The Ford Foundation has awarded a grant to the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) to continue its work to advance the rights of women in China. Under the direction of Rangita de Silva-de Alwis, WCW senior advisor on international programs, the "Strengthening Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination in China" project enables WCW to provide technical support to Ford Foundation grantees working on women's rights and equality. Rangita and WCW are honored to have the Honorable Nancy Gertner, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Massachusetts, as an advisor on this project.

Collaborating with the vanguard of legal advocates and the gender and law movement in China, WCW will provide research and background materials, and respond to emerging needs while providing comparative insights on gender equality lawmaking, litigation, and organizing from around Asia and the world. The goals include expanding capacity among women's rights and equal protection advocates, building on existing laws in China, using best practices to inform new regulations, and supporting the integration of international human rights conventions into policy reform. This project is an extension of a 2006 Ford Foundation-funded initiative with WCW.

 

 

 

The researchers' goals are to obtain a systemic "snapshot" in time of the volume and types of cases of divorce and child custody proceedings involving domestic violence in selected Massachusetts courts over the course of a week. This research will benefit from a group of experts, and the research team will collect court process data as well as information on the experiences of judges, parent litigants, probation officers, guardians ad litem, attorneys, and victim advocates. The findings will be presented in two state-wide forums, one for court personnel and one for advocates and litigants, with the goal of obtaining their input regarding best practices and recommendations for change. The resulting report will be presented to the Governor's Council to Address Sexual Violence in order to "jump start" systems change.

This past March, Anita Hill, J.D., professor of Social Policy, Law & Women's Studies at Brandeis University, and recent senior scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and Newhouse visiting scholar at Wellesley College, joined Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D., WCW executive director, and Nan Stein, Ed.D., WCW senior research scientist, for a stimulating discussion on disparities in education, sponsored by WCW and its friends at host WCVB-TV, in Needham, MA. Janet Wu, State House reporter for WCVB-TV and former member of the WCW Board of Overseers, moderated. Highlights and the full program can be viewed online at www.wcwonline.org/videoarchive.


Spacewalk 2008

Pamela Melroy, Colonel, USAF, RET. and NASA astronaut, served as the special guest speaker during Spacewalk 2008, this year's Leadership Dinner held at the Museum of Science, Boston, MA. Colonel Melroy shared her unique perspective as commander of the Space Shuttle crew and showed exciting video footage from the mission. WCW donors who give at the Leadership Level were invited to the dinner. Colonel Melroy's presentation can be viewed online at www.wcwonline.org/videoarchive.