Safety Nets

Women in the United States frequently lack basic services that are taken for granted in many other parts of the world. To be able to live in economic security, they require educational opportunities; paid sick leave; affordable, quality child care and elder care; as well as portable health care and adequate retirement benefits to protect them throughout their lives. While programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Food Stamps are available, they do not go far enough. More robust safety nets are needed to lift and keep women and their families out of poverty.

Legal Momentum

Contact

395 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Ph. 212-925-6635
Fx. 212-226-1066
http://www.legalmomentum.org
news@legalmomentum.org


Founded in 1970, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund) is the country's oldest national legal advocacy organization dedicated to achieveing women's equality. Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and broad education programs, Legal Momentum has been at the forefront of national efforts to achieve gender equality in the areas of economic justice, education, violence against women, child care, reproductive freedom, and family life.

 

 

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Elizabeth Grayer, President
E-mail: egrayer@legalmomentum.org
Sandra Brown Basso, Coordinator, Executive Department

Legal Department
Silda Palerm, Executive Vice President and Legal Director
Timothy J. Casey, Senior Staff Attorney
Françoise Jacobsohn, Program Manager
Michelle A. Caiola, Senior Counsel
Brigitte A. Watson, Program Coordinator

Immigrant Women Program
Silda Palerm, Executive Vice President and Legal Director

National Judicial Education Program
Lynn Hecht Schafran, Senior Vice President and Director
Eliana Theodorou, Program Associate

Government Affairs Department
Lisalyn R. Jacobs, Vice President for Government Relations

Communications Department
Astrid Fiano, Communications Associate

Development
Carol Noblitt, Chief Development Officer
Julie Repcheck, Deputy Director of Development
Roberta Taormina, Development Assistant

Finance and Administration
David Levin, Director of Finance and Administration
Cynthia D. Foulks, Office Administrator
Jonathan Goldberg, Systems Administrator

Member Experts:
Lynn Schafran – domestic violence and sexual assault
Michelle Caiola – pregnancy discrimination in the workplace
Tim Casey – women and poverty
Francoise Jacobsohn – women in male-dominated employment field
Silda Palerm

Areas of Expertise:

Affirmative Action, Discrimination, Employment & Unemployment, Immigration & Migration, Disparities, Housing, Legal Issues, Population & Reproductive Rights, Poverty, Safety Nets, Taxes & Tax Reform, Economic Development & Security, Education & Education Reform, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Violence

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

Child Care

As part of its on-going commitment to low-income families, Legal Momentum has long focused on the need for child care. Legal Momentum is broaening its work into a campaign to provide a comprehensive system of quality, affordable child care for every family in America.


Poverty and Welfare Reform

Legal Momentum supports the State Advocacy Project, an initiative that promotes child care, reproductive rights, employment rights, and ending domestic violence for low-income women.

Recognizing that 90% of adult TANF recipients are female, Legal Momentum views welfare as a women's issue. Currently, our work has focused on ensuring that a fair and sensible welfare policy that addresses the barriers to women's economic security will be implemented upon Congressional reauthorization.

Employment

Legal Momentum supports placing women in non-traditional jobs, such as firefighting and law enforcement, as well as construction trades and technology fields. Following the World Trade Center disaster of 9/11/2001, Legal Momentum launched Women Rebuild NY/Women Rebuild America, a program designed to further training and job opportunities in these areas.

Immigration

Legal Momentum advocates on behalf of battered immigrant women and victims of trafficking. The organization's Immigrant Women Program, based in the Washington, DC office, has extensive contact with grass-roots organizations and works with federal legislators to ensure the rights and protections of immigrant survivors of violence and sexual abuse. We also advocate for immigrant women to receive economic benefits to which they are lawfully entitled.


Violence against Women

Legal Momentum crafted the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) and currently leads the fight for passage of the Victims Economic Security and Safety Act (VESSA).

Under our Economic Rights for Survivors of Abuse (ERSA) program, we are litigating cases on behalf of women whose careers and well-being are affected by domestic and sexual violence.


Law/Legal Issues

Legal Momentum's Project on Federalism monitors and seeks to educate the public about the Supreme Court's recent decisions limiting the federal government's ability to legislate such vital areas of national policy as violence in the home, guns in schools, protection of our environment, and many other civil and women's rights issues.

The National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts (NJEP), develops trainings, publications, and video curricula to educate judges and prosecutors on gender issues.

 

 

Reports & Resources

Child Care

Know Your Rights: Parents Receiving Public Assistance in New York City

Nowhere to Turn: New York City's Failure to Inform Parents on Public Assistance About Their Child Care Rights

Still Nowhere to Turn: New York City's Continuing Failure to Inform Parents on Public Assistance About Their Child Care Rights

Poverty and Welfare Reform

Legal Momentum. 2009. Ensuring the Economic and Personal Security of Women and Girls. 

www.legalmomentum.org/assets/pdfs/2009-legal-momentum-annual.pdf

Bonus for Building Real Opportunities for Poor Families: State Action Packet

Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973, Martha Davis (1993). Describes the emergence of welfare rights litigation in the 1960s and highlights the strategies of important constitutional cases.

Dangerous Indifference: New York City's Failure to Implement the Family Violence Option

Welfare Reform Information Packet (1998). Includes background on child exclusion (family cap) and illegitimacy ratio.

What Congress Didn't Tell You: This 50-state report begins to track state responses to welfare reform in the area of reproductive choice and specficially focuses on the illegitimacy bonus, the family cap, and the abstinence-only sex education funding.

Working First But Working Poor: The Need for Education & Training in Wefare Reform (Executive Summary and Full Report Available): A Study by Legal Momentum and the Institute for Women's Policy Research on how women welfare recipients are denied access to job training for good-paying jobs in fields traditionally populated by men.

Employment

Household Workers' Rights Under Federal Law Fact Sheet

Know Your rights: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Harassment and Workfare

Manual for Survival for Women in Nontraditional Employment

Nontraditional Employment for Low-Income Women: A Guide for Advocates

The Women of Ground Zero: A Documentary: A 12-minute film documenting the efforts of six women form various backgrounds who helped at the disaster site on and after 9/11.

Violence Against Women & ERSA:

Not Enough: What TANF Offers Family Violence Victims. 2010. 

The survey on which this report is based is a unique, comprehensive effort to understand when TANF successfully assists victims of family violence, and when the program falls short, leaving victims to fend for themselves. 

Action Packet: State Laws Can Help Domestic Violence Victims At Work

The Impact of Violence in the Lives of Working Women: Creating Solutions, Creating Change: Designed to aid employers, managers, supervisors, and human resource professionals, this guide explains how violence against women affects the workplace and how businesses can develop solutions that assist women employees who have suffered.

Protecting Women's Welfare in the Face of Violence: Critiques welfare reform proposals in light of data on the relationship between violence against women and poverty.

Report From the Front Lines: The Impact of Violence on Poor Women: This qualitative study demonstrates that domestic violence and poverty interact to keep women on public assistance. Also included is a copy of the Family Violence Amendment.

State-by-State Laws on Discrimination Against Domestic Violence Victims

State-by-State Laws on Domestic Violence Workplace Policies

State-by-State Laws on Employment Leave for Domestic Violence Victims

State-by-State Laws on Unemployment Insurance

Employment Rights for Survivors of Abuse (ERSA) General Brochure

Domestic Violence and Unemployment Insurance: A Manual for Clients and Advocates

Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits (also available in French)

Employment Rights of Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Domestic Violence Survivors

Job Protections & Accommodations for Disabilities Caused by Domestic Violence

Safety Planning in the Workplace: Protecting Yourself and Your Job (also available in Chinese, French, Hindu, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese)

Survivors' Right to Take Time from Work to Participae in Criminal Proceedings (also available in French)

Taking Leave from Work for a Family Member's Serious Condition

Taking Leave from Work for Your Own Serious Condition

Welfare-to-Work Programs

Welfare-to-Work Programs in New York

Workplace Discrimination Against Abused Women (also available in French)

Your Legal Rights When an Abuser Injures You at Work

Law/Legal Issues and NJEP:

National Judicial Education Program (NJEP)Publications List

Credibility in the Courts: Why is There a Gender Gap?

Implementation Resources Directory, a publication of the Gender Fairness Strategies Project: Provides an annotated list of actions taken and materials available to address gender bias in state courts that can be replicated or adapted in other jurisdictions.

Is the Law Male? Let Me Count the Ways: Illustrates the concept of the law as male by analogizing it to the medical community's treatment of the male body as the norm.

Overwhelming Evidence: Reports on Gender Bias in the Courts

There's No Accounting For Judges: Recounts recent cases in which judges imposed minimal sentences on wife beaters and murderers, the intense response of the communities in which these cases occurred, and the ways in which judicial selection, election, education, evaluation, and discipline can be used to prevent recurrence of this type of gender bias.

Women of Color in the Courts

NJEP curricula materials for judges and prosecutors also available.

Education

An Annotated Summary of the Regulations for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (1997). A summary and an analysis of Title IX regulations, including housing and facilities, counseling, scholarships, and athletics.

Public Education Programs for African-American Males: A Women's Educational Perspective, Walteen Grady Truely and Martha F. Davis (1995). Reviews educational research data and theories relevant to recent public school programs targeting African-American males and analyzes the programs from a gender equity perspective.


Reproductive Rights

Drawing the Line: A Handbook for Creating Residential Picketing and Buffer Zone Laws in Your Community: Explores the legal basics of how to enact and implement residential picketing and buffer zone ordinances to protect clinics and their staff from anti-choice violence and harassment. It covers legal standards, perovides an overview of recent court decisions, and offers guidelines for drafting municipal ordinances.

Stop the Terrorism: Understanding Your Rights Under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE): Explains how you can use FACE in your community to prevent, stop, and redress anti-abortion tactics including clinic blockades and invasions, and acts of violence, intimidation, and property damage directed at those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.

Legal Resource Kits:


Collections of materials providing general legal information are available on the following topics:

Divorce

Domestic Violence and Child Custody

Employment Sexual Harassment & Discrimination

Filing a Judicial Complaint in State Courts

How to Find a Lawyer (also available in Spanish)

Incest and Child Abuse

Sexual Harassment in Housing

Sexual Harassment in the Schools

Stalking

Violence Against Women

NOW LDEF also distributes the following publications of the National Center on Women and Family Law, which is now closed:

Analysis and Policy Implications of the New Domestic Violence Police Studies (1994).

Battered Women - Procedure for Change of Name and Social Security Number (1995).

Batterer's Pathology: Questions and Implications (1993).

Defending a Battered Woman Accused of Parental Abduction (1992).

The Effect of Woman Abuse on Children, 2nd. ed. (1994).

Guide to Interstate Custody: A Manual for Domestic Violence Advocates, 2nd. ed. (1995).

Improving the Health Care Response to Domestic Violence Through Protocols and Policies (1994).

Mandatory Arrest Laws (1994).

Mandatory Arrest: Problems and Possibilities (1994).

Mediation - A Guide for Advocates and Attorneys Representing Battered Women (1990).

Mediation and You (1991).

Mediator's Guide to Domestic Abuse (1989).

Mediation of Domestic Violence Cases (1994).

Medical Domestic Violence Protocols and Standards (1994).

Mutual Orders of Protection (1994).

National Handbook on Teen Dating Violence and the Law. For teens and college-age students.

Non-Disclosure Laws: Protection for Domestic Violence Victims (1994).

State Domestic Violence Laws Regarding Firearms (1993).

State Laws Exempting Battered Women from Mediation (1992).

Status of Marital Rape Exemption Statutes in the United States (1996).

Suing the Police After DeShaney (1995).

Voter Address Confidentiality for Domestic Violence Victims (1995).

Woman Battering: A Major Cause of Homelessness (1991).

Back issues of The Women's Advocate newsletter also available.

 

 

Center News


Multimedia

Video

Photos

Audio


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

 

Internships

Fall 2010 & Spring 2011:

  • Research Internship
  • Communications and Outreach Internship
  • Development Internship
  • Administrative Internship

*Applications for Fall internships are due August 23 and due December 14 for Spring internships.

 

Staff Position

Director of Research

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) seeks an experienced social science researcher with excellent management, program and business development, and public presentation skills to strengthen and lead the strategic growth of its policy research portfolio.

*Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

 

 

 

 


Multimedia

Video

Photos

Audio


WOMEN GO GLOBAL CD-ROM

The United Nations and the International Women's Movement 1945-2000

To mark Beijing +5, the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women have produced Women Go Global, showing how the international women's movement and the United Nations have worked side-by-side in the quest for gender equality. The multimedia presentation features milestones in the establishment of the international agenda for equality between women and men, from the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and Beijing +5 in June 2000. Kristen Timothy, Visiting Scholar at the National Council for Research on Women, undertook the substantive research that provides the basis for the program.

To order a copy of Women Go Global, click here.

 

 

Teaser: 

The United Nations and the International Women's Movement 1945-2000 To mark Beijing +5, the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women will produce a CD-Rom showing how the international women's movement and the United Nations have worked side-by-side in the quest for gender equality. Milestones in the establishment of the international agenda for equality between women and men from the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and Beijing +5 in June 2000 are featured in the multi-media presentation. Kristen Timothy, Visiting Scholar at the National Council for Research on Women, undertook the substantive research that provides the basis for the CD-ROM.

Cover Image: 

Women in Fund Management: A Road Map for Achieving Critical Mass — and Why it Matters

For more than a quarter century, the National Council for Research on Women has promoted the advancement of women and girls and highlighted the benefits of women’s participation, active engagement and leadership in decision-making. In this project, the Council brings this same lens to the historically male-dominated spaces of fund management and the financial services more broadly.

Our report, Women in Fund Management: A Road Map for Achieving Critical Mass – and Why it Matters, explores the under-representation of women in the field, draws on research suggesting the benefits women can bring, and lays out concrete action steps for change. Specifically, we call on the financial services industry to develop a “critical mass principle” with quantifiable benchmarks and guidelines for increasing the number of women at all leadership levels.

Teaser: 

For more than a quarter century, the National Council for Research on Women has promoted the advancement of women and girls and highlighted the benefits of women’s participation, active engagement and leadership in decision-making. In this project, the Council brings this same lens to the historically male-dominated spaces of fund management and the financial services more broadly.

Cover Image: 
Attachment: 

Health Scare Underlines Need to Repair Safety Nets

May 1, 2009 posted by Shyama Venkateswar The recent health alert on swine flu has serious implications for those surviving at the margins of society without health care, paid sick leave, or other benefits. Women working in low-skill jobs are particularly vulnerable. Judith Warner's piece in the NYT brings much-needed attention to this issue: how to provide economic security for millions of women, particularly those who are single heads of households, working part-time jobs that are tenuously held at best.


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The Impact of the Global Recession

April 17, 2009 posted by Shyama Venkateswar The Gender Policy Group at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs organized a lively panel discussion on “Gender, Jobs and This Recession” on Monday, April 13, 2009. I was invited to speak on the panel along with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Melinda Wolfe, Subha Barry and Heidi Brown. Here are the main points that I addressed: The current economic crisis is unprecedented in terms of its global reach and impact; here’s what the current economic crisis looks like within the United States.

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that current unemployment stands at 13.2 million.
  • 5.1 million jobs have been lost since December 2007.
  • The subprime lending crisis has particularly hit hard women and people of color because of predatory lending practices. NCRW’s research has shown that African American and Latina women borrowers are most likely to receive sub-prime loans at every income level. Women are 32% more likely than men to receive subprime mortgages.
  • In the financial sector, men’s unemployment in Feb was 6.9% while for women it was 6.6%
  • There have been increased reports of women who were secondary breadwinners in their households having to now become primary wage earner because of layoffs.

At the international level, the picture remains pretty grim as well:


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Keeping Women on the Economic Agenda

Last night I attended a dynamic panel hosted by Legal Momentum on Women’s Economic Equality: The Next Frontier in Women’s Rights.  The brilliant panelists duked it out, discussing the current economic situation, its impact on women, and in what directions we should be heading. 


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