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While Europe’s eye is fix’d on mighty things,
The fate of Empires and the fall of Kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.

– Robert Burns, from the Rights of Woman, 1792

Holly Joseph, CWI Treasurer, will introduce this urgent and most fundamental subject of “the Rights of Woman” in our own country – these United States – in our own times.  This is a discussion of women’s voices being heard with the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) being a prime focus. 

Alice Paul (1/11/1885-7/9/1977) has been a preeminent champion of women’s rights legislation in the United States.  For having secured the right for women to vote through her tireless work and personal sacrifice to effect the ratification of the 19^th Amendment on August 18, 1920, she then turned her attention toward achieving ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in her belief that the vote alone would not be adequate for women to be full participants in American society.  It has been modified since her original more positive version but is now the following twenty-four words in the first Section: 

Section 1:  Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.

Section 2:  The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3:  This amendment shall take effect two years after the Alice Paul’s 19^th date of ratification.     

After ratification of the 19^th Suffrage Amendment, Alice Paul’s efforts to get another Amendment to expand rights for women – this one establishing an expression of women’s equality enshrined in our Constitution has not been as successful.  In fact, Alice Paul did not live to see the Equal Rights Amendment included in our Constitution.  A question for us to consider is whether we will all live so long to see it realized.

Over the years, many have tried to keep the ERA from passage on the grounds that it was unnecessary or even that it would be harmful.  Yet polling has suggested wider societal support for the measure than is reflected in Congressional support, the last expression of that being the failure to get Senate approval for the removal of the ERA deadline on April 27, 2023.  (The vote of 51-47 was not enough to overcome the filibuster despite a majority of Senators‘ approval.)

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, Feminist Majority, Publisher of Ms. Magazine and early President of the National Organization for Women, will enrich the presentation with her vast knowledge of women’s programs as well as knowing Alice Paul and leading the fight for ERA for decades.  Nicole Vorrasi Bates, Founding Member and Executive Director of Shattering Glass, (shatteringglass.org) will share her perspective on the ongoing efforts to get the ERA in the Constitution.  We ask that all of us reflect on when we were struck with the realization that girls/women were not equal with boys/men.  For us feminists, the question is the following: “What are we going to do about it?”  Achieving the enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment — to establish gender equality in our country’s governing document – will unquestionably strengthen our democracy. 

Remember to register to attend this June 20 CWI noon zoom meeting at this Registration Link

  Co-sponsored with Americans United

         Registration Link

CWI is delighted to co-sponsor this zoom meeting with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU.org). Feminists are keenly aware that religious extremists and their politician allies are trying to force everyone else to live by their beliefs and to use religion as a license to harm others. This threatens our freedom to live as ourselves, which widens inequality in our communities and country. Women have long been a target and therefore understand the consequences of when the lines between religion and government are blurred. The fundamental right to be treated equally under the law depends upon the separation of church and state.

Three staff members from AU will inform us about AU and its work particularly as it relates to feminist issues.  They are Maggie Garrett, Vice President for Public Policy. Maggie is a legal and policy expert who has been working on church-state separation issues for more than 20 years. Much of her work focuses on ensuring that public funds are used for public schools, and she leads AU’s work to protect the Johnson Amendment, a tax code provision that ensures that tax-exempt nonprofits, including religious organizations, do not endorse or oppose political candidates. Before joining AU she worked with the ACLU of Georgia and Alabama. She graduated from Hamilton College and the George Washington University Law School.  Dena Sher, Associate Vice President for Public Policy, is an attorney with nearly 20 years’ experience working on religion and law. She focuses on blocking efforts to misuse religion to undermine people’s rights. Previously, she served as AU’s state legislative counsel, and started with AU as an Equal Justice Works fellow. Dena also worked for the ACLU, lobbying on federal policy on religious freedom. She graduated from Georgetown University and the George Washington University Law School. AU, with Maggie and Dena’s leadership, chairs the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, co-chairs the National Coalition for Public Education, and heads up the coalition working to support the Do No Harm Act. The final AU presenter, Catherine Feuille, Madison Legal Fellow, graduated from Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, where she participated in the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. She also has a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University and has experience working in health care delivery.

Maggie, Dena, and Catherine will provide an overview of the constitutional principles and laws that guarantee religious freedom but have unfortunately been misused to cause harm. Their presentation will include a discussion about the repercussions of when the separation of church and state is not upheld:

●      People, especially women, face discrimination.

●      People can’t access healthcare. For example, AU and NWLC have challenged Missouri’s abortion ban because it violates the state constitutional provision requiring church-state separation.

●      Social services that people and families need are jeopardized.

●      Public education is undermined, funding is being drained for private school vouchers, public charter schools may soon be able to discriminate, and religion is being imposed on students who are in public schools.

Remember to register to attend this May 23 CWI/AU noon zoom meeting at this Registration Link.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom

Registration Link

CWI is delighted to co-sponsor this zoom meeting with the African American Policy Forum (AAPF). AAPF is taking a leading role in providing in depth information on why the revisions to the Advanced Placement African American Studies Course are detrimental and why this and other anti-woke attacks on education equity need to be stopped. Sumi Cho, will introduce a shortened 30 minute version of a March AAPF briefing video featuring Kimberlé Crenshaw, Co-Founder & Executive Director, AAPF and colleagues on “When Racial Reckoning and Anti-Wokeness Collide: What’s Left Out of AP Black Studies and Why Everyone Should Care.“
Professor Crenshaw is known for her development of “intersectionality” and critical race theory (CRT), important concepts originally included in the AP African American Studies pilot course.

Longtime law professor Sumi Cho is now AAPF Director of Strategic Initiatives. Sumi will also invite all to participate in the Freedom to Learn National Day of Action on May 3, 2023 and the remaining planning activities. The purpose of the Freedom to Learn National Day of Action on May 3 is to defend the truth and protect the freedom to learn. Now is the time to build a broad network of people to strengthen our democracy and our values of equity, inclusion, and social justice. Through collective actions across the country, we will resist restrictions on the freedom to learn, fight the right’s “anti-woke” disinformation campaigns, and demonstrate majoritarian support for equity in our schools, campuses, and workplaces. We will make it plain that giving in to the demands of “anti-woke” forces is not an option for institutions and politicians who represent us. We cannot protect the bedrock institutions of a democracy–the right to vote, freedom of speech, and access to the truth–by appeasing organized and legislated lies as the College Board has done. You can register for actions and resources at www.freedomtolearn.net, and even join as a partner organization on this co-sponsoring Partner form! Register for the Thur. 7:30-9 PM planning meetings on April 20 and 27 at bit.ly/F2L_ROAD20503.

After viewing the video, Kristin Penner, AAPF Senior Research Analyst, will share a presentation of her work visually mapping the networks behind right-wing campaigns such as those against affirmative action, CRT, voting rights, and equity rights. She will provide examples of how feminist and intersectional issues such as affirmative action, reproductive rights, sexuality education and the work of Women Scholars are also being attacked. Kristin is a co-founder of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, which is an amicus supporting affirmative action in the Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard case awaiting a SCOTUS decision now. Kristin will also review how the May 3 National Day of Action events can focus on combating these attacks on feminist education such as dismantling Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Offices in postsecondary institutions which often house Title IX Coordinators, killing women’s/gender and ethnic studies programs, and even taking over entire liberal arts colleges like New College in Sarasota, FL.

In addition to registering to attend this April 25 CWI noon zoom meeting at this Registration Link, we urge you to sign this OPEN LETTER ON FIGHTING “ANTI-WOKE” CENSORSHIP OF INTERSECTIONALITY “ANTI-WOKE” CENSORSHIP OF INTERSECTIONALITY AND BLACK FEMINISM.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom

Registration Link

March is Women’s History Month and Washington, DC is fortunate to host two National Women’s History Museums and a variety of sites related to women. In our CWI March 2021 meeting we heard about and discussed the two museums. See the April 2021 CWI newsletter for a summary of this meeting. A video of this 2021 CWI meeting is available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6G1iIj6GPs.

In 2021 Julissa Marenco, Assistant Secretary Communications and External Affairs and Chief Marketing Officer for the Smithsonian, shared an early-stage update for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. We are delighted that she is now rejoining us to give an update on progress to date. Jennifer Herrera, Vice President of External Affairs, National Women’s History Museum (NWHM), helped arrange for the then director and the Board Chair of the virtual NWHM to describe their activities. Jennifer Herrera will join us on 3-21-23 to share information on their opening of an in person exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC at the end of this March. Finally, Holly T. Joseph, CWI’s Treasurer and long-time feminist activist will share her research on women’s historical sites to visit in the DC area.

Update on Plans for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum (womenshistory.si.edu), by Julissa Marenco. In the 2021 CWI meeting, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney and Wendy Pangburn, Executive Director of the American Museum of Women’s History Congressional Commission described Congressional actions since 2014 to create a Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. These actions culminated in passing H.R. 1980 in the 116 th Congress which was included in the bipartisan and bicameral omnibus spending package which became law Dec. 27, 2020. Julissa described the ongoing Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative and the appointment of Lisa Sasaki as the Museum’s interim director. Julissa will give an update on the site selection process. Her presentation will be followed by questions from the meeting participants since she needs to leave early. Lisa Sasaki the interim Museum director is unable to join us since she has been scheduled for another meeting in Detroit.

Update on the National Women’s History Museum (womenshistory.org) and its New DC In-person Exhibit and Future Plans by Jennifer Herrera. NWHM was incorporated in 1996. It is privately funded and mostly virtual. In the 2021 CWI meeting, they shared how they supported federal legislation for a women’s history museum and even contributed significant and instrumental funding to the Congressional Commission. They also discussed remodeling their extensive website and plans to host physical exhibits. Jennifer Herrera will discuss the Museum’s next chapter and how they plan to bring women’s history to communities across the country. Further, Jennifer will share information and extend an invitation to visit NWHM’s new exhibition, “We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC” at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, opening on March 30, 2023. The Library is located at 901 G St NW, near the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Gallery Place – Chinatown Metro. Finally, Jennifer will discuss other news about the Museum and share information on upcoming events and resources.

Women’s History Sites to Visit in the DC Area by Holly T. Joseph For Women’s History Month, CWI is studying institutions and smaller sites to pursue this exciting subject. There are many we know – starting with the Capitol and Alice Paul’s DC residence, now named the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, and perhaps some we don’t know. Holly hopes you’ll find abundant opportunities for visits in her presentation and for reflection on the topic of women in history – at a point in history that we hope is the end of the historic pandemic.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom
Registration Link

Gender equality in women’s employment was dealt a blow by COVID-19. While female participation in the labor force picked up after the pandemic’s worst phase in 2020, it still remains under threat from risks that, if left unaddressed, could wash away the progress made in gender equality in the past decade. (Deloitte Insight, January 2022)

This meeting addressing COVID’s impact on women’s employment will be hosted by CWI’s, Dr. Alotta Taylor, Jeanette Lim Esbrook, Esq. and Ms. Sherry Klein.

COVID-19’s economic impact resulting in the widening gender disparity in the labor market has been a major worry. However, (Deloitte Insight, January 2022) stated with the pickup in economic activity since the second half of 2020 and a significant increase in the scale and pace of vaccinations around the world in 2021, female employment has recovered some of the lost ground. Yet this recovery isn’t without risks. Moreover, in countries where women have traditionally lagged far behind men, returning to the job market after losing out in 2020 may prove harder for mothers who took up extensive childcare responsibilities during the pandemic. And as government aid fizzles out in many parts of the world, single parents will find it even more difficult to keep up with childcare and other household expenses. COVID also increased the viability of virtual work, but little is known about it’s positive or negative impact on women.

This meeting will be informed by the following speakers who will present information on the impact of COVID-19 on women’s employment and how return to work can be furthered by attention to policies such as increases in child-care options, virtual work options, and paid family leave.

Julie Vogtman (she/her), Director of Job Quality & Senior Counsel for the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). Vogtman will provide an overview of 3 years of COVID including a survey she made about a year ago at the 2-yr. mark. The topics of impact on women and employment include: Caregiving, finances, economic impact, policy solutions including family paid leave.

At NWLC, Julie engages in research, policy analysis and advocacy, and public education to advance federal and state policies that benefit both women in low-paid jobs and their families, including higher wages, fair work scheduling practices, and childcare assistance. She has written extensively about women and the economy and the factors contributing to racial and gender pay disparities, including as a co-author of NWLC’s March 2022 report, Resilient But Not Recovered: After Two Years of the COVID-19 Crisis, Women Are Still Struggling. Julie Vogtman was quoted February 12, 2023 in a Washington Post article on women returning to work, “We are certainly seeing some very positive signs in the economy, but there are still disparities, both in and who is back to work and who is getting the best jobs,” referring to challenges such as paid sick leave and more affordable child care, that affect women of color and those with lower levels of education and income.

Prior to joining NWLC in 2010, Julie was an associate with Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as an editor for the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, and holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Furman University.

Allison Wolff will discuss the impact of balancing working as a professional remotely with family and childcare responsibilities. As the Web Program Manager for NASA’s Space Operations and Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorates, Ms. Wolff is responsible for managing application development projects and operates as an advisor for Enterprise-level application governance and policy boards. She is a pragmatic innovator and works diligently to foster a culture of collaboration, diversity, and empowerment. Ms. Wolff implemented numerous successful initiatives at NASA including the Enterprise Platform approach for the Office of the Chief Information Officer, a data-driven business architecture for the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation and NASA IT Labs which was awarded FedScoop’s Federal IT Program of the Year and recognized as a finalist for the ACT-IAC Excellence.gov award for Enterprise Efficiency. Ms. Wolff was named a Computerworld Innovation Laureate, a NextGov Bold Award Finalist for Tech Innovation and was selected as a FedScoop 50 Most Inspiring Up & Comer in 2020. While NASA is her passion, her first love is her family. She approaches each day striving to make the world a better place for her three daughters and hopes to be an
exemplary leader in promoting work-life balance with a personal emphasis on physical and emotional wellness. She will share insights on NASA’s current and planned policies on virtual work and its impact on women.

Sarah Jane (SJ) Glynn, Senior Advisor, Women’s Bureau, US Department of Labor, co-authored a report issued by the DOL on the impact of COVID19 on women’s employment, visible here: Bearing the Cost. We hope she will be able to report on current and future federal policies on virtual versus in person work and its impact on women.

From the DOL website:

Sarah Jane (SJ) Glynn serves as a senior advisor for the Women’s Bureau. She is a labor sociologist and policy analyst with experience working at the national, state, and local level. Prior to joining the Department of Labor, SJ was a senior fellow with the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress, where she previously held the role of director of women’s economic policy. SJ has spent her career researching and working to advance policies that help support employment and economic security for women and caregivers, including paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, and pay equity. Before beginning her career in policy work, SJ was an adjunct lecturer in sociology at Vanderbilt and Belmont universities. 

SJ received her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies with a concentration in LGBTQ studies from UCLA and her doctorate degree in sociology from Vanderbilt University. 

Here are some related resources on the topic:

• https://www.brookings.edu/essay/why-has-covid-19-been-especially-harmful-for-working-women/
• https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-ways-women-and-girls-have-been-hardest-hit-covid-19
• https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/women-work-and-family-during-covid-19-findings-from-the-kff-womens-health-survey/
• https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13422-3.pdf
• https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26947/w26947.pdf
• https://leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace

Next CWI Zoom Noon Meeting: Tue. March 21 on DC Women’s  History Museums and Attractions

Tuesday, January, 24, 2023, 12-1:30pm via Zoom

Registration Link

Feminists need to understand the many ways federal and state governments can continue to protect rights to reproductive health care despite the Supreme Court overruling of Roe v. Wade longstanding constitutional protections for abortion rights. Our presenters will highlight many of the existing protections especially those at the federal level that are the focus of the Biden-Harris interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access and Pres. Biden’s Executive order 14076 on “Securing Access to Reproductive and Other Healthcare Services”. They will highlight ways states are, or should be, implementing provisions to provide additional protections and also how reproductive justice organizations are working to educate and push for these provisions to provide easily accessible reproduction related health care. The Executive Director of Virginia Planned Parenthood will describe how they are identifying and protecting reproductive rights as well as advocating new approaches.

We have not been successful in finding a federal presenter from the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access co-chaired by Xavier Becerra, Sec. of HHS and Jennifer Klein, Director, White House Gender Policy Council or the Department of Justice Reproductive Rights Task Force. However, the White House is planning to have a near future meeting so Click here to sign-up for the White House women’s community newsletter. These federal resources are also helpful.

• https://reproductiverights.gov/
• FACT SHEET: President Biden to Sign Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services
• FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order at the First Meeting of the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access

Presenters:
Shaina Goodman, JD, Director for Reproductive Health and Rights, National Partnership for Women & Families. She received her JD, master’s in social work and bachelor’s degree in women & gender studies from Washington University in St. Louis and has a Maryland law license.  She will report on many of the federal activities and plans to protect abortion rights and access.  She will start by providing general principles on where federal laws and policies overpower those of state and local governments.

Jamie Lockhart, (she/her) serves as the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, a statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to preserve and broaden access to reproductive health care through legislation, public education, electoral activity and litigation in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Previously, Jamie served as the National Director of Mission: Readiness, was recruited for campaigns in the Commonwealth of Virginia, including President Obama’s 2012 re-election, and served as a Legislative Assistant and Director of E-Communications for Congresswoman Diana DeGette. Jamie graduated magna cum laude from James Madison University and obtained a Master in Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a certified group fitness instructor, triathlete and mom to a toddler. Jamie will describe the current status and future possibilities for abortion rights in VA.

Tuesday, October, 25, 2022, 12-1:30pm via Zoom

Registration Link

Having a Say in the Federal and State Policies: Strategies to Elect Feminists: Looking across the populations of all voters, what steps have been taken to impress the importance of this election and the need for feminists to speak up and vote? This CWI Zoom meeting will focus on the work that has been done and will continue to ensure that diverse populations turn out to solidify the recognition of feminism as an essential tenet in a safe democracy.

Presenters:
Connie Cordovilla, Co-President CWI. Connie is the former President of VA NOW and currently the VA NOW Treasurer and the VA NOW PAC Treasurer as well as an election officer in Fairfax County, VA for the last 20 years. She recently retired from the American Federation of Teachers Human Rights and Community Relations, where she handled women’s, LGBTQIA issues and worked on several presidential campaigns. Connie will chair the meeting and outline some important roles for feminists such as being a poll worker, election officer and activist/vote organizer.

Ms. Katherine (Kobby) Hoffman, Executive Vice President, VA NOW, Inc. Kobby Hoffman is the current Virginia NOW Executive Vice President as well as the National NOW Eastern District Representative for eight states including Delaware, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. Presently, she works as a Grants and Contracts Administrator for a Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. Kobby will discuss strategies for reaching young feminist voters such as the work of VA NOW and the Feminist Majority in working with college students to get out the vote.

Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, President and CEO Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (https://www.apaics.org) is a nationally recognized civil rights leader with 25 years of expertise in political campaigns, training and fundraising. We are delighted she will share her wisdom on effective strategies to support the implementation of progressive and feminist political goals particularly among the varied Asian Pacific American Populations. She graduated from Tulane University and is a mentor of the Newcomb College Institute Women to Women Mentoring Program and Georgetown University Politics Mentoring Program.

On 10/6/2022 Msmagazine.com published “A Feminist Guide to the 2022 Midterms” which provides a general review of the challenges and strategies of many election issues. See https://msmagazine.com/2022/10/06/2022- midterms-how-to-vote/?omhide=true&utm_medium=email&utm_source=everyaction&emci=21f2455f-8546-ed11-b495- 002248258d38&emdi=88c845fa-0947-ed11-b495-002248258d38&ceid=404269

Tuesday, June 28, 2022, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom
Registration Link

Many are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX by noting the improvements in decreasing sex discrimination in education since 1972, but seeing that full equality has not been achieved. The Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues (CWI) is a member of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE), which just published its 5 year report on “Title IX at 50” available on its website: available on its website: https://ncwge.org.

This CWI meeting on Title IX builds on the history and involvement of many leaders in implementing and monitoring its achievements. Dr. Bernice Sandler, often called the Godmother of Title IX, was a CWI Board Member. Our first presenter, Jeanette Lim Esbrook, Esq., a CWI Board Member and VP, Legal Affairs, was an early and longtime leader of the Office for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education. Jeanette will provide a history of the Title IX legislation, the early legal challenges to Title IX jurisdiction and how Title IX litigation, Congressional legislation and OCR policy were used to establish rights for gender equity under Title IX.

Shiwali Patel, Esq. from the National Women’s Law Center will focus on sexual harassment and comment on the new proposed Biden Administration Title IX Regulations to correct the regulations issued in 2020 by Betsy De Vos, which counteracted long term guidance on how to help victims of sexual harassment and assault. If the new regulations have not been issued, she will describe what she hopes will be included, such as how sex discrimination also covers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Amy L. Katz, Esq., a Cooperating Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, will discuss several issue briefs with sometimes conflicting insights from the NCWGE report on Title IX at 50: Sex Segregation, Gender and Race Conscious Programs, and Science, Technology and Engineering, (STEM) and Career, Technology Education (CTE). She will share her conclusions on the best Title IX related solutions for progress in these areas.

Sue Klein, Ed.D., CWI Co-President and Education Equity Director, Feminist Majority Foundation, will discuss the NCWGE brief on Title IX Coordinators and the importance of federal funding and assistance for their key implementation work as outlined in the Gender Equity Education Act.

Please join us at this meeting by registering here.

Next CWI meeting: 9-27-22.  Please send us your suggestions for meeting topics for 2022-23.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom
May 2022 Registration Link

This CWI meeting will be hosted by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, J.D., and Donna Lopiano, Ph.D., who are members of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. (https://womenssportspolicy.org/) The WSPWG’s mission is to affirm the legal permissibility of separate-sex competitive sports while restructuring sport to include transgender women and transgender men. Sport can include transgender women without defeating the purpose of the “girls’ and women’s” sport categories. This is especially important today as it is expected that the soon-to-be released Department of Education Title IX Regulations will clarify that prohibited sex discrimination includes distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Ross Tucker, Ph.D., is a sports scientist from South Africa. Dr. Tucker was involved in the World Rugby Transgender Guidelines, prohibiting transwomen’s participation. In addition to his scholarly work and consulting, Dr. Tucker runs the Science of Sport podcast and has published and studied the role of testosterone in sport.

Dr. Tucker will discuss the scientific research on testosterone and effect on the human body. He will discuss the process relied upon for the International Rugby Federation’s decision to ban transgender women from women’s sport, particularly as they considered their responsibility for women’s brain health and concussion frequency. 

Prof. Ross Tucker, Ph.D.
The Science of Sport: http://www.sportsscientists.com/
Twitter: @scienceofsport / Facebook: The Science of Sport

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, J.D., is a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer, a feminist professor of law, and CEO of Champion Women. The non-profit provides legal advocacy for Girls and Women in Sport (https://ChampionWomen.org). She is widely published, from scholarly and lay articles, Congressional testimonies, to amicus briefs. She co-authored Equal Play, Title IX and Social Change and the NCAA’s Pregnant and Parenting Student-Athletes; Resources and Model Polices. She served as the fourth president of Women’s Sport Foundation and continued serving as their Director of Advocacy for years. From 2003 – 2012 she was the Co-Chair of American Bar Association Committee on the Rights of Women.  She is a member of and has received many awards from a wide range of women’s organizations, including NOW.

Hogshead-Makar & Champion Women’s excellent work at protecting athletes from sexual abuse is now under attack by former-volleyball Coach Rick Butler, who is banned from USA Volleyball and the AAU for sexually abusing his minor athletes. He is suing her for $250 million for “interfering with his business relationships.” See her GoFundMe here: https://gofund.me/5c3bcc41

Nancy will be talking about the legality of sex-segregation in sports, and the purposes served by a “separate but equal” sport construct. 

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, J.D., OLY
CEO, Champion Women, https://www.facebook.com/iChampionWomen / www.TitleIXSchools.com / www.ChampionWomen.org Twitter @Hogshead3Au @iChampionWomen

Donna Lopiano, Ph.D., is the president and founder of Sport Management Resources (SMR) and an adjunct professor on sport-related topics. Dr. Lopiano was named one of “The 10 Most Powerful Women in Sports” by Fox Sports, and as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in Sports” by the Sporting News. She was the CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation from 1992-2007. She has been nationally and internationally recognized for her leadership advocating for gender equity in sports by the International Olympic Committee, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports, the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators, and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Dr. Lopiano served as the University of Texas at Austin Director of Women’s Athletics for 18 years and is a past-president of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. During her tenure at Texas, she constructed what many believed to be the premiere women’s athletics program in the country; twice earning the top program in the nation award. As an athlete, Dr. Lopiano participated in six national softball championships, and has been inducted into in the National Softball Hall of Fame.

Dr. Lopiano will discuss the architecture of sport and sport governance issues with transgender inclusion.
Donna A. Lopiano, Ph.D.
President, Sports Management Resources

Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 12:00-1:30 pm via Zoom
Registration Link

CWI ‘s April 26^th Noon Zoom Meeting will focus on the discussion of the disproportionately harsh effect of school discipline policies in pushing out students, marginalized due to intersectional markers such as color, ethnicity, gender orientation and economic status. Our speakers will present facts and statistics that will outline the crisis that social justice advocates recognize and are united in working to undo in order to create a nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline. This meeting will be hosted by CWI’s Board co-president, Connie Cordovilla.  Our distinguished presenters are:

Sabrina Bernadel (She/ her/hers), Equal Justice Works Fellow, National Women’s Law Center, will focus her portion on how Black girls are disproportionately disciplined and policed in schools, leading to school pushout and their involvement in the school-to-prison pipeline. She will explain concepts like “adultification bias” and intersectionality and how they play out in the education context. Sabrina will discuss what advocates can do to ensure safe, inclusive schools for girls of color and all students.

Dara Baldwin (She/her/hers), National Policy Director for the Center for Disability Rights, which is a co-convenor of the Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition. She will discuss the difference between equality & equity; the reason both political parties are causing harm in this work; the federal legislation which her coalition supports and those they oppose; and finally the solutions and how we as a society can actually create a new world order, one where there is truly equal educational opportunities for all.

Valerie Slater, Esq. (She, her, hers) is Co-founder/Executive Director of RISE for Youth, a nonpartisan organization committed to dismantling the youth prison model and ensuring every space that impacts a young person’s life encourages growth and success. Her portion of the discussion will address the effects of school discipline policies and practices on youth in communities with high incidence of poverty, Black and Brown families, and the overuse of law enforcement to address the issues resulting from a failure to resource these communities appropriately. She will also touch on the erasure of childhood for students in these communities by the education system and other systems tasked with supporting their healthy transition to adulthood.

Please join us at this meeting by registering here.

Tentative: May 24 CWI Noon Zoom Meeting Equitable Treatment of Transwomen Athletes in Competition with Ciswomen Athletes featuring Nancy Hogshead Makar and Colleagues