Center for the Advancement of Women

Co-founded and led by Faye Wattleton, the CFAW was "a not-for-profit institution dedicated to research-based education and advocacy for women. An independent, non-partisan organization founded in 1995," and known as the Center for Gender Equality until 2002, its mission was "to conduct national opinion research among women to measure experiences in their daily lives. This research presents a profile of women that [was hopefully] used to educate opinion leaders, policy makers and the general public." One of the significant research projects undertaken by the CFAW beginning in the late 1990s and lasting several years was "Progress and Perils: A New Agenda for Women," "a two-part landmark survey of over 3,300 American women" that measured their various opinions re: various topics such as domestic abuse, sexual assault, affirmative action, and abortion rights, in which responses were tabulated so as to reflect any differences based on race. Other research projects included the Domestic Violence Report (an outgrowth to the "Progress and Perils" results), a National Security Report in response to 9/11, the Women on Religion Survey, and the Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Report. Throughout its fifteen years, the CFAW depended on donors, large and small, to do its work and, after years of financial struggle, the organization closed down.

[source: CFAW's former Web site, http://www.advancewomen.org (retrieved 9/15/10)]

From the guide to the Center for the Advancement of Women Records MS 667., 1993-2010, (Sophia Smith Collection)