Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) is a national nonprofit organization in the United States established in 1962 by Jane Fleming and Mary Janney in Washington, D.C.
In its early days, WOW received much of its support from women in key government positions. [1] Initial guidance and support were given to WOW by the President of Radcliffe College, Mary Bunting. The District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, led by Fred Hetzel, provided WOW with initial office space and supplies.
In the late 1960s WOW created, produced, and sold 10,000 copies of a guidebook for women specializing in part-time work and education opportunities in the Washington Metro Area. Also, by the end of the 1960s WOW had grown from an all-volunteer group to a nonprofit organization with paid staff, and women's career center that helped hundreds of women find work.
In the 1970s WOW shifted from placing women in clerical and health aid jobs to nontraditional jobs that paid more and had been indirectly set aside for males. WOW's work was encouraged in 1967 by an amendment to Executive Order 11246 which specified affirmative action requirements in regard to women that federal contractors had to comply with.
WOW's policy work also began in the 1970s with a reauthorization of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). In 1978, the reauthorization of CETA targeted women directly by bringing up the issue of reverse discrimination. WOW's up-and-coming program the Women's Work Force Network, a network established in 1977 composed of women's employment programs nationwide, was a key player in the effort made to include sex-equity language in public employment and training legislation of CETA. This provision is now referred to as the "WOW paragraph".
In the 1980s WOW focused even more on equal access for women to the nation's employment and training systems to desegregate the job market.
In the 1990s and early 2000s WOW expanded its focus yet again to an intergenerational approach of economic security. This approach spurred both the Family Economic Self Sufficiency Project (FESS) established at WOW in 1996 and the Elder Economic Security Initiative in 2006.
Wider Opportunity for Women's Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (FESS) Project was established in 1996. The project was created in response to what WOW thought of as the erosion of power on issues related to low-income families from the federal to state and local level. The FESS Project encompasses the Self-Sufficiency Standard (The Standard). The Standard is a tool the project uses to calculate how much income a working family needs to meet their basic expenses of housing, childcare, food, health care, transportation and taxes, based upon geographic location and the number of adults and children in a family. WOW views the tool as a way to move low-income families toward economic independence. Since then, WOW has established 35 statewide FESS coalitions, as well as a coalition in the District of Columbia.
Since 1996, WOW has established 35 statewide FESS coalitions, as well as a coalition in the District of Columbia that represent over 2,000 community-based organizations, state and local government, employers and labor.
Wider Opportunities for Women's Elder Economic Security Initiative was established in 2006. The Initiative also encompasses the Elder Economic Security Standard Index (The Index). WOW partnered with the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2005 and developed the Standard which serves as WOW's measure of income that elders need to meet their basic expenses to age in place including; housing, health care, transportation, and food costs. The Index now is a tool that provides important information to policy makers, aging advocates, and others as they develop policies and programs to promote economic security for elders.
Wider Opportunities for Women established several DC Metro Programs to focus specifically on helping women in the geographic area find employment and become economically secure.
The DC Jobs Council was established in 1999 as an informal volunteer consortium. The Council originated to help nonprofits organization navigate landscape change by passage of the Workforce Investment Act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1998 and was meant to encourage businesses to participate in local delivery of Workforce Development Services. Currently, the DC Jobs Council is a group of over 40 organizations and four standing committees and WOW serves as their fiscal sponsor.
Wider Opportunities for Women partnered with the DC Employment Justice Center in 2003 to establish the DC Women's Agenda (DCWA). The DCWA is a local advocacy and policy coalition that promotes the advancement of equality and well-being of all women and girls in DC. The DCWA hosts public forums throughout DC on women's issues.
Wider Opportunities for Women partnered with the YWCA National Capital Area, and the Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO to create the Washington Area Women in the Trades (WAWIT) Program in 2007. WAWIT provides skill training and pre-vocational and pre-apprenticeship training at no cost in non-traditional construction trade careers for women. This program is an example of WOW's dedication to placing women in high paying jobs to provide for their families.
The Emerald Cities Collaborative is a partner organization with Wider Opportunities for Women.
Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future. It includes:
The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty in developing countries. It attempts to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of consumption goods. The poverty line is then defined as the amount of income required to satisfy those needs. The "basic needs" approach was introduced by the International Labour Organization's World Employment Conference in 1976. "Perhaps the high point of the WEP was the World Employment Conference of 1976, which proposed the satisfaction of basic human needs as the overriding objective of national and international development policy. The basic needs approach to development was endorsed by governments and workers' and employers' organizations from all over the world. It influenced the programmes and policies of major multilateral and bilateral development agencies, and was the precursor to the human development approach."
The United States Women's Bureau (WB) is an agency of the United States government within the United States Department of Labor. The Women's Bureau works to create parity for women in the labor force by conducting research and policy analysis, to inform and promote policy change, and to increase public awareness and education.
The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) was legislation signed into United States law on November 8, 1965, as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society domestic agenda. Johnson chose Texas State University, his alma mater, as the signing site. The law was intended "to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education". It increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, gave low-interest loans for students, and established a National Teachers Corps. The "financial assistance for students" is covered in Title IV of the HEA.
Created in 1981, the Eisenhower Foundation is the private sector continuation of two Presidential Commissions – the 1967-1968 bipartisan National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and the 1968-1969 bipartisan National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.
The Women's Educational and Industrial Union (1877–2006) in Boston, Massachusetts, was founded by physician Harriet Clisby for the advancement of women and to help women and children in the industrial city. By 1893, chapters of the WEIU were established in Buffalo and Rochester, New York.
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute(EESI) is an independent, bi-partisan 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that aims to promote environmentally sustainable societies. Based out of Washington, DC, EESI seeks to be a catalyst moving society away from environmentally damaging fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future. The organization was established in 1984 by a bipartisan and bicameral group of members of the United States Congress who were concerned with global environmental and energy problems.
The United States Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program is the centerpiece of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.
Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) was a project of the United States Department of Labor. It provided a new approach to workforce and economic development. Through the WIRED model, regions integrated economic and workforce development activities to demonstrate that talent development can drive economic transformation in regional economies across the United States.
The Older Americans Act of 1965 was the first federal level initiative aimed at providing comprehensive services for older adults. It created the National Aging Network comprising the Administration on Aging on the federal level, State Units on Aging at the state level, and Area Agencies on Aging at the local level. The network provides funding – based primarily on the percentage of an area's population 60 and older – for nutrition and supportive home and community-based services, disease prevention/health promotion services, elder rights programs, the National Family Caregiver Support Program, and the Native American Caregiver Support Program.
Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people's well-being. Social protection consists of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people's exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability, and old age. It is one of the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 aimed at promoting greater equality.
Washington Area Women’s Foundation is a nonprofit organization located in Washington, DC that brings together women who act as donors and activists. This network of women invests in the lives of low-income women – and single moms in particular – so they, in turn, can enrich the lives of their children.
Crittenton Women's Union (CWU) is a Boston, Massachusetts–based non-profit organization whose mission is to help low-income women and their families reach economic self-sufficiency.
Women Employed is a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1973, Women Employed's mission is to improve women's economic status and remove barriers to economic equity. They promote fair workplace practices, increase access to training and education, and provide women with tools and information to move into careers paying family-supporting wages.
The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies as part of the War on Poverty. These agencies are directly regulated by the federal government. "It is the purpose of The Economic Opportunity Act to strengthen, supplement, and coordinate efforts in furtherance of that policy".
Cindy Marano was an economic justice activist from the United States. Marano worked for economic equity for women and low-income workers. She is a designated Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project, which described her as a "brilliant strategic thinker".
Robert Egger is a nonprofit leader, author, speaker and activist.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is a United States public law that replaced the previous Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) as the primary federal workforce development legislation to bring about increased coordination among federal workforce development and related programs.
Dislocated worker funding is typically used to help workers in events of mass employment loss. A dislocated or displaced worker is defined as an individual who has been laid off or received notice of a potential layoff and has very little chance of finding employment in their current occupation when attempting to return to the workforce. Displaced workers are most frequently found in the manufacturing industry. Legislation addressing training for these workers was first introduced in 1959 through the passing of the Area Redevelopment Act of 1959. Over the years, legislation funding these programs has included wording holding states and private businesses accountable for the roles in the dislocation of workers. Due to the importance of this funding and the negative economic impact of displaced workers, the United States has passed continuing legislation as recent as 2014 and 2015.
Under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), during the years 1974-81, more than 10,000 artists – visual, performing, and literary – were employed in the United States. This was the largest number of artists supported by Federal funding since the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s. During its peak year, 1980, CETA funding for arts employment funneled up to $300 million into the cultural sector – and the economy – of the United States. In comparison, the National Endowment for the Arts budget that year was $159 million.