Independent Women's Forum

Independent Women's Forum

Founder(s)	Rosalie Silberman, Barbara Olson, Anita K. Blair
Type	501(c)(3)
Founded	1992
Location	Washington, D.C.
Key people	Nicole Kurokawa Neily, Carrie Lukas, Heather Higgins, Christina Hoff Sommers, Lynne V. Cheney, Wendy Lee Gramm, Midge Decter, Kate O'Beirne
Area served	United States, Iraq, Afghanistan
Focus	Women's rights, equity feminism, property rights, free markets, democracy, foreign policy, domestic violence, campus issues, health care, labor policy
Method	Educational programs, awards, grants, political commentary
Revenue	$1,317,157USD in 2004
Motto	"All Issues are Women's Issues"
Website	IWF.org

The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) is an American conservative, non-profit, non-partisan research and educational institution focused on domestic and foreign policy issues of concern to women. In 2006, the group whose ideology is economic conservative, had 20,337 members and a budget of $1.05 million.

The group advocates "equity feminism," a term first used by IWF author Christina Hoff Sommers to distinguish conservative feminism from what she refers to as "gender feminism," which she claims opposes gender roles as well as patriarchy. According to Sommers, the gender feminist view is "the prevailing ideology among contemporary feminist philosophers and leaders" and "thrives on the myth that American women are the oppressed 'second sex.'" Sommers' equity feminism has been described as anti-feminist by critics.

As the organization's slogan—"All Issues are Women's Issues"—suggests, IWF members seek to participate in policy discussions not only about issues commonly referred to as "women's rights," but also about such topics as national defense and foreign policy. According to its mission statement, IWF "builds greater respect for limited government, equality under the law, property rights, free markets, strong families, and a powerful and effective national defense and foreign policy."

IWF-affiliated commentators, but not necessarily staff members, have appeared in print, television, and radio venues as well as conferences sponsored by the organization. The Independent Women's Forum also sponsors book projects and scholarly articles and offers awards to highlight women who they believe make positive contributions to society.

Origin and history

Founded by Rosalie (Ricky) Gaull Silberman, Anita K. Blair, and Barbara Olson in 1992, the IWF grew out of the ad hoc group, "Women for Judge Thomas," that was created to defend Clarence Thomas against allegations of sexual harassment and other improprieties. By 1996 the organization had some 700 dues-paying members who met regularly at luncheons to network and share ideas.

Since Silberman, presidents of IWF have included Nancy M. Pfotenhauer and Anita Blair. The current executive director of the organization is Nicole Kurokawa Neily.

The IWF has been described as "a virtual 'Who's Who' of Washington's Republican establishment." People for the American Way, which is critical of the organization, describes IWF as "a secular counterpart to Religious Right women’s groups like Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America", although the latter two are antifeminist groups whereas IWF advocates equity feminism. As a secular organization, IWF takes no official position on abortion or same-sex marriage. In October 2003, the IWF announced an affiliation with Citizens for a Sound Economy, now Americans For Prosperity, with whom it shares its premises.

Opposition to other feminist groups

IWF challenges what it calls "radical feminist positions." Some critical writers have asserted that feminist rhetoric is used by the IWF for anti-feminist ends.

Women in the sciences

Judith Kleinfeld, who is affiliated with IWF and is a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, notably criticized an MIT study on discrimination against women in MIT's science department, calling their findings "junk science."

Disputing the "gender gap"

On a broader scale, IWF-affiliated writers have assailed the assertion that an income "gender gap" exists because of institutional misogyny. Instead, they argue that any disparity that exists between the wages earned by men and women can be accounted for by women's demand for flexibility, fewer hours, and less travel in their careers. In an article for the Dallas Morning News, IWF Vice-President for Policy and Economics and work-from-home mother Carrie Lukas argues that,

In truth, I'm the cause of the wage gap – I and hundreds of thousands of women like me. I have a good education and have worked full time for 10 years. Yet throughout my career, I've made things other than money a priority. ...[W]omen tend to place a higher priority on flexibility and personal fulfillment than do men, who focus more on pay. Women tend to avoid jobs that require travel or relocation, and they take more time off and spend fewer hours in the office than men do. Men disproportionately take on the most dirty, dangerous and depressing jobs.

Linda Chavez credits Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America, a 1999 book published in part by the IWF, with "debunk[ing] much of the feminists' voodoo economics." John Stossel has cited Michelle Bernard's 2007 book Women's Progress as evidence that "American women have never enjoyed more options or such a high quality of life."

Politically Incorrect Guide To Women, Sex and Feminism

IWF Vice-President for Policy and Economics Carrie Lukas wrote the 2006 book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism, the seventh book in the Politically Incorrect Guide series from Regnery Press. In the book, Lukas argues that modern-day feminism seeks to aggrandize government programs in ways that would have the effect of reducing women's autonomy. In an interview about the book, Lukas asserts that,

[T]he feminist movement, instead of appreciating the success it has had and the fact that women now do have all these opportunities, keeps pushing for more. They want bigger government programs–they see the government as something that should really replace the role that families used to play in women's lives. They want Uncle Sam to be our new provider, take care of us, and provide health care, free day care, and welfare. They also see government as the solution for all of women's problems. I think that is one of the ways in which they have betrayed the idea of individuals making their own decisions, and living with the consequences of those decisions. Now they want taxpayers to bear the costs of women's decisions.

Domestic policy and programs

United States healthcare policy

In 2009, IWF produced a television advertisement run on YouTube and in eight states that said that "300,000 American women with breast cancer might have died" if healthcare is reformed to include a public option in the United States. Nichole Kurokawa, senior policy analyst for IWF, compared studies, conducted by the Lewin Group which is part of UnitedHealth and The Lancet Oncology, of government-run healthcare in the UK and the current U.S. healthcare system. She said "...if we had survival rates at what Britain had, there would be about 300,000 American women who would have died over the past decade". Media Matters and FactCheck said the video unnecessarily appealed to women's fears. Rachel Maddow described it as another in a string of conservative attacks.

Education policy and campus programs

The Forum is active in education policy discussions and focuses on a number of different issues both in primary/secondary education and higher education.

Title IX enforcement

Since shortly after the organization's inception, the IWF has joined with groups like the National Wrestling Coaches Association in opposing the manner in which the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has enforced Title IX gender equality legislation. The 1972 Title IX law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." According to IWF senior fellow Christine Stolba, the law has resulted in a number of negative, unintended consequences. Elaborating on the group's position, Stolba asserts,

The (women's forum) is often accused of opposing Title IX. But we don't oppose Title IX.... What we're opposing is the way the Office for Civil Rights chooses to enforce Title IX. Given their regulations, colleges are enforcing statistical proportionality.... Common sense and poll data suggest that men are more interested in playing sports than women. But there are more female students than male. It becomes a numbers game, where the number of athletes has to be proportional. The easiest way to do that is to cut men's teams.

In support of the group's claims that—absent current Title IX enforcement—men are more likely to enroll in collegiate athletic programs than women, the IWF conducted a 1998 survey that examined the percentage of students at all-women's schools participating in athletics compared to the percentage of female students participating in similar programs at undergraduate schools generally. The survey found that female students at co-educational schools are far more likely to be student athletes. Jeremy Rabkin cited the survey in an April 1999 article in the American Spectator, asking, "If 'discrimination' keeps down the proportion of women athletes at co-ed schools, what accounts for overall participation rates that are half of the national women's average at Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, and Smith?"

Advocacy for school choice

In response to falling test scores in American public elementary, middle, and high schools, particularly among young boys, IWF created its Women For School Choice project. The effort targets in part what the organization describes as the negative results of the Women's Educational Equity Act. According to researcher Krista Kafer, whose report was published by the IWF,

WEEA is a solution without a problem. The program wastes money that would be better spent on actual crises--boys' literacy for example--or returned to taxpayers.... Girls are more engaged and ambitious in school, while boys are more likely to suffer academic and behavioral problems.

The creation of this project was also largely a reaction to the National Organization for Women's vocal opposition to single-sex schools, which decried such arrangements as unacceptable modern examples of segregation.

2006 Duke University lacrosse case

The IWF criticized media coverage of suspects in an alleged rape case at Duke University.

After rape accusations against Duke University lacrosse players surfaced in March 2006, the IWF was quick to call attention to the fact that the parties involved in the case were receiving much attention in the press, something that would be harmful to their reputations regardless of the ultimate legal outcome. In April 2006, Carrie Lukas of the IWF said,

At Duke, a woman has accused three men of raping her. Two have been indicted. We know the names of the accused; we've seen their pictures; their lives will never be the same.... Perhaps the evidence will show they... committed the heinous crime of rape. If so, they will be and they should be severely punished. Yet the media so quick to sensationalize the accuser's account and condemn the lacrosse players now is revealing facts suggesting that the accused might be innocent of this crime.

Columnist Michael Gaynor, writing for Alan Keyes' organization Renew America, noted IWF's early criticism of the school's and the district attorney's mishandling of the case, saying, "The Independent Women's Forum's Charlotte Allen figured out early that the real scandal was the way the players were mistreated and her posts during April of 2006 on the IWF website showed a commendable concern with due process and evidence instead of rushing to an erroneous misjudgment."

Campus programs

The organization emphasizes traditional family roles and cultural norms as essential for civil society. In particular, IWF encourages young women to embrace what it presents as a healthy attitude towards dating, courtship, and marriage. This emphasis is reflected by high-profile, sometimes controversial work on college campuses where IWF sponsors advertising campaigns and literature distribution to promote its views. One such effort included the running of advertisements with provocative headings such as "The Ten Most Common Feminist Myths." IWF also offers internships in its Washington, D.C. offices and sponsors an annual essay contest open to full-time female undergraduate students.

As a reaction to reports of growing promiscuity on college campuses and the V-Day movement founded by Eve Ensler, IWF created its "Take Back the Date" campus program to "reclaim Valentine's Day from radical feminists on campus who use a day of love and romance to promote vulgar and promiscuous behavior through activities like The Vagina Monologues." Specifically addressing the controversial play, IWF's "Take Back the Date" release states that, "although the play raises money for a good cause, the hyper-sexualized play counteracts the positive contributions of the feminist movement and degrades women." The IWF program's advice for Valentine's Day states:

Guys: Take women out. Open doors. Buy them flowers. Women: Let guys take you out. If you like a guy, ask him out yourself. Pass out IWF's [literature] on campus as a way to restore chivalry and personal responsibility among students.

In an article in The Guardian, one critic claimed that the program was merely "[r]evamping outdated notions of femininity and positioning them as cutting edge."

International programs

Condoleezza Rice speaking to an IWF audience in 2006 after receiving the organization's "Woman of Valor" award.

Since its founding, IWF has sponsored numerous conferences, panels, and other programs designed to promote its message to an international audience. These primarily include activities and events discussing or taking place in the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, and focus on promoting female participation in democracy.

In October 2004, the Feminist Majority Foundation objected to the U.S. Department of State's decision to award part of a grant to IWF for "leadership training, democracy education and coalition building assistance" to women in Iraq, claiming that, "the IWF represents a small group of right-wing wheeler-dealers inside the Beltway." IWF's work in Iraq is in concert with that of the American Islamic Conference and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a neo-conservative think tank.

Sources of funding

The IWF operates through funds provided by donor organizations. It has been described by the left-wing group MediaTransparency as being "largely funded by the conservative movement." Sources of funding include three of Richard Mellon Scaife's four Scaife Foundations. A full breakdown of foundation donors is given below:

Body	Donations	Total (USD)
Sarah Scaife Foundation*	10	1,675,000
Brady Education Foundation	6	1,604,000
Randolph Foundation	14	1,559,000
John M. Olin Foundation	11	776,000
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation	15	490,000
Castle Rock Foundation	5	300,000
Carthage Foundation*	3	300,000
Jaquelin Hume Foundation	6	265,000
William H. Donner Foundation	5	200,000
Scaife Family Foundation*	1	100,000
JM Foundation	5	95,000
Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation	4	70,000
Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation	6	61,000
Gilder Foundation	1	50,000
Earhart Foundation	2	35,000
Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation	1	25,000
Roe Foundation	5	22,500
Hickory Foundation	4	17,500
William E. Simon Foundation	2	6,000
Total	106	7,651,000

* Scaife Foundations

Board members

IWF Chairman Heather Higgins appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher.

The board is chaired by investment fund executive Heather Higgins with other members Mary Arnold, Carol T. Crawford, Jennifer Ashworth Dinh, Randy Parris Kendrick and Larry Kudlow. These staff are complemented by 'directors emeritae'; these include Second Lady of the United States Lynne V. Cheney, neoconservative writer Midge Decter, Kimberly O. Dennis, the Mercatus Center's Wendy Lee Gramm, Elizabeth Lurie, Washington editor of National Review Kate O'Beirne, and Louise V. Oliver.

External links

• Official site
• Independent Women's Forum, "IWF Awarded Grant to Support Iraqi Women," September 28, 2004.

This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on Independent Women's Forum under the terms of the GFDL.