Diversity & Inclusion

Current Research

Past Research Program Areas:

Intersections, Identities, and Inequalities (Dr. Bonnie Thornton Dill, director)

This program area focuses on the development of theoretical, methodological and pedagogical approaches to the study of intersections of race, gender, class, ethnicity and other dimensions of inequality. It is an interdisciplinary research program area that seeks to elaborate how dimensions of inequality intersect, creating new and distinct social formations. This includes promoting research that contextualizes the lives and experiences of individuals and groups, as well as develops applications of knowledge to human problems. This scholarship embraces a wide range of approaches that permit complex and nuanced explorations. Intersectional analysis is also an effort to move beyond binary or oppositional analyses and toward an understanding of the ways the ideological, political, and economic systems of power construct and reconstruct one another. An intersectional approach, grounded in lived experience, provides the intellectual foundation for the pursuit of social justice.

Health and Social Well Being of Low Income Women, Children, and Families (Dr. Ruth E. Zambrana, director)

This program area seeks to build a more comprehensive and ethnic-specific scientific knowledge base on the effects of the intersection of poverty, institutional barriers, and other non-medical factors that contribute to adverse health status. This approach takes into account the influence of race, gender, and ethnicity to promote responsiveness in the development of future health interventions.

Material Culture/Visual Culture (Drs. Mary Corbin Sies and Angel David Nieves, co-directors)

The Material Culture/Visual Culture (MC/VC) program area is engaged in research on African American material and visual culture, and more generally on the material and visual culture of marginalized subgroups of North America. The group seeks to publicize the value of material and visual evidence for understanding the cultures of everyday life of American subcultures and to foster an environment in which scholars from different backgrounds can explore and refine research and theories for working with material and visual culture.

Schooling, Ethnic Communities and International Perspectives. (Dr. Lory J. Dance, director).

This Research Program Area is in the early stages of development. Led by sociologist Dr. Lory J. Dance, this area focuses on the uses of qualitative methodologies in the study of education in ethnic communities in the United States and internationally. The group also houses the Qualitative Research Interest Group (QRIG; co-directed by Drs. Lory J. Dance and Annette Lareau), which sponsored a colloquium series in fall 2005 on funding qualitative research projects.

Other Activities:

Intersectional Research Database. CRGE is home to the world's first online database devoted exclusively to intersectional research. The Intersectional Research Database (IRD), which was launched in summer 2005, currently features over 100 annotations of articles and books on intersectional issues. The IRD is updated weekly and will soon include audio, visual images, video and sound.

CRGE Graduate Colloquium. CRGE holds a monthly colloquium for graduate students that focuses on various topics related to intersectionality and social justice. Graduate students from across the disciplines participate through attendance and by sharing their own work at the end of each semester. Recent colloquium topics have dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; interdisciplinary job talks; intersections and sexualities; and the commodification of Black youth, which was led by Dr. Patricia Hill Collins.

Research Interest Groups (RIGS). RIGS are smaller research groups, each sponsored by a Research Program Area. RIGS are collaborative, interdisciplinary groups that conduct intersectional research. The RIGS aim to create groups that can assist their members in preparing and submitting proposals for federal, state, and private sector research grants in CRGE Research Program Areas.

Visit: www.crge.umd.edu/qrig.html

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RESEARCH

Center researchers are currently analyzing the results of the Faculty Work-Life Study, a joint project of the Center for the Education of Women and the UM Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. The survey of UM faculty included questions about climate, workload, sources of satisfaction and stress, and incorporate AAUDI questions for comparison to similar institutions.  This project also provides comparison to the 1998 FWLS.

Contingent Faculty in a Tenure Track World - CEW researchers held focus groups with full- and part-time non-tenure track (NTT) faculty at twelve research universities across the country. In total, we conducted 24 ninety-minute focus groups with a total of 343 full- and part-time NTT faculty. A report of the project is available  and a video based on the project explores the responses of focus group members. The project was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The National Clearinghouse on Academic Worklife  (www.academicworklife.org) combines into a single website information resources and community discussions to support those who study or participate in academic work.  Up to date articles and policy examples are available on topics ranging from family-friendly benefits, tenure attainment, and faculty satisfaction to policy development, productivity, and demographics.  An email newsletter is also available free to subscribers. This clearinghouse was developed  through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Dual Career Ladder Project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, resulted in several publications based on the findings of our institutional survey of U.S. institutions of higher education.  highlighting the numbers, working conditions and perceived contributions of non tenure track faculty.  These are available on the CEW website.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

CEW’s Advanced Leadership Program offers middle management University of Michigan staff, recommended by their supervisors, an eight-month skill development workshop series and accompanying change management project.  This program has been offered annually for nearly 10 years. 

Focus on Leadership, addresses the need for leadership development and training for staff not yet in key middle-management positions or not yet ready for the more extensive Advanced Leadership Program.  Offered to approximately 30 individuals annually, this program offers participants an introduction to leadership concepts while it assists participants in developing an identity as a potential leader.

Emerging Leaders Iniative  CEW is currently developing an innovative nine-month program for emerging leaders (those with less than 6 years in their career fields) over the course of two years. The program will focus on women from a specific Michigan urban region, combining those from the private and the non-profit sectors.  The program combines in-person sessions, career coaching by senior leaders, and ongoing support and learning using web 2.0 tools including social media and online learning. 

PROGRAMS

CEW offers about 50 programs each term, covering topics such as careers, career change and job searching, work-life balance, leadership development, and focused programs for graduate students and post-docs.  In addition, CEW brings special events and speakers to the campus and community. 

In addition, CEW leads three support networks for University of Michigan women: Women of Color in the Academy Project and Junior Women Faculty Network for women faculty and the Women of Color Task Force for women staff.  These networks offer support, mentoring, and learning opportunities for participants.  The Task Force delivers a campus-wide career conference annually, with about 550 participants. 

CEW provides free counseling to students, faculty and staff of the University as well as to women and men in the community.  Each year over 1,000 adults are seen by CEW’s professional counselors.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM CEW

Developing a Transparent Tenure Process (Resources for Deans and Chairs)

Enabling Junior Faculty Success (Resources for Deans and Chairs)

The Gender Impact of the Proposed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. Susan Kaufmann

Post-Apartheid South Africa: Creating Critically Leaderful Schools that Make a Difference
Juliet Perumal, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and CEW Visting Scholar, 2007.

How American Men's Participation in Housework and Child-care Affects Wives' Careers. 
Renge Jibu, CEW Visiting Scholar

Making the Best of Both Worlds: Findings from a National Institution-Level Survey on Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Michigan Women and the High-Tech Knowledge Economy. Susan Kaufmann

Principles for Best Practices: A Collection of Suggested Procedures for Improving Climate for Women Faculty Members.  Jean Waltman and Carol Hollenshead

MORE PUBLICATIONS

Visiting Scholar Program

The Visiting Scholar Program is an opportunity for scholars to pursue research projects relevant to women using the vast resources available through the Center for the Education of Women (CEW) and the University of Michigan. Scholars must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree. A scholar's stay at the Center can range from one to twelve months, as appropriate to the scholar's research needs. Visiting Scholars prepare a working paper based upon their research, which is published as part of the Center's series of occasional papers.

Robin Wright Graduate Fellowship

The Center for the Education of Women announces the Robin Wright Graduate Fellowship with a grant of up to $3,200. The fund will support research by a graduate student from the Islamic World or Africa matriculating in the Rackham Graduate School.

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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.

Visiting Scholar Program

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

• Protecting Women's Rights at the Border
• Report on Women in Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona
• Tucson Women Workers' Project

• Nontraditional Recruitment and Retention Program for Secondary Schools

• Partners in Change: Solutions to Women's Poverty in Southern Arizona
• Pima County Domestic Violence Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration

• HerStory to Health
• Mujer Sana - Healthy Woman HIV, STD, TB, and Hepatitis B + C Drug Treatment Enhancement for Women
• Project DAP (Determining Another Path)

• Family Drug Court Services with Enhanced Trauma Treatment
• Las Rosas: A Recovery-Oriented Support Systems Approach for Adolescent Girls
• Own Yourself
• Pima County Family Drug Court Evaluation
• Proyecto de las Mariposas
• Recover2gether
• Sleep Disorders Among Adolescent Substance Users

• Reading Our World
• Sowing the Seeds: Promoting the Humanities in our Communities

• Women in Science and Engineering

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.

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.

Feminist Thought and Scholarship
Research Interest Groups. Research Interest Groups (RIG) organized by CSWS foster collaboration between scholars at the university. Faculty, graduate students, and community members participate in programs and events. RIGs are designed to facilitate collaborative research; create support groups for the preparation of grant proposals; build better connections between scholars and community activists; and generate opportunities for cross-disciplinary dialogue among scholars.

Women of Color Project
CSWS was awarded a Ford Foundation grant in March 2008 from the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW). “Diversifying the Leadership of Women’s Research Centers,” was meant to promote the leadership of women of color from historically underrepresented groups in the United States within NCRW and within its women’s research, policy, and advocacy member centers. CSWS and the UO Office of the Vice President for Research provided matching funds.

Charise Cheney, associate professor, UO Department of Ethnic Studies, continues as the 2012-13 coordinator of the CSWS Women of Color Project. Cheney’s research interests include African-American popular and political cultures, black nationalist ideologies and practices, and gender and sexuality. She is the author of Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism (New York: New York University Press, 2005) and is currently working on a book about black resistance to school desegregation in Topeka, Kansas in the decade before Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. She earned her PhD at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Fembot Project
Designed to re-imagine academic writing and research, the Fembot Project participates in the ongoing revolution in academic publishing, taking seriously the advice of scholars to democratize our publications by embracing open access, open source publications. The Fembot Project centrally includes a new journal—Ada: Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology—that will be broadly accessible, both in terms of physical access and in terms of its content. The Fembot website (http://fembotcollective.org/) comprises three overlapping projects: Ada, Laundry Day, and a professional clearinghouse.

For more information, contact Carol Stabile, Director, CSWS, cstabile@uoregon.edu

Women Writers Project

This group organized MemoirFest, the first annual CSWS Women Writers Symposium, held May 12, 2012. The second annual CSWS Women Writers Symposium: Common Ground, will be held over Mother’s Day weekend 2013. The Women Writers Project (http://csws.uoregon.edu/?page_id=10220) seeks to foster and enhance opportunities for women writers on campus, in the community, and throughout the Pacific Northwest; to bring distinct voices of published women writers to campus; and to support the work of creative writing by bringing together writers from different disciplines.

For more information, contact coordinator Alice Evans at alicee@uoregon.edu

2012 CSWS Annual Review

Available online at <http://csws.uoregon.edu/?page_id=82>, this 28-page publication includes these highlights:

• “The Rise and Fall of The Goldbergs,” by Carol Stabile, director, CSWS, and professor, SOJC and women’s and gender studies — Despite widespread support as evidenced through fan mail, this popular show by Jewish writer Gertrude Berg was ultimately squelched by anti-communist activists.
• “Witnessing in the Americas: A Conversation with Gabriela Martínez,” documentary filmmaker, SOJC associate professor, and the new associate director of CSWS.
• “We Are the Face of Oaxaca: Testimony and Social Movements,” by Lynn Stephen,  professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies — CSWS-funded research culminates in innovative book.
• Research articles by UO scholars addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields, rural gentrification and immigrant-centered labor, strategies of silence in American women’s poetry, and more.

CSWS Research Matters is published three times yearly. Each two-page article is written by a UO faculty member whose research has been supported by CSWS. Available online at <http://csws.uoregon.edu/?page_id=85>,the most recent issues include:

• 2012, Fall: “Touchstones, Touchscreens and Timeless Tall Tales: A Feminist Analysis of Communication Practice in Exhibitions,” by Phaedra Livingstone, assistant professor, University of Oregon, Arts and Administration Program (AAD) School of Architecture & Allied Arts (A&AA) and coordinator, Museum Studies
• 2012, Spring: “Thinking Through a Research Trajectory, From Hollywood Latinas to Hair/Style” by Priscilla Peña Ovalle, associate professor, Department of English & associate director, Cinema Studies
• 2012, Winter: “Partner Violence and Girls’ Educational and Vocational Development” by Krista M. Chronister, associate professor, College of Education, Counseling Psychology Program
• 2011, Fall: “Why Oklahoma? All-Black Towns and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Indian Territory” by Melissa H. Stuckey, assistant professor, Department of History
   

Feminist Thought and Scholarship

Sandra Morgen; Joan Acker; Jill Weigt. 2010.Stretched Thin: Poor Families, Welfare Work, and Welfare Reform. Cornell University Press.

Pascoe, Peggy. 2009. What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America. Oxford.

Reis, Elizabeth. 2009. Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lynn Fujiwara. 2008. Mothers without Citizenship: Asian Immigrant Families and the Consequences of Welfare Reform. University of Minnesota Press.

Microfinance

Lamia Karim, 2011. Microfinance and Its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh. University of Minnesota Press. Lamia Karim is the associate director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society and an associate professor in the University of Oregon Department of Anthropology.

Grants and Fellowships

The Center for the Study of Women in Society maintains a number of grant programs to support the work initiated by University of Oregon faculty, staff (with the appropriate end degrees), and graduate students. By providing these highly competitive grants and fellowships, CSWS consistently has supported many important research projects at various stages of development and enriched programs in all sectors of the university. The Center has offered research funding to faculty and graduate students at the University of Oregon for more than 25 consecutive years.

For more details visit: 

http://csws.uoregon.edu/?page_id=16

Events:

Spring 2010 Speaker Series Lineup:

February 23rd

Stacey Blake-Beard, PhD., Oscar Holmes, IV, Todd Jenkins, and Crystal Daugherty 

“Insights from the Intersection of National Culture and Gender: Exploring the Mentoring Experiences of Indian Women”   

Time and Place: 4:30pm – 5:50pm, with a reception following. Room M222, Simmons School of Management Building *Validated parking is available on site for $9

April 29th

Elisabeth Kelan PhD., King's College London  

“The Binary Logic and Performing Gender at Work”  

Time and Place: 4:30pm – 5:50pm, with a reception following. Room M222, Simmons School of Management Building *Validated parking is available on site for $9  

May 18th

Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D., Faculty Affiliate, Center for Gender in Organizations Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Managerial Sciences, Georgia State University 

"Race, Gender and the Construction of Positive Identities at Work."   

Time and Place: 4:30pm – 5:50pm, with a reception following. Room M222, Simmons School of Management Building *Validated parking is available on site for $9

Projects:

To learn about specific projects on any of the following themes, please visit the CGO website at http://www.simmons.edu/som/centers/cgo/index.php.

Leadership

CGO is unpacking the topic of leadership to illuminate under-researched and under-recognized aspects of leadership and to give voice to the experiences and knowledge of women leaders of varied racial, class, ethnic, national, and sexual identities, largely marginalized until now. In particular, several projects on Latina leaders are underway or being developed.

Institutional Transformation/Gender Equity and Organizational Effectiveness

Rather than seeing gender as a problem that individual women confront at work, we see gender as embedded in an organization's culture. CGO helps organizations deal with these subtle gender dynamics by identifying the work practices that contribute to the bias and inequities that hinder organizational effectiveness. Recently CGO faculty edited the Reader in Gender, Work and Organization (Blackwell Publishers, forthcoming) that presents an alternative conceptual approach to gender in the workplace. by considering classic and newer topics in management education - leadership, negotiation, human resource management, organizational change, diversity, and globalization - from fresh perspectives.

Virtual Work

Given the speed and scope of technological change in workplaces, CGO is exploring the implications for gender equity and whether the embedded gender dynamics observed in more traditional organizations are replicated as organizations move into virtual work or are founded as virtual organizations.

Working with Differences

Building on the theme of addressing the intersection of race, class, sexual identity, and gender, CGO has been exploring the possibilities and challenges of building alliances among different social identity groups in order to support and sustain organizational change.

Globalization

CGO is developing both conceptual and applied work in the area of global diversity. We are also conducting focused research on the impact of globalization on the dynamics of gender, race, class, sexual identity, and ethnicity within domestic work organizations.

Kolb, Deborah M., Judith Williams, and Carol Frohlinger. 2004. Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success. Jossey-Bass.

Ely, Robin J., Erica Gabrielle Foldy, Maureen Scully, and The Center for Gender in Organizations, Simmons School of Management, eds. 2003. Reader in Gender, Work, and Organization. Blackwell Publishing.

Kolb, Deborah M., and Judith Williams. 2003. Everyday Negotiation: Navigating the Hidden Agendas in Bargaining. Jossey-  Bass.
 

Working Paper Series. Designed to disseminate recent developments in research, theorizing, and practice related to gender and organizational effectiveness.

CGO Insights. Written for both practitioners and scholars, these short, briefing notes are on topics relevant to promoting organizational effectiveness through strengthening gender equity.

CGO Speakers Bureau. Faculty give talks regularly on the themes of gender, leadership, power, negotiation, organizational change, and organizational effectiveness to diverse academic and organizational audiences.

CGO in the Media. Faculty are frequently asked by the popular press for insights and analysis on issues of women, leadership, and management. This is an important mechanism for influencing public discourse on gender, work, and organizations. CGO Consulting Services. CGO engages in consultations and action research projects with organizations interested in examining the ways in which their work norms, values, and practices are gendered and introducing changes that will foster greater equity for both men and women as well as improve organization performance.
Customized Educational Programs. CGO faculty work with the Simmons School of Management to design and deliver programs that help women understand the systemic nature of gender issues, increase their knowledge and skill in navigating their organizations with confidence, and help them to develop more successful careers. Customized programs include Executive Education courses held at Simmons School of Management and courses conducted onsite at the organizations for which they were developed.

The Ms. Foundation for Women is dedicated to building women's collective power to ignite change. We seek opportunities to both proactively and reactively inform public policy, and obtain policy wins at the local, state, tribal and national level, with the ultimate goal of transforming the systems that govern women's lives.

We also aim to change the language, beliefs and behaviors that continue to hold women's oppression in place-particularly at the intersection of race, class and gender-and to shift public debate on key issues so that the perspectives of, and impact on, low income women and women of color are visible and addressed.

We support both cross-issue organizing and organizing within four broad areas of impact:

Women's Health

Reproductive Justice organizing and advocacy
Sexuality education organizing and advocacy
Women and HIV/AIDS policy advocacy and organizational capacity building
Access to health care coverage

Ending Violence

Community-based strategies to prevent child sexual abuse and violence against women and LGBTQ people
Strategies to engage men and boys in ending violence
Public education and media literacy
Youth-driven strategies

Economic Security

Organizing for better wages and working conditions, especially in female dominated sectors
Paid leave (including paid sick days and paid family leave)
Affordable, accessible quality child care
Access to health care coverage

Building Democracy

Building the infrastructure of organizations working for a progressive vision of democracy
Amplifying the voices of women of color, with a special emphasis on the Gulf South
Voter/civic engagement
Just immigration and refugee policies
Criminal Justice reform
Media Justice

Examples of funding initiatives across these broad and interconnected issue areas include:

Katrina Women's Response Fund: The Ms. Foundation responded immediately to the destruction and massive displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina by creating the Katrina Women's Response Fund. The Fund provides strategic support to meet the immediate needs of women of color and low-income women in the Gulf Coast region and ensure that their leadership and priorities are central in both short and long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. By making grants to organizations throughout the region, the Katrina Women's Response Fund invests in the crucial infrastructure that promotes the health, safety, and economic well-being of women, their families and communities.

The Women and AIDS Fund: The Ms. Foundation for Women created the Women and AIDS Fund (WAF)to support organizations that advocate for policies and services that meet the needs of women with HIV/AIDS. WAF remains the only national fund that supports advocacy and self-determination by and for women living with this disease. By providing grants, technical assistance and networking opportunities to community-based organizations led by and for women who are HIV-positive, we contribute to the development of model approaches for women's HIV/AIDS advocacy that can be shared across the country. Our work has also helped create a national network of HIV-positive infected and affected women, called the National Women and AIDS Collective (NWAC), who strive to influence the ways in which policies are determined at the federal level.

The Reproductive Rights Coalition and Organizing Fund: The Ms. Foundation for Women's Reproductive Rights Coalition and Organizing Fund (RRCOF) has been a strong, responsive resource for state reproductive rights organizations across the United States since 1989. RRCOF provides grantmaking, technical assistance, and networking activities to strengthen state-level infrastructures and build critical, broad-based support for reproductive rights. RRCOF aims to increase the capacity of state and local reproductive rights organizations so that they can: 1) expand and mobilize their base of support; 2) reach a broader and more diverse audience; 3) frame reproductive rights and health in a broader health and social justice context; and 4) more effectively advocate for positive - and avert restrictive - reproductive health policies and programs.

Join our movement for social justice and help to bring the experience and solutions of women and girls to the challenging issues that impact women and their communities most. Learn more about how you can show your support. 

Support Us
Events and Opportunities
The Gloria Awards: A National Salute to Women of Vision
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Sign up for Email Alerts

Stir It UP: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy. Written by activist and trainer Rinku Sen, this publication examines the work of economic justice organizations funded by the Ms. Foundation and applies the lessons they learned to other community organizations. Sen also provides models and tools that any organization can use to successfully create social change and influence public policy.

Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies that Work for All of Us . Most Americans believe a job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. Raise The Floor shows us how we can translate that belief into reality by raising the minimum wage. In addition to telling workers' stories, presenting original data, and proposing comprehensive policies, Raise The Floor spotlights businesses large and small that demonstrate how good wages are good business-in good economic times and bad.

Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs: How Eleven Women Escaped Poverty and Became Their Own Bosses. This publication tells the inspirational stories of eleven low-income women who have marshaled the creative energy, confidence, and capital necessary to start their own small businesses. These women, who have used their entrepreneurial skills as a route out of poverty, give an American face to an economic empowerment tool that has enjoyed great success in developing countries.

Ms. Foundation. 2009. Creating Connections, Igniting Change: Annual Report 2007-2008.

Ms. Foundation. 2009. Building Momentum to Sustain Social Change: Evaluation of the Katrina Women's Response Fund.  

Grants

Projects:

Leadership and Leadership Development

Women's Leadership Development: Catalyst has conducted national studies on women's leadership that have generated new insights into the progress women have made; the barriers they face; strategies to improve women's advancement; and issues specific to various industries and professions. Reports include, but are not limited to, the following: women scientists; census of corporate top officers and earners; census of female board directors; and women of color in corporate management.

Women in Corporate Leadership: A European Business Imperative. Catalyst and the Conference Board Europe released their first-ever joint study of women and men leading major corporations and firms in Europe. The research was featured at a two-day conference held on Tuesday, June 18th and Wednesday, June 19th. int hie ground-breaking study, Catalyst and the Conference Board Europe surveyed nearly 700 women and men in 20 European countries to determine the success factors and barriers for women in business and identify company initatives that advance women.

Leadership Careers in High Tech: Wired for Success. High tech companies make up an exciting, evolving, and still relatively new industry-one that has changed the way we look at work and careers and indeed all of our lives. This study provides young women in high tech with an easy-to-use road map that they can use to shape their own careers. Though initially intdended for women, this road map is useful for anyone interested in puruing a career in high tech.

The Next Generation: Today's Professionals, Tomorrow's Leaders. This study examines the generation of men and women born between 1964 and 1975 who are now employed in corporations and professional firms. We hear frequently from leaders in the business community how different this generation seems to be and yet how little is known about them. Our goal is to understand more clearly these women and men and their current attitudes toward work and the balance between work and personal life.

Science and Technology

Women in Science. Catalyst reports explore issues of recruitment and retention of women scientists in both academia and the scientific profession.

Women of Color -- Employment Issues

Women of Color in Corporate Management. Catalyst recently held a press breakfast devoted to the topic of women of color in corporate management to highlight the findings of a multi-year, multi-phase research project undertaken by Sheila Wellington. The project concentrates on opportunities and barriers for women of color in managerial roles.

Women of Color: Three Years Later. Now, more than ever, women of color are taking charge of their careers. Building on its groundbreaking research on women of color in corporate management, Catalyst tracked a core group of women of color managers over the past three years to ascertain their career movement and determine the factors behind it. Although current job and career satisfaction is high, these women report a decline in opportunities to advance to senior leadership and are less satisfied with their prospects for further advancement at their current employer.

Work and Family

Workplace Flexibility and Family Support. Catalyst also completes research on workplace flexibility and family support to highlight the work-family barriers faced by women and the support they need to maintain their professional advancement. Research has also been done on what strategies work most effectively to implement this support.

Business Career

Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers (2008).     This research shows that the number of women on a company’s board of directors impacts the future of women in its senior leadership.

Advancing Women in Business: The Catalyst Guide to Best Practices from the Corporate Leaders (1998).

Women in Financial Services: The Word on the Street. This report on women in financial services shedes light on experiences, perceptions, and attitutudes of women in the industry and how they compare to those of male colleagues.

Women in Law: Making the Case. Catalyst's pioneering study of men's and women's career paths in the legal profession, Women in Law explores the obstascles to women's full integration into the legal profession. The report offers recommendations for legal employers on how to achieve strategic goals by retaining and developing women.

Child Care

Child Care Centers: Quality Indicators (1993). A guide for assessing a child care center by adult-child ratios, group sizes, staff qualifications, the work environment, cost, and utilization.

Child Care in Corporate America: Model Programs (1993). An analysis of corporate-sponsored child care, issues pertaining to quality, a discussion with experts, and six model programs.

Corporate Women -- Employment Issues 

Catalyst.  2010. Making Mentoring Work. Written by Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/365/making-mentoring-work

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Business Case Framework . Writtent by Sarah Dinolfo,  and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/366/making-mentoring-workbusiness-case-framework

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Sample Mentoring Scorecard. Written by Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

 http://www.catalyst.org/publication/369/making-mentoring-worksample-mentoring-scorecard

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Sample Mentor and Mentee Career Development Action Plan. Written by Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/368/making-mentoring-worksample-mentor-and-mentee-career-development-action-plan

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Formal Mentoring ROI Spreadsheet Tool. Written by  Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/367/making-mentoring-workformal-mentoring-roi-spreadsheet-tool

Catalyst 2009. 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors. Writtent by Heather Foust-Cummings and Emily Pomeroy.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/345/2009-catalyst-member-benchmarking-report

Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Strategies for Success (1999). Case studies on how major corporations remove glass ceiling barriers.

Catalyst Census of Women Directors of the Fortune 500 (1998). Published annually since 1993, it lists the women who serve on Fortune 500 boards and how many women are on each company's board.

Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners (1998). An annual census showing how women rank among the highest paid executives, which companies and industries have the most female officers, and which states have the highest concentration of women at the top.

Closing the Gap: Women's Advancement in Corporate and Professional Canada (1998). Based on a survey of more than 400 high-level women and nearly 200 chief executives in Canada's largest corporations and professional firms, this study includes the varying perspectives of senior women and chief executives on what holds women back from the top.

Women in Corporate Leadership: Progress and Prospects (1996). A survey of top women managers offering testimony from the women who have made it, as well as the views of Fortune 1000 CEOs.

Knowing the Territory: Women in Sales (1995). Sales representatives, human resources professionals, and sales managers from major American companies discuss what sales organizations can do to attract, retain, and advance women.

The CEO View: Women on Corporate Boards (1995). America's Fortune 1000 CEOs discuss what they expect from female directors and offer insight into the written and unwritten criteria for board nomination.

Women on Corporate Boards: The Challenge of Change (1993). A report about female directors' backgrounds, their expectations of and experience on corporate boards, their feelings about advocacy for women's issues, and the ways in which they relate to female employees of companies on whose boards they serve.

Mentoring: A Guide to Corporate Programs and Practices (1993). A report describing how to identify and advance high-potential women, recruit and train new employees, and avoid common problems.

Creating Successful Mentoring Programs: A Catalyst Guide. This guide teaches you how to identify and advance high-potential women, recruit and train new employees, and avoid common pitfalls of formal mentoring programs. This recently updated report takes you step-by-step through implementing a formal mentoring program.

Women in Corporate Management: Model Programs for Development and Mobility (1991). A report on 17 Fortune 500 companies with exemplary programs for women and why these initiatives are successful.

Creating Women's Networks: A How-To Guide for Women and Companies. A guide to starting and sustaining women's workplace networks based on Catalyst's work.

On The Line: Women's Career Advancement. A report outlining barriers women face and recommending strategies for overcoming them, including examples of America's newest and most creative policies for helping women advance.

Entrepreneurship

Women Entrepreneurs: Why Companies Lose Female Talent and What They Can Do About It (1998). A joint project with the National Foundation for Women Business Owners and The Committee of 200, it discusses the fact that women are starting new businesses at twice the rate of men.

Feminist Thought and Scholarship

The Catalyst Award: Setting the Standard for Women's Advancement. Details Catalyst Award winning initiatives from 1987 to 1997.

Science and Technology

Women in Engineering: An Untapped Resource (1992). Recommendations of what companies can do to attract, retain, and advance women engineers, including initiatives that address barriers, perceptions of male counterparts, and job satisfaction.

Women Scientists in Industry: A Winning Formula for Companies. A study identifying factors in the corporate culture that contribute to or impede the career advancement of women scientists.

Women of Color -- Corporate Women

Catalyst. 2009. Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms - Women of Color in Professional Services Series. Written by Deepali Bagati.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/344/women-of-color-in-us-law-firmswomen-of-color-in-professional-services-series

Women of Color in Corporate Management: Opportunities and Barriers (1999). The third part of the study that looks at women of color's expectations, experiences, and perceptions of corporate culture and how they affect the women's job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to stay with the company.

Women of Color in Corporate Management: Dynamics of Career Advancement (1998). A discussion of what African-American, Asian-American, and Latina women perceive as barriers to advancement in corporate America. Read Catalyst's recommendations on what companies can do to retain and advance this important segment of their talent pool.

Women of Color in Corporate Management: A Statistical Picture (1997). A combination of census data and previously unpublished information from Catalyst's Women in Corporate Leadership study presents a demographic overview of women managers of color.

Work and Family

Catalyst. 2008. Making Change-Beyond Flexibility: Work-Life Effectiveness as an Organizational Tool for High Performance. Written by Lisa D'Annolfo Levey, Aimee Horowitz, and Meryle Mahrer Kaplan. 

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/318/making-changebeyond-flexibility-creating-champions-for-work-life-effectiveness-spanish-version

Two Careers, One Marriage: Making It Work in the Workplace (1998). Based on the responses of almost 1,000 dual-career earners and aimed at employers, this study describes the issues that mean the most to these couples.

A New Approach to Flexibility: Managing the Work/Time Equation (1997). An assessment of flexible work arrangements describes strategies and solutions.

Making Work Flexible: Policy to Practice (1996). A guide on helping organizations and managers implement and manage flexible work arrangements in corporations and professional firms.

Flexible Work Arrangements II: Succeeding with Part-Time Options (1993). Findings from the first longitudinal study of flexible work arrangements and their effect on employees' career growth.

The Corporate Guide to Parental Leaves (1992). A manual to help employers plan or update a cost-effective parental leave policy, created before the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 went into effect.

Weekly Blog:

www.catalyst.org/etc/wordpress/

Membership Benefits:

Catalyst members join a rich global community of organizations striving to develop and improve ways to attract, retain, and advance women in the workplace. Three benefit packages—Supporter, Research Partner, and Premium Supporter (Europe only)—are offered to accommodate member priorities.

Supporter

• Online access to members-only knowledge products, designated by a circled M, including:
  • Tools—action-oriented materials enabling information to be turned into ready-to-implement programs for making change.
  • Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Practices—detailed descriptions of effective organizational initiatives to advance women into leadership.
  • Eye on D&I—a weekly global news roundup.
• Invitation to participate in Catalyst member benchmarking, allowing you to compare your workforce statistics to competitors' and to Catalyst Award winners.
• Access to Catalyst’s Information Center and its professional librarians, as well as to Catalyst issue specialists.
• Invitation to participate in virtual and in-person events.
• Your organization's name on the Catalyst website, in the Catalyst Annual Report, and in the Catalyst Awards Dinner Program.
• Link to the Catalyst website from your organization's intranet.
• A Catalyst Member Liaison to pair Catalyst resources to your needs.
• Special rates for engaging Catalyst researchers, consultants, and executives through the Speakers Bureau.
• Access to Catalyst's Corporate Board Services, a referral and assessment program.
• Strategic consulting services through Catalyst's Advisory Services (fee-for-service).
• Coming in 2010! The Catalyst Member Activities Planner (MAP) for tracking new research and virtual and in-person events.

Research Partner

• All Supporter benefits.
• Sponsorship recognition in all Catalyst research reports produced in the calendar year.
• A registration-fee discount of $100, per person, for up to five people, at the Catalyst Awards Conference.
• Participation in Catalyst-wide, invitation-only events.
• Complimentary Catalyst Speakers Bureau engagement.

Premium Supporter (Europe)

• All Supporter benefits.
• Strategic Focused Intervention (SFI), real-time strategic guidance from a Catalyst expert, up to 14 hours in a calendar year.
• Participation in Catalyst-wide, invitation-only events.

S&FOnline

www.barnard.edu/sfonline

The Scholar & Feminist Online, a triannual, multimedia, online-only journal of feminist theories and women's movements, provides public access to the Barnard Center for Research on Women's most innovative programming by providing written transcripts, audio and visual recordings, and links to relevant intellectual and social action networks. The journal builds on these programs by publishing related scholarship and other applicable resources. A forum for scholars, activists, and artists whose work articulates the ever-evolving role of feminism in struggles for social justice, S&F Online brings you the latest in cutting-edge theory and practice.

New Feminist Solutions

www.barnard.edu/bcrw/newfeministsolutions

Marking the newest direction in BCRW's more than thirty-five-year-old tradition of print publication, New Feminist Solutions is a series of reports geared toward informing and inspiring activists, policy-makers and others. Each report was written in collaboration with organizations and individuals who, like BCRW, have made a concerted effort to link feminist struggles to those of racial, economic, social and global justice. The reports are based on conversations and ideas emerging from conferences held at Barnard College, and are published in conjunction with websites featuring additional information from these events. Copies of the reports are free. They can be downloaded from the New Feminist Solutions website. Print copies can be requested by emailing bcrw@barnard.edu.

BCRW Newsletter Published biannually, the BCRW newsletter provides event information and feature articles that communicate some of the broader issues engaged by the events, thus providing readers with a new way of understanding the work of the Center as a whole.

The following issues are available to download in PDF format:

Spring 2010

Fall 2009

Spring 2009

Fall 2008

Spring 2008

Fall 2007

Spring 2007

Guide to NYC Women's and Social Justice Organizations

www.barnard.edu/bcrw/guide

This rich guide puts you in touch with the artists, activists and organizations whose work is most crucial to you. You'll find valuable information from nearly five hundred citywide organizations that work for sexual, racial, economic and social justice. The directory reflects our longtime commitment to building far-reaching, and sometimes unexpected coalitions.

Student Initiated Events Fund

The Student Initiated Events Fund provides the opportunity for any student involved in an activist group at Barnard or Columbia to receive funding from the Women's Center to bring a local activist or scholar to a student-oriented program to discuss issues of gender, feminism, or women's lives. Alternately, a student may suggest a topic for a larger Women's Center program.

To apply, please send the following information to bcrw@barnard.edu: Name of student organization; student contact information; description of the event in as much detail as possible.

For further information, please email the address above or stop by the Center.