World Bank, Mayra Buvinic, Catherine Gwin, and Lisa M. Bates. A review of World Bank projects that included measures to address the needs of women.

Taking Women Into Account: Lessons Learned from NGO Project Experiences, edited by Rekha Mehra, with Mayra Buvinic, Charlotte Johnson-Welch, Michael Paolisso, Ellen Weiss, and Daniel Whelan. A series of four case studies of the field-based projects of U.S. NGOs that offer replicable lessons learned on working with women, the Regional Oils Project of Appropriate Technology International (ATI) in Tanzania and Zimbabwe; the Warmi and Women-Child Impact (WCI) Projects of Save the Children (SC/B) in Bolivia; WID Initiatives in Agroforestry of CARE in Guatemala; and the Northwest Thailand AIDS Awareness Project and Women's Empowerment Project of the Chiangmai Provincial Centre for Non-Formal Education (CNE) and Laubach Literacy International in Thailand.

Women, Land and Sustainable Development, Rekha Mehra. Examines the linkages between women's land rights, development, and sustainability; demonstrates how restrictions to land rights undermine women's productivity and earnings, and their incentives and ability to sustain land and other natural resources; and suggests ways to strengthen women's land rights.


Reproductive Rights

Determinants of Contraceptive Acceptance Among Cambodian Abortion Patients. McDougall J, Fetters T, Clark KA, and Rathavy T. 2009.

Unmet Need for Family Planning: Reflecting Women's Perspective, Nancy V. Yinger (1998). Discusses the results from a three-year research program in three countries, Guatemala, India, and Zambia, that used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to examine unmet family planning needs.                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Violence Against Women

Do Changes in Spousal Employment Status Lead to Domestic Violence? Insights from a Prospective Study in Bangalore, India. Krishnan, Suneeta; Rocca, Corinne; Hubbard, Alan E.; Subbiah, Kalyani; Edmeades, Jeffrey; Padian, Nancy.
 
Neuroendocrine Response to Violence During Pregnancy: Impact on Duration of Pregnancy and Fetal Growth. Valladeres E, Penda R, Ellsberg M, Persson LA, and Hogberg U. 2009.    
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Technology
ICRW. 2010. Bridging the Gender Divide: How Technology Can Advance Women Economically.

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships


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The Feminist Majority Foundation

Contact

1600 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209
Ph. (703) 522-2214
Fx. (703) 522-2219
http://www.feminist.org
femmaj@feminist.org


The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) generates cutting-edge research, sponsors educational programs, and offers support and resources to further women's equality and empowerment. FMF uses research with action to reduce violence against women; to increase the health and economic well-being of women; and to eliminate discrimination of all kinds. The foundation promotes equality for women and men, and advocates for nonviolence, social justice, economic development, and the enhancement of feminist participation in public policy.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Eleanor Smeal, President
E-mail: esmeal@feminist.org

Katherine Spillar, Executive Vice President
Ph. (310) 556-2500 x 102
Fax: (323) 653-2689
E-mail: kspillar@feminist.org
E-mail:

Beth Soderberg, Administrative Assistant
Ph. (703) 522-2214 x 116
E-mail: bsoderberg@feminist.org

Areas of Expertise:

Access & Disparities, Awareness & Education, Barriers & Opportunities, Discrimination, Reproductive Health, Women's Movements, Women's, Gender & Feminist Studies, Economic Development & Security, Education & Education Reform, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality, Violence

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

Global Issues

Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan. FMF is leading a public education campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan. To date, more than 150 women's rights and human rights organizations in the U.S. and around the world have agreed to co-sponsor the campaign to demand that the human rights abuses against women and girls in Afghanistan must end. The campaign is urging the United States and United Nations to continue to refuse to grant recognition to the Taliban and to do everything in their power to restore the human rights of Afghani women.

Health and Health Care
Reproductive Rights

National Clinic Access Project. The FMF National Clinic Access Project is the largest and oldest clinic defense program in the nation. The project performs grassroots organizing and engages in public education work to increase public awareness of anti-abortion extremist violence. The project also provides direct assistance in the form of legal, security, and support services as well as direct financial aid to abortion providers not affiliated with the National Abortion Federation (NAF) or Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and works in collaboration with NAF and PPFA to reduce violence. In addition, the clinic violence program conducts the most extensive research in tracking and documenting extremists' actions and violence as well as the most comprehensive annual social science survey of anti-abortion violence in the nation.

Choices Campus Leadership Program. The FMF Choices Campus Leadership Campaign is a new, innovative research and action program with extensive grassroots organizing on campus. The program is built on a study and action model using a 10-unit manual and defining choices in its broadest sense including the reproductive choices, leadership choices, career choices, and fighting the backlash. Currently, the program is on 83 campuses nationwide and is expanding rapidly. The Choices campaign also is conducted through Internet organizing via the Virtual Choices web site, www.feministcampus.org.

Women's Health. FMF provides information on how to get in touch with health hotlines and resources, including information and resources on reproductive health and options. The FMF Campaign for Mifepristone and Women's Health Research is the largest public education campaign for the use of anti-progestins. It is a sustained public education campaign directed at expanding research on the medication's many promising indications. The campaign has the sole responsibility of providing mifepristone to U.S. physicians for compassionate use treatment of several serious diseases under an agreement with the Population Council, which has U.S. distribution rights, its licensee, Danco Group, and the French pharmaceutical, which has world distribution rights.


Women and Policing

National Center for Women & Policing. A division of FMF, the National Center for Women & Policing is a national resource for women in policing, law enforcement agencies, community leaders, and public officials seeking to increase the number of women law enforcement officers and to improve law enforcement response to family violence. The National Center conducts research and provides technical assistance and training to law enforcement agencies on issues related to women in policing, family violence, and sexual assault, and promotes strategies for increasing women's representation in federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

Leadership and Leadership Development

Feminist Majority Foundation OnLine. FMF OnLine promotes social, political, and economic equality for women by featuring daily feminist news, feminist research resources, Take Action items, domestic violence and sexual assault hotlines, a feminist career center, information on women and girls in sports, and more.

Campus Projects. FMF started "Feminization of Power" campus campaigns and campus units to encourage and help women to obtain positions in student government. Other campus projects include campaigns for choice and projects supporting affirmative action.

Women in Leadership. FMF is a strong supporter of furthering women's power and leadership skills. It has followed national and international political events and elections, and advocates for women's continued leadership advancement. Additionally, FMF has staged and hosted many events centered around the feminization of power, feminist leadership, and equality.

 

Events:

 

Creativity Workshop in New York City

Date: 3/12/2010 Time: 10:00 AM Event Type: Conference

Place: Meta Center in the Chelsea district, 214 West 29th St.

 

 

Exquisite Journey : Fierce Beauty

Date: 3/12/2010 ~ 3/13/2010 Time: 7:30 pm Event Type: Concert

Place:  Faith Lutheran Church, Phoenix, AZ

Contact: Terry Gunn

Phone: (602) 487-1940

E-Mail: manager@azwit.com

URL: http://www.azwit.com

 

WO-MEN WITH A VISION: Building bridges Of Unity

Date: 3/26/2010 Time: 7.00PM Event Type: Concert

Place: The Guitar Merchant, Woodland Hills, CA

Contact: Leigh Swansborough

Phone: (818) 299-4527

E-Mail: powpeople@yahoo.com

 

International Family Justice Center Conference

Date: 4/27/2010 ~ 4/29/2010 Time: 8:00am-5:00pm Event Type: Conference

Contact: Melissa Mack

Phone: (888) 511-3522

E-Mail: melissa@nfjca.org

URL: http://www.familyjusticecenter.org/conference/

 

 

Contact: Ceci Glusman

Phone: 1 (831) 915-5209

E-Mail: admin@creativityworkshops.com

URL: http://www.creativityworkshop.com/newyork.html

  

Reports & Resources

FMF. 2008. 2008 Clinic Violence Survey Report. Conducted by Feminist Majority Foundation, Eleanor Smeal, Katherine Spillar, and Margie Moore. 

http://www.feminist.org/research/cvsurveys/clinic_survey2008.pdf

FMF. 2007. Handbook For Achieving Gender Equity Through Education. Written by Feminist Majority Foundation.

http://www.feminist.org/education/handbook.asp

 

 

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Wellesley Centers for Women

Contact

106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481-8203
Ph. 781-283-2500
Fx. 781-283-2504
http://www.wcwonline.org
newswcw@wellesley.edu


The Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College is one of the largest gender-focused research-and-action organizations in the world. Scholars at the Centers conduct social science research and evaluation, develop theory and publications, and implement training programs on issues that put women's lives and women's concerns at the center. Since 1974, our work has generated changes in attitudes, practices, and public policy

 

 

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Layli Maparyan, Ph.D.
Amy Banks, M.D.
Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D.
Julie A. Dennehy, M.M.
Monica Ghosh Driggers, J.D.
Sallie F. Dunning, Ed.M.
Sumru Erkut, Ph.D.
Alice Frye, Ph.D.
Ellen S. Gannett, M.Ed.
Tracy R.G. Gladstone, Ph.D.
Jennifer M. Grossman, Ph.D.
Georgia Hall, Ph.D.
Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D.
Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D.
Rosanna Hertz, Ph.D.
Amy B. Hoffman, M.F.A.
Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Ph.D.
Judith V. Jordan, Ph.D.
Erika Kates, Ph.D.
Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D.
Nancy MacKay, B.A.
Nancy L. Marshall, Ed.D.
Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D.
Sally Engle Merry, Ph.D.
Laura Pappano
Flavia C. Peréa, Ph.D.
Michelle V. Porche, Ed.D.
Susan M. Reverby, Ph.D.
Joanne Roberts, Ph.D.
Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D.
Michelle Seligson, Ed.M.
Nan Stein, Ed.D.
Wendy B. Surr, M.A.
Allison J. Tracy, Ph.D.
Maureen Walker, Ph.D.

Areas of Expertise:

Advancing Women's Leadership, Body Image & Wellness, Domestic and Workplace Violence, Awareness & Education, Glass Ceilings & Barriers, Human Rights & Security, Trafficking and Prostitution, Discrimination, Early Childhood, Funding STEM, Leadership in Civil Society, Violence Against Women, Global, Educational Leadership of Women & People of Color, Girls & STEM, Leadership in Education, Mental Health, Older Women, K-12, Reproductive Health, Women in STEM, Sexuality & Gender, Title IX, Women's Leadership, Women's, Gender & Feminist Studies, Economic Development & Security, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality, Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

Projects:

# Human Rights
International Issues
Violence Against Women

Women's Rights Network. A project of the Wellesley Centers on Women, the Women's Rights Network was founded in 1995 as an international human rights organization working to end domestic violence and sexual abuse worldwide through organizing, training, research, and public education. The network comprises the Global Network Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse and the Human Rights Education and Advocacy Initiative, and focuses on the Battered Mothers' Testimony Project.


# Violence Against Women

National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center. Another project of the Wellesley Centers on Women is the Prevention Research Center. Funded in 1998 from the Centers for Disease Control, the center is a consortium of researchers dedicated to the prevention of all types of violence against women through the fostering of research-practitioner and interdisciplinary collaboration. The goal is to improve the ability of the field to conduct research that is relevant to the prevention of violence against women, is interdisciplinary, builds on prior research, is conceptually and methodologically sound, and is designed to address violence issues over the life-course.


RECENT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN

# Adolescents and Girls

Adolescent Sexuality Project. Funded by the Ford Foundation, this project seeks to develop models of sexual health for girls and boys which extend beyond pregnancy and disease. Based on Brofenbrenner's ecological model of social experience.

Learning Circles. This project examines the Patriot's Trail and Plymouth Bay Girl Scouts Council Learning Circles in an effort to create Learning Circles for mentoring girls ages 10-12. These circles will provide an opportunity where girls can meet regularly with adults to discuss personal issues of importance.

Raising Confident and Competent Girls. This longitudinal study looks at middle girls' perceptions of their competencies, actual school performance, and perceptions of social support in the following categories: race/ethnicity; social class; acculturation; and residence urbanization.

Sports as Protective of Girls' High-Risk Sexual Behavior. Researchers are conducting secondary analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health dataset to examine the protective effects of sports involvement on adolescents' likelihood of engaging in high-risk sexual behaviors.


# Child Care

The Early Childhood Connection. Aimed at children up to 5 years old, the Early Childhood Connection project provides resources for parents, providers, and policymakers by running workshops devoted to topics such as finding quality child care, curriculum for children, using the Internet, combining work and family, and more.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. This NICHD undertaking is the most comprehensive child care study conducted to date in the United States. It analyzes the impact on child development and family functioning of child care and maternal employment from one month of age through first grade. Ten nationwide sites have been selected; the study includes 1,300 infants and their families.

National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST). The National Institute is located at the Wellesley Center for Research on Women and conducts policy-oriented and basic research on issues that affect women. The mission is to improve the quantity and quality of school-age care programs nationally by concentrating on research; education and training; consultation; program and community development; and public awareness. The following are undertakings of NIOST:

Cross-Cities Network (CCN).The CCN brings together leaders from 25 citywide after-school initiatives in major cities across the United States. The three primary goals of this project are to increase the capacity and knowledge of high-level leaders, to improve the effectiveness of citywide after school initiatives, and to contribute to the development of a coherent vision for the field at the national level.

Strategic Planning: Building a Skilled and Stable Workforce for After School Programs. The National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), in collaboration with the AED Center for Youth Development and Policy Research (the Center) is engaged in a 9-month, national strategic planning process for workforce development across the after school field.

Evaluation of Jacksonville Children's Commission's (JCC) After-School Program Initiatives. TEAM UP is a solution of the Jacksonville community to help its families meet the challenges of raising youth in today's society by providing a safe, structured, positive learning environment during the after school hours.

Puerto Rican Young Fathers' Involvement with Their Children. The research team aims to describe what predisposes Puerto Rican young men to become the kind of fathers they are by interviewing a random sample of 300 Puerto Rican young fathers (aged 18 to 26).

The Empathy Project. One of the major developmental tasks of preschoolers is to develop empathy (the ability to understand and share in waht others are feeling), sharing and cooperation, and othersocial skills they will need as they mature. Empathy is a building block for other kinds of "prosocial behavior"- that is, helping, sharing, and comforting- and one of the cornerstones of later social competence.

# Education

Women in Community Development (WICD) Higher Education for Lower-Income Women: A Real Route Out of Poverty. Begun in 1997, WICD is a joint venture of Project Hope, the Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development, and the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS) at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. With funding provided by the Nellie Mae Foundation, Senior Research Scientist Fern Marx consulted with WICD staff, program participants, and an evaluation advisory group in order to help the program better understand its work and establish in-house monitoring, accountability, and evaluation activities to guide future program development.

# Education
Curriculum

Shaping a Better World: Global Issues Teaching Guide. A guide for middle school teachers designed to help them teach about the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the critical issues discussed at that conference.

Bringing Yourself to Work: Caregiving in After-School Environments. A new training model for after-school program staff that places emphasis on the importance of self-awareness among caregivers.

Higher Education Resource Services. HERS, New England now provides an unusual in-service model of administrative training- The Management Institute for Women in Higher Education.

National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity). The SEED Initiative is a staff-development equity project for educators. It establishes teacher-led, faculty development seminars in public and private schools to promote gender-fair and multiculturally equitable materials and curriculum.

Summer Institute (for Science Teachers) on Gender Equity. This institute works to help teachers devise gender-equitable teaching methods and materials.

# Employment
Aging

Assessing the Relational Resources of Older Workers (ARROW). A project of the Center for Research on Women, ARROW received funding from the National Institute on Aging in 2001. This study is investigating the workplace-relevant relational beliefs of older workers and is developing a measure to assess relational beliefs among this population. Project staff are collecting data through in-person, semi-structured interviews with Boston-area workers aged 55+ both female and male.


# Global Issues
Economic & Social Status of Women

Experiencing Globalization: The Construction of Gender and Ethnicity in the TNC Workplace. This project focuses on Korean immigrant women workers' experiences of globalization in the workplace. Because work and identity are central features of modern life, this study enhances our understanding of the globalization process and how it intersects with the specific features of the workplace to configure many dimensions of identity.


# Health and Health Care
Mental Health

Women Involved in Living and Learning (WILL)/Westhampton Reports: A Research Agenda for the WILL Program. Westhampton College and WCW attempt to address low self-esteem through a three-pronged attack: women's studies coursework; co-curricular programming on gender issues; and collective action that fosters self-awareness and confidence. This project is based on successful work completed by Westhampton and seeks to create a new agenda to improve self-esteem and confidence.


# Literature

Women's Review of Books. A publication that reviews the latest books on or by women, in addition to offering comment and criticism.

# Sexual Assault/Harassment


Project on Teasing and Bullying. The Project on Teasing and Bullying seeks to examine and counteract the effects of the culture of bullying on children and youth. Central to this work is the impact of societal messages about gender and gender roles on the development of aggressive and violent behavior. The project addresses these complex issues through a combination of research, action, and advocacy.

Sexual Harassment in the Schools. Addresses gender violence and the need for acknowledgment and information about gender violence in the schools and curriculum.

# Welfare Reform

The Effects of Maternal Welfare on Children's Outcomes. Funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, this project investigates the effects of partial welfare receipt on things like the well-being of children, measuring development, health, education, and fertility behavior.

# Work and Family

The Changing Workforce. The U.S. workforce is changing, with rising rates of employment in service industries, diversification of the workfroce with respect to gender and race or ethnicity, and rising rates of employment among workers over the age of 50.


RECENT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE STONE CENTER

# Communication
Mental Health

Gender Relations Project. This project seeks to promote healthy, mutually enhancing connections between women and men and boys and girls, and in couples, families, schools, and organizations.

The Jean Baker Miller Training Institute. The institute follows the Relational/Cultural Model developed by the Stone Center, which advocates that growth-fostering connections are the central human necessity and disconnections are the source of psychological problems. Jean Baker offers residential and training programs for people with master's degrees in clinical areas, RNs, MDs, and PhDs.

Wellesley Relational Model Instrument Development. The Relational Model was developed in 1991 as a theoretical feminist paradigm for the assessment of women's psychological development and well-being. It is distinguished due to its emphasis on gender difference and on the power of caretaking and relationships in women's lives.


# Education
K-12

Reach Out to Schools: Social Competency Program. This program is a comprehensive social and emotional learning program for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, their teachers, and their parents. It features an Open Circle Curriculum, which aims to foster positive relationships in a cooperative classroom environment and enhance the necessary skills to solve interpersonal problems. Additionally, it offers training programs for parents, teachers, and staff.

Reach Out to Schools: Social Competency Program Assessment Project. The goal of this initiative is to improve the social skills of children, encourage problem resolution, increase relationship building, and foster a caring and respectful environment for elementary aged school children.


# Education
Mental Health
Higher Education

Assessment of Relational Health and Psychological Development Among College Women. In conjunction with the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute and Office of Counseling Services, this project aims to address relational health and the psychological development of college-age women.


# Violence Against Women
Mental Health

Adult Memories and Consequences and Recovery from Child Sexual Abuse. Currently being undertaken by center staff, this longitudinal study looks at adult memories, negative outcomes, and resiliency of women and men who were sexually abused as children.

Longitudinal Research on Partner Violence, Child Physical Abuse, and Child Sexual Abuse. A comprehensive follow-up study, this project studies families in which physical and/or sexual abuse has occurred with the aim of creating programs and policies that will prevent and treat family violence and promote child safety and family functioning.

 

 

Reports & Resources

de Alwis, Rangita de Silva. 2010. New and Emerging Developments in Gender and Law in China.

The Stone Center and Center for Research on Women publishes the WCW Publications Catalog annually in January/February. This catalog contains working papers, works-in-progress, special reports, curriculum, books, and tapes of current Center work.

In the News is an insert published twice a year in the membership newsletter, Memberlink.

WCW Progress Report details project information, funding, major research findings, lists of events, conferences, colloquia, institutes, workshops, etc.

Research Report is published twice a year in the spring and fall and updates readers on the status of the center's projects and programs.


PUBLICATIONS OF THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN

Links to Learning: Supporting Learning in Out-of-School Time Programs, NIOST (2002). This lively video, aimed at practitioners and policy makers, delivers a clear message about the unique role after-school programs play in supporting children's learning and development.

New Perspectives on Compensation Strategies for the Out-of-School Time Workforce, Gwen Morgan and Brooke Harvey (2002). In this paper we touch briefly upon the unique characteristics of the out-fo-school time workforce that contribute to inadequate compensation and we explore workforce compensation more deeply from the perspective of economics.

Working Together for Children and Families: A Community's Guide to Making the MOST of Out-of-School Time, MOST Initiative (2001).

Fact Sheet on School-Age Children's Out-of-School Time, NIOST (2001).

A Place of Their Own: Designing Quality Space for Out-of-School Time, NIOST (2001).

The Road to SAC Professionalism: Emerging Models, Trends, and Issues in Credentializing, Liz Nilsen (1999). This paper presents and discusses results from a nation-wide survey conducted on current state efforts toward establishing school-age credentials.

Literacy: Exploring Strategies to Enhance Learning in After-School Programs, Kathryn Hynes, Susan O'Connor, An-Me Chung (1999). This paper explores different ways that after-school programs can support children's literacy development.

MOST Initiative: Making the MOST of Out-of-School Time: The Human Side of Quality (1998). A short video discussing the importance of the relationships that children develop in out-of-school programs, with ideas on how to support children's social and emotional needs.

SACC Project Fact Sheet on School-Age Children (1998). A fact sheet providing demographics of how children use their out-of-school time.

Homework Assistance and Out-of-School Time: Filling the Need, Finding a Balance, Susan O'Connor and Kate McGuire (1998). A research paper designed to help out-of-school programs design their role in providing homework assistance.

Homework and Out-of-School Time Programs: Filling the Need, Finding a Balance, Susan O'Connor and Kate McGuire (1998). A booklet summarizing the main points from the paper on homework assistance.

Making the MOST of Out-of-School Time: Technology's Role in Collaboration, Lilian Coltin and Kate McGuire (1997).

Growing Together: Connections Between School-Age Care and Youth Work Professionals, Marie E. Esposito (1997).

Twelve Key Elements for Higher Education Training: A Conceptual Framework for the Field of School-Age Care, Marie E. Esposito and Joan Costley (1997).

I Wish the Kids Didn't Watch So Much TV: Out-of-School Time in Three Low Income Communities, Full Report, Beth Miller, Susan O'Connor, Sylvia W. Sirignano, and Pamela Joshi (1997). Describes the findings of a study of children's out-of-school time.

#4 Out-of-School Time: Effects on Learning in the Primary Grades, Beth Miller (1995). Describes some of the major issues raised by research on the effects of out-of-school time on children's learning and discusses possible responses to the issues raised by the literature.

SACC Project National Study of Before-and After-School Programs, Executive Summary, U.S. Dept. of Education (1993). An assessment of the prevalence, structure, and features of formal programs that offer enrichment, academic instruction, recreation, and supervised care for children between the ages of 5 and 13 before and after school, as well as on vacations and holidays.


Older Women in the United States, Betty Greenfield, Nancy Emerson Lombardo, and Rosalind C. Barnett (1999). Conference report discussing the changing context for older women in the U.S. and examining some of the outdated and restrictive ideas embedded in society about older women's physical abilities, relationships, and economic options.

Relational Resources and Older Adults, Anne E. Noonan (2001). This paper suggests areas in which relational/cultural theory can inform more mainstream gerontological research.

Parting Company: Understanding the Loss of a Loved One, Cynthia Pearson, Margaret L. Stubbs (1999).

The Cost and Quality of Full Day, Year-round Early Care and Education in Massachusetts: Preschool Classrooms, Nancy L. Marshall, Cindy L. Creps, Nancy R. Burstein, Frederic B. Glantz, Wendy Wagner Robeson, Steve Barnett (2001). This report reveals what key factors are related to better-quality early care and education for peschoolers.

The Relevance of Self at Work: Emotional Intelligence and Staff Training in After-School Environments, Michelle Seligson and Marybeth MacPhee (2001). This paper examines how adult educators in after-school programs can mobilize their inner-resources and social-emotional aptitude to achieve good relationships with their coworkers and with the children in their care.

Parent Involvement as a Predictor of Student Achiveement for Low-Income Children, Michelle Porche (2000). This paper investigates the relationship between parent involvement over time and children's academic achievement for a sample of low-income families participating in a longitudinal study of language and literacy development.

How Do You Advance Quality Child Care? SACC (1999).

Estimating the Unmet Need for Child Care Services in Massachusetts, Magaly Queralt, Ann Dryden Witte (1999). In this paper the authors propose a novel way of conceptualizing unmet need for social services as well as a systematic and unique method of identifying the geographic areas where it exists, using a child care illustration.

After-School Programs and the K-8 Principal: Standards for Quality School-Age Child Care (Revised), National Association of Elementary School Principals (1999). This publication was developed to provide practical assistance with: guidelines for administration and programming; resources for information, collaboration, and funding; checklists for program evaluation and improvement planning.

A Resource Guide for School-Age Child Care, Kathryn A. Wheeler (1998). A listing of books, videos, and organizations that would be of interest to after-school providers.

Child Care in Massachusetts: Where the Supply Is and Isn't, Magaly Queralt, Ann Dryden Witte (1997). This publication uses sophisticated graphics and statistical modeling to examine the availability of child care to low-income families.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE STONE CENTER

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

The Relational Model of Women's Psychological Development: Implications for Substance Abuse, Stephanie S. Covington, Janet Surrey (2000). This paper describes the basic tenets of the Stone Center's Relational Model of women's development and considers the model's implications for the etiology, treatment, recovery, and prevention of substance abuse in women.

Videotapes and Manuals of Project W.A.I.T. (Wellesley Improv Theatre):

 

  • Education

  • Employment Issues

  • Family

  • Health and Health Care

  • Lesbian and Gay Studies

  • Mental Health

  • Sexual Harassment
       Violence Against Women
       Mental Health

 

Gender and Race Patterns in the Pathways from School-Based Sports Participation to Self-Esteem, Allison J. Tracy and Sumru Erkut (2001). This working paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health on Caucasian and African American girls and boys.

The Skin We're In: Teaching Our Children to Be: Emotionally Strong, Socially Smart, Spiritually Connected, Janie Victoria Ward (2000). In 1990-1991 the author received a Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to design and implement a research project on raising balck adolescents around issues of race in the post civil rights era. IN 1996-1997, as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Wellesly Centers for Women, her analysis of that data became the foundation of this latest work.

Protective Effects of Sports Participation on Girls' Sexual Behavior, Sumru Erkut, Allison Tracy (2000). Based on secondary analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this paper shows that among high school girls, participation in sports is associated with a later age of becoming sexually active.

Raising Confident and Competent Girls: How Middle Schools Can Support Girls, Fern Marx, Sumru Erkut, Jacqueline Fields, Jacklyn Blake Clayton (2000). This is a facilitators' training manual for conducting a research-based workshop for middle school educators, staff of youth-serving organizations, and parents.

Doing Research in a Disadvantaged Population: Methods of Obtaining and Retaining Samples, Sumru Erkut, Cynthia Garcia Coll, Odette Alarcon (1999). Drawing on two studies of community-based samples of minority youth, this paper describes methods used to increase volunteering and retention that are important for the validity of results obtained in longitudinal studies.

The Femininity Ideology Scale: Development and Validation of a New Measure of Gender, Deborah L. Tolman, Michelle V. Porche (1999). This paper describes the development and validation of the Femininity Ideology Scale (FIS) through three studies with racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse early, middle, and late adolescent girls.

Normative Study of Puerto Rican Adolescents- Final Report, Sumru Erkut, Odette Alarcon, Cynthia Garcia Coll (1999). This final report of the longitudinal study of Puerto Rican adolescents' development includes a discussion of the methodological advances and notable findings generated by the research team as well as the results of the cross-sectional and longidudinal hypotheses that guided the study.

Raising Confident and Competent Girls: Implications of Diversity, Sumru Erkut, Fern Marx, Jacqueline P. Fields, and Rachel Sing (1998). A study of African-American, Caucasian, Chinese-American, and Puerto Rican middle school girls' self evaluations.

Stereotyped Perceptions of Mainland Puerto Rican Adolescents' Behaviors, Sumru Erkut, Odette Alarcón, Cynthia García Coll, Laura Szalacha, and Wanda Guzman (1996). Describes two studies, one that examines the extent of Puerto Rican youth's self-reported risk taking and another that investigates community perceptions of the risk-taking of Puerto Rican youth.

Books for Boys and Girls Today: An Annotated Bibliography of Non-sexist Books for Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers, Carrie Spillane, and Maureen Crowley (1996). A list of books for infants, toddlers and preschoolers; also includes publisher information for each book.

Mutual Psychological Development Among Latina Girls, Nancy P. Genero (1996). A video in which the speaker discusses Latina adolescent girls' perceptions of their close relationships.

Language Development from Birth to Six Months, Wendy Wagner Robeson (1996). Discusses stages of language development through which infants pass before speaking their first words. It outlines activities that adults and others can use to promote and encourage early communication efforts in infants, and explains why they enhance linguistic development.

Raising Competent Girls: An Exploratory Study of Diversity In Girls' Views of Liking One's Self, Sumru Erkut, and Fern Marx (1995). A study of middle school girls' understanding of what it means for a girl to like herself and what advice they would give new parents on how to raise their baby girl so she will grow up to have a positive regard for herself.

Engaging in Culturally Sensitive Research on Puerto Rican Youth, Odette Alarcón, Sumru Erkut, Cynthia Garcia Coll, and Heidie A. Vázquez (1994). A description of two culturally sensitive longitudinal studies of normal development of Puerto Rican adolescents and Puerto Rican children growing up in the U.S.

Girls in Schools: A Bibliography of Research on Girls in U.S. Public Schools (Kindergarten through Grade 12), Susan McGee Bailey (1992). Books, reports and journal articles listed by topic headings, including sex and gender socialization, teen pregnancy and parenting, vocational education, sexual harassment, and women in educational leadership.

New Economic Trends for Women's Employment: Implications for Girls' Vocational Education, Lynn C. Burbridge (1992). Reviews literature on the effectiveness of secondary level vocational education programs and on the impact of these programs on girls and young women.

Body Talk, Margaret L. Stubbs (1990). A set of four pamphlets designed to help early adolescents find answers to their questions about pubertal growth.

After School Programs for Low-Income Young Adolescents: Overview and Program Profiles, Fern Marx (1989). Discusses the incidence and consequences of self-care for young, low-income adolescents, provides criteria for developing good programs, and profiles 18 programs that are successfully serving this population.

Becoming a Woman: Considerations in Educating Adolescents About Menstruation, Margaret L. Stubbs, Jill Rierdan, and Elissa Koff (1988). Reviews findings on the psychological significance of menstruation and offers recommendations for improving menstrual education for both girls and boys.

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Sign up for the The National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) 2013 Summer Seminars:

http://niost.org/Summer-Seminars/summer-seminars-2013

Apply for the 2013 SEED Leadership Training (Deadline May 15, 2013):

http://www.wcwonline.org/Projects-Extra-Information/join-us-for-seed-training

Earn 5 CEUs >> JBMTI Conference: Raising Connected and Competent Boys: New Models of Strength and Resilience:

http://www.jbmti.org/Upcoming-Events/raising-21st-century-boys-connected-competent-thriving

 

 

 

 

 

 


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