The Wellesley Centers for Women is home to more than 50 individual research, education, and action projects. Some are short-term, specifically focused investigations, evaluations, and trainings. Others are part of larger, long-term initiatives addressing critical areas in the lives of women, children, and families. Our Postdoctoral Research Training program offers three full-time research fellow positions and our international collaborations strive to improve the lives of women and girls across the globe. Learn more about these important initiatives.
This collaboration between the Asian University
for Women (AUW) and the Wellesley
Centers for Women
resulted in the design of a year-long gender studies course, Women Shaping
Society.
Racial/ethnic self-identification can vary over time and place, in other words, some adolescents of mixed ancestry report different single-race or mixed-race identifications at different times and in different situations. This report seeks to explore whether adolescents of mixed-ancestry have particular strengths or weaknesses compared within their single-race-reporting peers.
This research looked at longitudinal data about adult memories of abuse-related traumas from childhood. Findings from this project can be used to design interventions for and promote the health and well-being of victims of childhood sexual abuse and violence.
This project is based on the model of past work dealing with the intersections of women's, and children's, and disability rights in Bangladesh and Nepal. It is a multiphased project to be actualized in Bangladesh (January 2009), Nepal (January 2009), Cambodia (May 2009), and India (May 2009).
A National Research, Writing and Action Initiative
The primary objective of this project is to manage the continuation of the well established Afterschool Matters Initiative, which includes several publications and a Research Grantee program, in addition to planning for the national expansion of a related action/research writing initiative.
APAS is an assessment system that helps programs link quality and youth outcomes together in a comprehensive and integrated fashion. It was developed to help address the accountability challenge that faces afterschool programs.
Interventions based on exploring intergenerational attachment patterns and learning to use mindfulness exercises can be useful in helping pregnant and parenting teens modulate their reactions to stress.
This statewide project combines human
rights
fact-finding, qualitative research, advocacy, and community organizing
to document and address the injustices inflicted on battered mothers
and their children during family court child custody and visitation
litigation.
This study was created to better understand how children spend their after-school time, and how it may be best used to improve growth and learning. The study was stratified by ethnicity and took into account gender and social class.
The Work, Families & Children team has conducted a series of studies for the Boston Public Schools (BPS), including the BPS K1 and K2 Programs Needs Assessment, and a 2007-08 follow-up study.
Universal Access to Professional Development for Early Childhood Educators
Using a randomized control design, Michelle Porche will conduct an evaluation of the Boston Ready professional development intervention to test its effectiveness.
Researchers of this project found that adults who have an awareness of their own relational needs and capacities have the potential to be more effective caregivers and role models in childcare setting, resulting in better outcomes for both the adults and children.
Researchers gathered economists, policy-makers, and funders to develop several recommendations for building a skilled and stable workforce for After School Programs.
During this phase of work, NIOST will design and develop two additional measurement tools—a youth survey (SAYO-Y) and a family survey (SAYO-F). These two tools will be used by Massachusetts Department of Education grantees to better understand youth needs, their program experiences and help pinpoint areas where youth may benefit from additional support.
This group of inter-related research projects examines three related changes in the U.S. workplace - rising employment in the service industries, increased diversity of the workforce, and the increase in numbers of older workers.
WCW researchers participated in a study, led by Dr. Valora Washington and under the auspices of the Bessie Tartt Wilson Children’s Foundation, to evaluate the child care voucher system in Massachusetts.
Building Strong Afterschool Initiatives: Policy Planning
This project sought to improve the availability and preservation of out-of-school time programming and to disseminate information on recruiting, training, development, and finance.
Studying the Effectiveness of Literacy Intervention
The CLLIP Research and Evaluation Project is designed to assess the impact of a literacy intervention for low-income poor performing school districts in the state of Ohio. Longitudinal data consisting of standardized literacy assessments, and surveys from students (preschool through 6th grade), parents, and teachers are analyzed and evaluated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the CLLIP intervention.
The project involves a needs assessment of child and adolescent refugee mental health services in New Hampshire and utilizes community dialogue strategies for integrating youth, family, provider, school and community knowledge and expertise towards addressing refugee mental health needs especially as it relates to trauma and in the context of resettlement.
This program brings together a working group of lawyers and jurists
from Asia to focus on law reform in the region. The working group will
examine the role that gender-based strategic litigation can play in
advancing equality, non-discrimination, and human rights.
Through this project we will develop and pilot-test a new family court advocacy training curriculum for service providers who work with battered immigrant and minority women. This project is intended to directly affect the lives of battered immigrant women by empowering them with substantive, strategic knowledge.
Researchers will interview women board members and men who have served on boards with women among Fortune 1000 companies to determine how a critical mass of women serving on a board affects corporate governance.
This project connected high-level leaders from different cities and states to educate them on the dynamic landscape of after-school programs. in hopes of directing the influence, funding, and high expectations of these leaders towards a "critical mass" of associated initiatives across the country.
A Collaborative Multi-Level Experimental Evaluation
The goal of this study is to increase the capacity of schools to prevent Dating Violence/Harassment (DV/H) by evaluating the effectiveness of current multi-level DV/H prevention programming in middle schools within a large urban school district.
Linking Bullyproof to Curriculum Frameworks and Performance Standards: Nationwide
This project led to the development a teacher's manual that links curriculum on bullying and harassment directly to national education standards, based on Bullyproof curriculum.
Sexual Violence/Harassment Prevention Programs in Middle Schools
This study is designed to help increase the capacity of programs
to prevent sexual violence and harassment. The long-term goal/objective
of this study is to help prevent intimate partner violence,
sexual violence, and sexual harassment by employing the most
rigorous
methods to evaluate strategies for altering the violence-supportive
attitudes and norms of youth.
One of the major developmental tasks of preschoolers is to develop empathy; this project researches and designs curriculum in order better understand and cultivate empathy at a young and critical age.
This project is a multi-faceted engagement with Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts to conduct an evaluation of the Get Real middle school sexual education curriculum.
Gender and Ethnicity in the Transnational Corporate Workplace
This project examined the gendered nature of Korean transnational corporations, highlighting the ways in which features of the workplace shape individual and communal identity.
Researchers examined the ways in which same-sex couples in Massachusetts perceived marriage. Interviews with couples and children illuminated reasons why same-sex couples may or may not marry and related social influences.
This project seeks to help scientific researchers better communicate their findings on gender as it relates to science, technology, engineering and math to key audiences: media, advocates, policy makers, public.
Child Care Centers' Influence on Infant Development
This study followed a random sample of hundreds of children and 100 child care centers in order to examine links between family income, the quality and cost of child-care, and infant language and social development.
The project combines
out-of-school time (OST) professional advisors, the National Institute on Out-of-School
Time (NIOST), and NASA experts from across the agency to use research-based
strategies to develop afterschool activity guides adapted from NASA Planetary
Science formal education curricula.
Firms across the globe that engage in international production and manufacturing employ many women. This research outlined various risks and perceived benefits associated for female employees.
This project was centered around the question of research, funding, and results: was it possible to implement gender equity in a school over just three years?
This project seeks to promote healthy and productive connections between men and women, girls and boys, and within families, organizations, and society.
Peggy McIntosh offers presentations, workshops, and consulting on: white privilege and privilege systems in general, diversifying organizational thinking, gender-fair and multicultural curricula, diversifying teaching methods, and feelings of fraudulence.
The Girls Coalition, a diverse consortium of Boston-area organizations and individuals working together to encourage the healthy development of girls, was initiated at WCW.
This teaching guide was developed after scholars attended the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and includes discussion of human rights, ethnic conflict, and biodiversity.
This project prepared a report is to describe the prevalent health practices and concerns in early care and education programs in Massachusetts, as part of a larger project of the Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education.
This project was an evaluation of an all-girls program that provides technology resources, female mentors, and a learning environment to improve girls' attitudes and understanding of computers.
This action project involves mobilization of scholars and policymakers to address economic status and women's educational and professional development.
A collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance and numerous shelters in Boston, this study involves surveying and interviewing homeless women with respect to their experience of childhood trauma and intimate partner violence.
An Ecological Model: ECE, Children's Outcomes and Family Functioning
This study examines the varying quality of child care in Massachusetts and across the nation, and its effect on children's performance and family functioning.
A collaboration with the HAVEN Program at Mass General Hospital for a proposal to train domestic violence advocates to use motivational interviewing with victims of partner violence.
The workshops, courses, trainings, and publications at the Institute utilize the Relational-Cultural Model of development, which focuses on 'growth-fostering relationships' as central to positive human development.
This was an evaluation project of Learning Circles, a group mentoring program designed to provide opportunities for girls and adult mentors to meet regularly to discuss issues relevant to their lives. The results showed that girls enjoyed the opportunity for discussing issues relevant to their lives with women who were attentive.
Partner Violence, Child Physical Abuse, and Child Sexual Abuse
This study examined the ways in which physical and/or sexual violence within a family affects the individual, the family unit, and the community. The project focused on prevention programs and policies in order to better understand the varied outcomes of family violence.
This study sought to examine full-day, year round child care for preschool-age children in Maine to better illuminate links between the quality and the costs of early child care in Maine.
This project sought to identify the most successful elements of afterschool programs in Massachusetts; including staff, policy making, funding, and program/activity participation.
The Capacity Study describes the current early education and care (EEC) workforce in Massachusetts and evaluates the capacity of the State’s higher education system to meet the increased demand for a qualified workforce in early education and care.
The goal of the Massachusetts Cost and Quality Study was to examine full-day, year-round, community-based center care for preschool-age children (2.9 years to 5 years) and for infants and toddlers, pre-k classrooms in the public schools and family child care programs.
Early Care and Education and School Readiness: Massachusetts
Researchers focus on aspects of school readiness, including social and language development, along with other data such as hours in care, so as to better understand the ways in which a child's growth is influenced by situational factors.
Assessment of Early Care and Education in Massachusetts
This group of inter-related research projects seeks to understand the state of early care and education in Massachusetts and make recommendations for quality outcomes.
This was an evaluation of a national project that fosters more positive attitudes and stronger affiliations among middle school teachers, students, and parents within school communities.
This research project addresses a critical issue by examining the overlap of bullying perpetration/victimization and sexual violence in order to inform sexual violence prevention in US schools.
This long-term program has brought national attention to the importance of children's out-of-school time using research, training and advocacy to strengthen children's emotional, physical, and social development.
This study examined the ways in which youth participate in the League: how do they experience the democratic ideals of a debate program? How do they come to consider and participate in democracy?
The National Institute on Out-of-School Time will partner with The Forum for Youth Investment as champions for action with the Career Pathway's sites in San Diego and Long Beach, California. This will include leading research aspects of the project as well as working to anticipate the site's needs for information, support and tools in a variety of areas.
Early Environments and the Development of Children
This study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, seeks to determine the relationship between children's early experiences and their developmental outcomes.
This longitudinal study on Puerto Rican adolescents revealed new data that differed from previous examinations of Puerto Rican 'at risk' youth. In this study, these youths were found to be well-adjusted and close to their families, not prone (as previously assumed) to risky behavior.
Workplace Environment Influences on Older Workers' Health
This project proposes to advance scientific knowledge regarding the relationship between health and work, and both the positive and negative conditions within a workplace. This study asks how important employment really is toward productivity and health in an older workers' life.
Social, Emotional and Academic Learning: K-5th Grade
Open Circle is a
comprehensive, grade-differentiated social, emotional and academic learning
program for grades K-5 children, their teachers, administrators, other school
staff, parents and other caregivers. By helping schools implement Open Circle, the
program fosters the development of relationships that support safe, caring and
respectful learning communities of children and adults.
This was an evaluation of materials/programs to help educators teach spatial relations and geometry through the use of storytelling, and its benefits for girls and boys.
The primary goal of the Out of Harm's Way (OHW) Initiative is to address the escalating violence in a subset of middle schools in the Boston Public Schools by offering comprehensive services and care, and increasing the participation of students in after school programming. Wellesley Centers for Women and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time would perform as the project evaluator.
The FasTracKids Research Study is a 19-month international study aimed at examining the link between participation in FasTracKids enrichment programs and child outcomes (children 4 and 5 years old). FasTracKids Enrichment Centers offer a variety of classes and activities designed to promote early learning, develop creative thinking and problem solving, build verbal communication, promote leadership and personal growth, and encourage a lifelong love of learning.
This program examined the ways urban high school students benefit from and utilize school-to-work programs, with an exploration of class differences on work relationships and overall experience.
The is a secondary analysis of data collected over the long-term to determine how physical activity benefits the overall health and well-being of children over time. This study will focus on the NICHD’s Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development data.
This national, multi-site research study aims to test the effectiveness and generalizability of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for preventing depressive disorders in at-risk adolescent offspring of parents with depression.
The research teamwill examine the long-term effects of an earlier intervention on
preventing depression during the critical developmental transition to
young adulthood.
This project in collaboration with UNICEF addresses, through research and analysis, the way in which women's and children's rights intersect with legislative reform.
This project provides a comprehensive picture of the quality of Boston's Early Care and Education programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, in both centers and family child care homes.
This project examined the lives of middle-school aged girls from various social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. Researchers focused on issues such as self-confidence, bridging the home-school culture gap, and student and teacher resources.
This Grant Program supports research towards comprehending the relationship between healthy child development and the role of culture and society. Researchers from universities and research institutions in the U.S are eligible to apply.
This three-year evaluation project was designed to measure the outcome of SCOPE, an inquiry-based science enrichment program for upper-elementary and middle-school aged girls.
The SEED Project, a staff development equity project for educators,
prepares teachers to lead their own year-long seminars in public and
private schools on making curricula, teaching methods, and school climates
more gender-fair, multicultural, and international.
Title IX, Sexual Harassment and Gender Violence in Schools
This project created a collaborative intervention model and curriculum for schools and community-based organizations in order to understand and counter rising rates of rape, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination in school environments.
Connections Between Depression and Sibling Relationships
This project aims to explicate the relation between parental depression, parenting styles, parent/child relationships, sibling relationship quality and internalizing and externalizing outcomes in children.
This study sought to determine levels of healthy development of Puerto Rican children living in the U.S. mainland, and took into account family variables, perceived discrimination, and geographic location.
Providing Support to Ford Foundation's Grantees Working on Women's Rights and Anti-Discrimination
This project seeks to build on our work with partners in China and
embark on a series of programs aimed at strengthening
equality and non-discrimination in the areas of sex, residency and disability.
Girls' Ongoing Success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SISTEM)
While girls do well in science and math courses in middle school, they are less likely to enroll in higher-level STEM courses in high school, thus few will choose these subjects for a college major, and even fewer will complete such a major or go on to pursue a STEM career. The increased knowledge generated by this study will inform ways to increase the participation of girls and other under-represented groups (e.g., racial and ethnic minorities, low-income youth) in sustained STEM study and employment.
This project worked to examine and counteract the effects of the culture of bullying on children and youth by raising awareness about bullying and by exploring the links between bullying, other forms of aggression, and violence through a combination of research, action, and advocacy.
Conclusions from this five-year project focused on relationships between personal ethnic identification and television consumption, as well as levels of sexual content in varying shows.
The Women’s Sports Leadership Project has the overarching goal of
collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information on gender
disparities in organized athletics for the purpose of articulating a
new vision of female leadership that legitimizes and connects athletic
experience to off-the-field skills. The project features the FairGamesNews.com blog.
This measurement instrument was introduced as a dynamic way to assess women's psychological development and ways in which relationships and connections foster psychological well-being.
Battered women of color often report that they do not receive fair treatment in family courts and that the courts’ insufficiencies can lead to devastating consequences for them and for their children.
This project studied the impact of an undergraduate program that enables female college students to earn a minor in women's studies through comprehensive examination of gender roles and relationships and through mentorships.
This project was an evaluation of a program that looked at the ways in which low income women benefit or suffer from various approaches to community and leadership development.
School-related Gender Violence in Developing Countries
Through this project, a review was developed to identify, annotate, and synthesize research studies and projects/interventions addressing primary and secondary school-related gender-based violence in developing countries. The review was conducted in 2003 and again in 2005/2006.
This was an evaluation of a program that aimed to increase the number of middle school girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
This project examined the experiences of women leaders in varying fields, in order to teach other women how to advance in similar ways and overcome barriers.
The Women’s Insights Project was a study that is designed to explore the experiences of African-American women who have survived IPV. Specifically, the purpose is to gain an understanding of the perceived costs and benefits that African American women experiencing intimate partner violence face when they consider seeking help from family, friends, and social institutions.
Since 1983 the Women's Review of Books has provided a forum for serious, informed discussion of new writing by and about women. Women’s Review of Books provides a unique perspective on today’s literary landscape and feature essays and in-depth reviews of new books by and about women. Women's Review of Books is published by the Wellesley Centers for Women in collaboration with Old City Publishing in Philadelphia, PA.
This inactive project examined women's rights and continued indirectly through the Gender and Justice Project and the Battered Mother's Testimony Project.
Through this project, a network of women leaders in countries where either Islam is a state religion, or has a large community that is governed by religious laws including Islamic laws, has been convened to build a body of scholarship that can be a platform for advocacy and sharing of strategies on emerging issues that bolster women's political, public and business participation.
This project is designed to explore and develop approaches to enhancing business practice and productivity through relational and emotional intelligence, and encourages mutual empowerment, the shifting of organizational norms, and continuous learning and teaching.
Guiding States, Localities and Organizations toward a Framework for Policy and Practice
The Career Pathways Project will lead to a set of guidelines promoting success and strengthening the work force for afterschool providers towards stability preparation, support and commitment to the well-being and empowerment of youth.
The FasTracKids Research Study is a 19-month international study aimed at examining the link between participation in FasTracKids enrichment programs and child outcomes (children 4 and 5 years old). FasTracKids Enrichment Centers offer a variety of classes and activities designed to promote early learning, develop creative thinking and problem solving, build verbal communication, promote leadership and personal growth, and encourage a lifelong love of learning.