Women's Way
| Founded | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Founder |
Lynn Yeakel Louise Page Ernesta Drinker Ballard Margaret Brown Winnie Schoefer Cathy Strauss |
| Focus | Women, Children, Families |
| Location |
|
|
Area served
|
Greater Philadelphia Area |
| Method | Grantmaking, advocacy, education |
| Slogan | A Powerful Voice for Women |
| Website | womensway.org |
Women's Way is a grantmaking, advocacy, and education 501(c)(3) status nonprofit that deals with current issues facing women and girls in the greater Philadelphia region.
Several women-focused nonprofits formed the organization in the late-1970s in response to financial struggles. The causes they served at the time were controversial and hard to fund.
In more recent years, Women's Way has focused its scope with a comprehensive advocacy/public policy program. The issues it addresses include: women’s health (which spans from reproductive choices to maternal health care), domestic and community violence (including human trafficking and sex trafficking), workplace equity and economic self-sufficiency for women, the empowerment and leadership development of girls, and the underrepresentation of women in positions of leadership and elected office.
As of 2013, Women's Way's Executive Director is Wendy Voet.
Its vision statement says it works to create a "powerful voice for women."
Lynn Yeakel, Louise Page, Ernesta Drinker Ballard, Margaret Bacon, Winnie Schoefer, and Cathy Strauss, originally formed Women's Way as an umbrella organization in 1977 when several struggling Philadelphia-based women-centered nonprofits decided to unite to pool their resources and establish a greater capacity for advocacy and fundraising. The coalition consisted of seven founding member agencies: Options, a group that provided worker support and sought equal pay and opportunity in the workplace; WOAR, the only rape crisis center in Philadelphia at the time; Women’s Law Project, a group advocating for women through legal means; Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women, an independent nonprofit gynecological and abortion clinic and birth center; Women in Transition, a counseling service for women undergoing separation and divorce; and the Pennsylvania Program for Women and Girl Offenders, a group seeking to help women and girls transition back into society after incarceration.Through this unification, Women's Way became the first umbrella women’s funding federation in the United States.
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