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Research conducted by the bureau has helped identify problems con-

fronting working women and has been the basis for its advocacy of several

public policies and the enactment of federal and state legislation. The

Women’s Bureau was instrumental in including women in the Fair Labor

Standards Act of 1938, which for the first time set minimum wages and

maximum hours for women. During World War II, the bureau advocated

nontraditional job training and child care, priorities that continue to the

present. The bureau played a significant role in the creation of the Presi-

dent’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1961 and in the passage of

the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

The bureau’s 1994 Working Women Count! project involved re-

sponses from more than a quarter of a million women. The survey revealed

that women continue to seek equitable pay and benefits, a workplace cul-

ture that supports and respects families, and equal opportunity. In the

1990s, the bureau also conducted a public education campaign on

women’s job rights and created programs to help women balance work and

family needs and to help women move from welfare to the paid workforce.

See also Equal Pay Act of 1963; President’s Commission on the Status of

Women; Women’s Trade Union League

References Freeman, The Politics of Women’s Liberation (1975); www.dol.gov.

Women’s Campaign Fund

Founded in 1974 by a bipartisan group of women, the Women’s Cam-

paign Fund (WCF) was the first organization formed with the specific

purpose of providing financial support for women candidates who sup-

port the Equal Rights Amendment and other women’s issues and are pro-

choice, regardless of party affiliation. WCF began raising money for

women candidates when many of them could not attract financial sup-

port because of their gender. WCF also recruits candidates and provides

training for them.

See also Education, Women and

References www.edc.org/WomensEquity/weeainfo/index.html.

Women’s Equity Action League

The Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) was founded by Elizabeth

Boyer in 1968 to advocate feminist issues and to be a moderate alternative

to the National Organization for Women (NOW). A founder of NOW,

Boyer shared the organization’s feminist goals but believed that its militant

activities and positions offended moderate Americans. She also thought

that NOW’s support for abortion rights and gay rights alienated many who

supported the equality of women. She left NOW and organized WEAL.

Boyer served as WEAL’s first president and recruited a forty-four-

member board of directors. Rejecting picketing, demonstrating, and vio-

lent or unseemly behavior, WEAL members emphasized working in and

with the political structure. They supported the Equal Rights Amendment

and tax credits for child care, fought against discrimination in tax laws

710 Women’s Equity Action League

and sex bias in the Social Security system, and worked for the appoint-

ment and election of women on the state and local levels. In 1972, WEAL

stopped avoiding the issue of abortion and supported the repeal of laws

regulating and prohibiting abortions.

WEAL’s initial priorities included the elimination of sex-role stereo-

typing in elementary and secondary schools, the promotion of women in

sports, the analysis of credit and banking practices, and a study of divorce re-

form. In 1970, WEAL initiated formal complaints against forty-one univer-

sities and colleges, charging them with sex discrimination in violation of Ex-

ecutive Orders 11246 and 11375. The orders forbid federal contractors from

discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex.

WEAL contended that the colleges and universities, as federal contractors re-

ceiving $3.8 billion per year, were subject to the provisions of the order. The

organization pointed to an industry-wide pattern of sex discrimination in

the academic community. In 1974, WEAL began a series of lawsuits against

the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to enforce affirma-

tive action policies, particularly in higher education. The resulting decisions

shaped affirmative action policy in education for nearly twenty years. WEAL

also helped open Rhodes scholarships to women. By 1975, WEAL had be-

come a primary political pressure group in the feminist movement.

Other groups adopted priorities and tactics similar to WEAL’s, and

the group disbanded in 1990. The Marguerite Rawalt Legal Defense Fund

continues to offer grants to support legal action in the areas that had been

WEAL priorities.

See also Affirmative Action; Executive Order 11246; Executive Order 11375;

National Organization for Women

References Daniels, “W.E.A.L.: The Growth of a Feminist Organization” (1979);

Freeman, The Politics of Women’s Liberation (1975); Slavin, U.S. Women’s

Interest Groups (1995); Stimpson, ed., Women and the “Equal Rights”

Amendment (1972).

Women’s Health Equity Act

First introduced in 1990 by the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues

(CCWI), the Women’ Health Equity Act (WHEA) is a package of pro-

posed bills modeled after the Economic Equity Act. It includes provisions

to create an Office for Women’s Health Research and Development within

the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a gynecology research program

within NIH, and a Center for Women’s Health Research; to require the

NIH director to report on progress on women’s health and research; to set

up a database of research on women’s health; and to require the inclusion

of women and minorities in NIH clinical trials. New versions of the

WHEA are introduced each session of Congress.

Women’s Health Equity Act 711

The proposed act resulted from a General Accounting Office investi-

gation that CCWI had requested. The report documented women’s gen-

eral exclusion from medical research studies conducted by the NIH. One

example of women’s exclusion from health research was the 1988 Harvard

Medical School study that demonstrated that taking one aspirin a day

could help prevent heart attacks. It involved 22,000 subjects, all of them

men. Senator Barbara Mikulski noted: “We have no idea whether that

technique will help women or not. This is blatant discrimination. It is in-

excusable, unforgivable, and we will not allow it to continue.”

CCWI helped pass the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Preven-

tion Act in 1990 to make mammograms and Pap smears more accessible to

low-income women. Two years later, CCWI succeeded in passing the Mam-

mography Quality Assurance Act, establishing federal standards for mam-

mography facilities and requiring their accreditation. Also in 1992, Congress

passed the Infertility Prevention Act, providing screening and treatment for

low-income women of chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases

that can make women infertile. Congress passed three more provisions of

the WHEA in 1993, creating the Office of Research on Women’s Health, re-

quiring a biennial report on progress in women’s health research and treat-

ment, and establishing a clearinghouse on research on women’s health.

See also Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues; Economic Equity Act;

Health Care, Women and; Mikulski, Barbara Ann; Women’s Health, Office of

Research on

References Bingham, Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress

(1997).

Women’s Health, Office of Research on

The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), authorized by Con-

gress in 1993, serves as a focal point for women’s health research at the Na-

tional Institutes of Health (NIH). ORWH has three general mandates: to

increase research into the diseases and other health conditions that affect

women, identify gaps in the knowledge about them, and develop research

priorities; to ensure that women are included in research studies; and to

increase the number of women in biomedical careers.

ORWH works with the scientific and medical community, organiza-

tions interested in women’s health, Congress, and other relevant con-

stituencies. It conducts workshops and seminars to involve the research

community in developing its agenda and priorities. In the late 1990s, its

priority research areas included immunologic and arthritic diseases; acute

and chronic pain; reproductive health; sexually transmitted diseases; gas-

trointestinal disorders; and risk factors for women in different racial, eth-

nic, and socioeconomic groups.

712 Women’s Health, Office of Research on

ORWH cosponsors the Women’s Health Initiative, one of the largest

prevention studies ever conducted in the United States. Focusing on the

major causes of death, disability, and frailty in postmenopausal women, it

will involve over 164,000 women in a fifteen-year study. When completed,

the study will offer information on prevention strategies and risk factors

for coronary heart disease, breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis.

See also Women’s Health Equity Act

References Bingham, Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress

(1997); www.od.nih.gov/orwh/overview.html.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was

founded by women active in the international suffrage movement, who be-

lieved that peace required more than treaties between nations and that jus-

tice, freedom, nonviolence, opportunity, and equality were essential com-

ponents of peace. Since its beginnings, WILPF has evolved into an

organization that seeks to create an environment of political, economic, so-

cial, and psychological freedom for all members of the human community.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom 713

A petition on

arbitration as a

substitute for war

was presented to

President Calvin

Coolidge at the White

House by Jane

Addams, president

of the Women’s

International League

for Peace and

Freedom, and other

peace activists, 1927

(Corbis/Bettmann)

As World War I raged across Europe in 1915, European and North

American women gathered at The Hague in Holland to register their ob-

jections to the use of violence as a response to conflict, to offer suggestions

to end it, and to identify strategies to prevent war. They created the Inter-

national Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, which changed its

name to Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom after

World War I. In the United States, Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt

had founded the Woman’s Peace Party, which became the U.S. Section of

WILPF. In addition, American Emily Greene Balch was the organization’s

first international secretary. Even though WILPF’s American leadership

included notable and admired women, in the 1920s and 1930s the organ-

ization was suspected of having Communist leanings.

WILPF seeks world disarmament; the end of sexism, racism, class-

ism, and homophobia; and the end of all forms of violence, including

rape, battering, exploitation, and war. WILPF’s mission also includes pro-

moting sustainable agriculture and economic justice within and among

nations. The organization works to fulfill its mission through lobbying,

organizing direct action, conducting and publishing research, and supply-

ing members of Congress and state legislatures with information.

See also Addams, Jane; Catt, Carrie Clinton Lane Chapman; Violence Against

Women Act of 1994

References www.wilpf.org.

Women’s Joint Congressional Committee

Created in 1920 after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting

women suffrage rights, the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee

(WJCC) coordinated the national lobbying efforts of several women’s or-

ganizations. Its areas of interest were protection for infants, public educa-

tion, arms reduction, and protective labor legislation in addition to other

issues concerning women. The WJCC did not take positions on issues. In-

stead it served as a clearinghouse for member organizations, and when

three or more member organizations shared a position on a bill, they

formed a subcommittee to develop and execute a strategy for it. In addi-

tion, a standing committee monitored legislation in Congress.

WJCC’s charter organizations were the American Association of

University Women, American Home Economics Association, Business

and Professional Women/USA, General Federation of Women’s Clubs,

National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associations, National

Consumers League, National Council of Jewish Women, Women’s Trade

Union League, and Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. For a time, the

WJCC had twenty-one member organizations.

714 Women’s Joint Congressional Committee

Described in 1922 as the most powerful and highly organized lobby

in Washington, D.C., the WJCC succeeded in passing several of the mea-

sures on its legislative agenda, including the Sheppard-Towner Maternity

and Infancy Protection Act in 1921, the Cable Act in 1922, the establish-

ment of the Women’s Bureau, and the establishment of a federal prison

for women. Research conducted by the WJCC revealed that 60 percent of

civil service examinations were closed to women. WJCC worked with a

woman on the Civil Service Commission, ended the discrimination, and

then passed a measure that reclassified civil service positions to establish

pay equity among them. The WJCC’s support for the Child Labor

Amendment helped gain its approval in Congress, but not enough states

ratified it. Because of its support for protective labor legislation, the

WJCC opposed the Equal Rights Amendment and succeeded in prevent-

ing it from gaining congressional approval. In areas less directly related to

women, WJCC also supported the establishment of a coal commission

and passage of the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Control Act.

In the mid-1920s, leaders in several of the member organizations

were accused of having Communist connections. These and other allega-

tions of a spider web of Communists among women’s organizations con-

tributed to the WJCC’s loss of influence and its dissolution in the early

1930s.

See also American Association of University Women; Business and Professional

Women/USA; Cable Acts; Child Labor Amendment; General Federation of

Women’s Clubs; National Consumers League; National Council of Jewish

Women; Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921;

Spider Web; Willebrandt, Mabel Walker; Woman’s Christian Temperance

Union; Women’s Bureau; Women’s Trade Union League

References Breckenridge, Women in the Twentieth Century: A Study of Their

Political, Social, and Economic Activities (1933); Brown, American Women in

the 1920s: Setting a Course (1987); Lemons, The Woman Citizen (1973).

Women’s Liberation Movement

In the 1960s, groups of young women in Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, and

other cities formed spontaneously and independently of each other.

Some of the women had experience in the civil rights movement in the

South and others in radical movements in the North, but they shared a

common interest in ending male dominance and in fundamentally re-

shaping society. For example, after concluding that hierarchies are a male

form of organization, they developed nonhierarchical groups with equal

relationships. They agreed that no one would be a leader or an achiever,

and they would resolve differences through discussion. The groups

adopted consciousness raising as a technique for revealing sexism to

Women’s Liberation Movement 715

themselves and each other and developed theories regarding male domi-

nance and sexism.

Women’s liberation groups differed from organizations like the Na-

tional Organization for Women (NOW) in several ways. NOW, for exam-

ple, works to gain power for women in the existing social, political, and

economic systems. Women’s liberation adherents rejected those structures

and sought to create a new, egalitarian, unstructured society. They re-

jected men’s participation in their groups and explored lesbian relation-

ships as purely feminist relationships. Many of their ideas were initially

viewed as radical or undesirable by more staid feminists, but over time the

ideas gained acceptance within the larger feminist movement. By the mid-

1970s, women’s liberation groups had dissolved.

See also Feminist Movement; New York Radical Women; Radicalesbians;

Redstockings

References Davis, Moving the Mountain: The Women’s Movement in America

Since 1960 (1991).

Women’s Policy, Inc.

Founded in 1995, Women’s Policy, Inc. (WPI) provides nonpartisan re-

search and information to policymakers, advocates, and the public on is-

sues important to women and children. Through a weekly newsletter,

briefing papers, and an annual summary of legislation affecting women

and families, WPI reports on abortion, affirmative action, women’s health

issues, violence against women, and economic equity for women. Other

issues covered include workplace fairness, women’s entrepreneurship,

family-friendly work policies, child care, and child support enforcement.

Two former staff members of the Congressional Caucus on Women’s

Issues formed WPI after the U.S. House of Representatives abolished

dozens of legislative service organizations, including the caucus.

See also Abortion, Affirmative Action; Child Support Enforcement; Economic

Equity Act; Health Care,Women and; Pay Equity

References http://orgs.womenconnect.com.

Women’s Political Council

Founded in 1946, the Women’s Political Council (WPC) played a critical

role in the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and helped launch

the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The WPC had threatened a boy-

cott of the city’s buses since 1950, and Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her

bus seat and subsequent arrest provided the catalyst to spark the boycott.

Under the leadership of the WPC, the boycott began four days after her

arrest and lasted for more than a year.

716 Women’s Policy, Inc.

A group of well-educated African American women had formed WPC

after the Montgomery branch of the League of Women Voters (LWV) re-

fused to admit black women members. About forty women decided to cre-

ate the WPC to provide themselves with a means to be politically active, fo-

cusing their efforts on fighting racial segregation and improving the lives of

all African Americans, particularly women and children. To achieve its

goals, WPC sponsored a variety of programs, including Negro Youth Day,

which sought to inspire African American youth to become leaders and to

believe in the possibility of change through electoral politics. Several of the

students trained in WPC programs became leaders in the Student Nonvio-

lent Coordinating Committee, registering voters in Mississippi and other

states in the Deep South. The organization also organized letter-writing

campaigns, taxation protests, and meetings with the mayor.

As the news circulated that Rosa Parks had been arrested on 1 De-

cember 1955, WPC leader JoAnn Robinson, head of the English depart-

ment at Alabama State College in Montgomery, used the college’s mimeo-

graph machines to print leaflets calling for a bus boycott. Other WPC

members went into action, distributing the leaflets and organizing sup-

port for the boycott, which began on 5 December and involved almost all

African Americans in the community. Robinson continued to use the col-

lege’s mimeograph machines throughout the boycott, which provided a

vital means of communication, despite the fact that she risked her job and

her safety by doing it. Although she attempted to keep her role as invisi-

ble as possible, she was among the first arrested as a result of the boycott

and later lost her teaching position for her activism.

After members were subpoenaed during the trials relating to the

boycott, they destroyed the organization’s records out of fear that the in-

formation would be subpoenaed and the meeting minutes and member-

ship lists publicized, resulting in retaliation against them. WPC dissolved

in 1960 as members lost their jobs, feared being fired or being subjected

to other forms of retaliation, and discontinued their activism. The re-

maining core continued the work through churches.

See also Civil Rights Movement, Women in the; Parks, Rosa Louise McCauley

References Barnett, “Black Women’s Collectivist Movement Organizations:

Their Struggles during the ‘Doldrums’” (1995).

Women’s Political Union

Founded by Harriot Stanton Blatch, the Women’s Political Union (WPU)

began as the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (ELSSW), a

group that Blatch established in 1907 to revitalize the woman suffrage

movement. Through the ELSSW, Blatch organized working women from

the ranks of doctors, lawyers, milliners, and industrial workers, women

Women’s Political Union 717

who were generally overlooked by the National American Woman Suf-

frage Association (NAWSA), the dominant suffrage organization. To help

attract working-class women, ELSSW concentrated on their needs; in ad-

dition, it did not have membership fees. Through the ELSSW, for exam-

ple, trade union women testified before the New York legislature in sup-

port of woman suffrage, the first time working-class women had done so.

ELSSW changed its name in 1910 to the Women’s Political Union to in-

clude a broader range of women. Considered a radical organization, the

WPU held open-air meetings and outdoor parades and sought newspaper

publicity, strategies later adopted by the more conservative NAWSA. The

WPU merged with the Congressional Union in 1916.

See also Blatch, Harriot Eaton Stanton; Congressional Union; National

American Woman Suffrage Association

Women’s Trade Union League

Founded in 1903 to help working women organize, the Women’s Trade

Union League (WTUL) obtained support primarily from wealthy women.

The WTUL did not achieve its goal of persuading women to join unions,

but it succeeded in other areas. It publicized women’s low wages, long

718 Women’s Trade Union League

The logo of the

Women’s Trade

Union League, at a

convention in New

York City, 1924

(Courtesy: University

of Florida,

Gainesville)