Democracy & Society
The Status of Women and Girls
The Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa
 Dr. Jane Henrici and Sabria Al-Thawr, Gender and Development Advisor for the Youth Leadership Development Foundation of Yemen, at the IFES-IWPR Beirut Regional Meeting (photo taken by Ambar Zobairi)
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The Institute of Women’s Policy Research’s (IWPR) is working with the International Federation for Electoral Systems (IFES) on a multi-year project on the Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa (SWMENA). IWPR contributes to the project its specialized expertise in defining, measuring, and analyzing comparative and comprehensive indicators and conducting participatory research concerning the status of women. In its projects on the Status of Women in the United States, IWPR engages in broad dissemination and public education efforts that are based on close partnerships with state and local committees of researchers, policymakers, and advocates concerned with different aspects of women’s status. As an element of the IWPR approach to using rigorous research to improve women’s status, these committee partnerships help to design, draft, and review reports, develop policy recommendations, and coordinate message preparation for wider dissemination. IFES and IWPR have used committee input in Lebanon, Morocco, and Yemen to design surveys intended to fill gaps in existing data about women in those nations; after the surveys have been conducted and analyzed 2009-2010, country reports and fact sheets will be produced and shared with groups and agencies working to help women in the region improve what they know and what they can use as information to influence policy.
The Status of Women in the States Project
The Status of Women in the States reports are a unique source of comprehensive information on women. Nowhere else are these data available in such an accessible, readable format for each state. The reports are designed with the assistance of State Advisory Committees to enable policymakers and citizens to track the progress women are making in their states, relative to men, to women in other states, and to women and men in the United States as a whole. Each report offers policy recommendations shaped by the research findings for that state.
Visit The Status of Women in the States website, and find out how your state ranks!
Women's Economic Status in the States
Women have made tremendous progress toward gaining economic equality during the last several decades. Nonetheless, throughout the United States, women earn less, are less likely to own a business, and are more likely to live in poverty than men. Disparities abound regionally and by state, and, even more profoundly, race and ethnicity continue to shape women’s economic opportunities.
The Economic Status of Women in the States:
New York State View
South Carolina View
Georgia View
Arizona View
Michigan View
Indiana, 2006: Highlights View
Ohio View
The Best and Worst State Economies for Women
(National Briefing Paper)
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The Economic Status of Women in the States examines women’s economic status, state by state, in five key areas:
- Women’s earnings
- The gender wage ratio
- The percent of women in managerial and professional occupations
- Women’s business ownership
- Women’s poverty
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Status of Girls in the States
The Status of Girls in the States is part of a new offshoot of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research report card series Status of Women in the States. It draws upon a variety of data sources to examine the social, economic, and health status of girls and gives recommendations for program and policy change and development to improve the lives of girls for the betterment of all.
The Status of Girls :
New York City View
Minnesota View
Women, Immigration, and Religion
In November 2008, IWPR began a new study on women, immigration, and religion. Funded by the Ford Foundation, this study will document the ways in which religious congregations and nonprofits work to advance the rights, economic status, and general well-being of immigrant women in three regions: Atlanta, Phoenix, and Northern Virginia. IWPR’s research will include data analysis of basic demographics and the economic standing of immigrant women in these three regions, a review of recent literature on women and immigration, and in-depth interviews with leaders of congregations and nonprofit organizations that work with Latina immigrants in particular. IWPR will publish the findings from this study in an accessible report that provides valuable information to assist policymakers, advocates, religious leaders, and others working to promote social justice for immigrant women in the United States.
Gender, Religion, and Civic Involvement: Understanding and Promoting Women’s Public Vision
Visit the Politics, Religion, and Women’s Public Vision website
In 2004, IWPR conducted a series of interviews with leaders and participants in religious and interfaith organizations. The interviews involved in-depth discussions about activists’ values and goals, the content of their work, and their experiences with leadership development. They covered subjects such as the value and contributions of women’s leadership, the nature of recruitment efforts, motivations for activism, and the benefits of their experiences. Based on these interviews, IWPR is identifying successful strategies to encourage participation in civic and political life. A report on the findings from this research was released in 2005. It included recommendations for how to encourage women to become involved in civic and political activism and how to build their leadership skills in that work.
Within the research for this project, IWPR found that religious women activists are deeply committed to a set of moral concepts that includes responsibility for the well-being of others and interconnectedness with the most disadvantaged in society:
- From a Hindu women: “There’s a connection between all human beings, and…[activism] is something that you have to do in order to feel like you can be morally sound.”
- From a Catholic: “A large part of how we deliver ourselves ties back to our faiths…dignity, respect, solidarity, we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, participation, community.”
- And from a Buddhist: “The racism and the prejudice and the deprivation… we see it here and-- so I feel like it’s something that we have to take care of.”
Based on these findings, IWPR’s next steps will involve promoting a vision for U.S. policymaking rooted in women’s public vision and values. Many political leaders recognize the need to bring moral values into public discussions of religion, morality, and politics. IWPR hopes to provide a basis for doing so that will bring a variety of women together, in part based on the research we have done.
IWPR is currently convening a Working Group on Women’s Public Vision composed of women leaders in politics, religious organizations, and feminist organizing. This group will generate concrete ways to promote women’s values and vision through specific collaborations, communications strategies, and networking opportunities. The first major meeting of the group will be held at our Eighth International Women’s Policy Research Conference in June, 2005, which will also include a series of sessions devoted to IWPR’s research and outreach work in this area.
The work of the group will be informed by IWPR’s research, which will also be supplemented by two new sets of interviews in 2005: one examining how religious women of color define economic justice, and one examining how national feminist leaders think about values, religion, and morality.
IWPR’s work in this area is funded by the Ford Foundation and the Sister Fund.
Visit the Politics, Religion, and Women’s Public Vision website
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The Journal of Women, Politics and Policy
IWPR continues to co-lead the recently launched Journal of Women, Politics and Policy, published by Haworth press. Co-editors are Heidi Hartmann and Carol Hardy-Fanta (University of Massachusetts, Boston). IWPR members receive discounted or complimentary annual subscriptions to the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. The Journal is aimed at developing and disseminating new research on politics and policy of special interest to women. The Journal is multi-disciplinary and international in reach, and it presents articles from all social science disciplines and all regions of the world.
Contact Ryan Koch, Development Director, to become an IWPR member today!
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PuLSE: Policy Listserv and Strategy Exchange
IWPR moderates online forum for discussion, information and strategy exchange among those who work on policy issues relevant to women's lives. The IWPR Policy Listserv and Strategy Exchange was designed to expand the collaboration and coalition-building initiated by the Status of Women in the States project and to create an efficient tool for sharing information on women's issues. Since its inception in July 2000, the Policy Listserv and Strategy Exchange (PuLSE) has grown steadily, attracting a wide range of participants, including advocates, academics, students, policy makers, and researchers. PuLSE has elicited dialogues on child care, paid family leave, social security, health policy, and the implications of the new presidential administration for women's policy. List Administrators coordinate posts by IWPR researchers in each of the Institute's program areas. IWPR expects PuLSE membership and participation to grow considerably and aims to make the list a premier forum for timely debate on policy issues affecting women.
Sign up for the PuLSE Listserv
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Capitol Hill Briefings on Policies Affecting Women's Status
As co-chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations' Domestic Priorities Task Force (with the National Organization for Women), IWPR coordinates and participates in a series of policy briefings for Congressional staff. The Capitol Hill Briefing Series covers topics such as TANF, WIA, and VAWA reauthorization, women's health, social security, education and training, workplace issues, access to family planning, and violence and poverty. For more information, contact Elisabeth Crum,
Communications Associate, at crum@iwpr.org.
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Women's Civic Engagement
"Women's Community Involvement: The Effects of Money, Safety, Parenthood, and Friends" ~ Research-in-Brief
"Does Women's Representation in Elected Office Lead to Women-Friendly Policy?" ~ Briefing Paper
"Transforming the Political Agenda: Gender Differences in Bill Sponsorship on Women's Issues" ~ Research-in-Brief
"The Political Glass Ceiling: Gender, Strategy, and Incumbency in US House Elections, 1978-1998" ~ Research-in-Brief
"Women's Status and Social Capital Across the States" ~ Briefing Paper
Why Gender Matters in Understanding September 11: Women, Militarism, and Violence ~ Report
Mothers and Soldiers: Gender, Citizenship, and Civil Society in Contemporary Russia. ~Book, available through Routledge Press.
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