Business

Women WorkBusiness

Making Money Work!

This six-session, hands-on financial education program was designed especially for women who are facing some of life’s toughest difficulties, and struggling to gain a foothold in a world where stability and financial security seem like distant dreams.

The goal of the Making Money Work! financial education program is to help participants achieve financial stability and effectively manage a limited earned income by providing subject matter information, motivational participatory learning activities, and access to resources. The program introduces participants to basic financial concepts, such as goal setting, determining needs versus wants, developing a spending plan, managing a checking account, and the wise use of credit.

Making Money Work! Online Facilitator’s Guide

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Women WorkBusiness

Advice for Women Job Seekers: Appearance Matters

Americans Say a Woman’s Appearance Affects Whether She is Taken Seriously on the Job, Considered for Raises & Promotions 
Survey Report (pdf, 146kb)
Statistical Tables for all 8 questions (pdf, 52kb)

APRIL 23, 2001 — In this graduation season, Americans have advice for the millions of women job-seekers who are graduating from high school, college and job training programs: a professional appearance will help you get and keep a job, and win responsibilities, raises and promotions. A new poll finds that nearly seven in ten Americans (69 percent) – and more than eight in ten women – say clothing, hair and makeup are very or extremely important for a woman on the job, and for her confidence. Large majorities say that a woman’s appearance affects whether she is taken seriously, asked to represent her company at outside meetings, and considered for raises and promotions.

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Women WorkBusiness

Free Guides Helps Women Entering the Workforce “Work Your Image!”

Download the Order Form for requesting free copies of WYI! materials.
Download the WYI! Tip Sheet English, Spanish 
Download the WYI! Family Guide Tip Sheet
Download the WYI Evaluation Form
(Right click on the link and select “save as” to save a copy of the form to your computer.)

As the saying goes, “you only have one chance to make a first impression,” but there is a great deal a person can do to make that impression a positive and lasting one. Realizing the value of presenting a professional appearance, Women Work!, in partnership with the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA), created a unique program to help women in transition put their best foot forward in today’s competitive job market. Work Your Image! Creating a Professional Image to Get and Keep a Job® (WYI!) provides basic information for women entering or re-entering the workforce with a common-sense approach to creating a positive first impression.

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Women WorkBusiness

Report Shows Women and Girls are Invisible Again

National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education finds vocational education law fails women and girls

The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE) released a report in Oct. 2001 that found programs designed to help women and girls succeed in vocational education are rapidly collapsing, leaving many women and girls in jeopardy of losing out on important educational opportunities. NCWGE expressed concern that the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1998 — the federal law governing vocational education at secondary and post-secondary institutions — provides insufficient support for women and girls at a time when welfare time-limits are fast approaching.

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Women WorkBusiness

Recruiting for the Information Technology

Recruiting for the Information Technology Age (RITA) is a multifaceted project to increase the number of women represented in the information technology (IT) sector. Through RITA, Women Work!’s member programs partner with local employers to create collaborative relationships that move women into high-paying, stable jobs. Employer partners inform training design and provide job shadowing, internship, on-the-job-training and site visit opportunities to students. As a result, women are knowledgeable about job opportunities and requirements, gain work experience and have a ‘foot in the door’ with their local employers.

Project Outcomes

  • Women Work! has implemented RITA at 17 sites in 11 states since 1998, working with member organizations in North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Oregon, South Dakota, Maine, New Jersey, Colorado, Wisconsin and Idaho
  • Hundreds of women have been exposed to IT careers, with more than 300 completing education and training that leads to an internship, apprenticeship, or full-time job earning at least $9.00 an hour
  • Partnerships have been established with nearly 100 IT employers
  • Women Work! creates resources and publications, such as Getting IT Across , to share strategies for recruiting women into lucrative, non-traditional careers

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Women WorkBusiness

Women Work!shops April 25

Find out what Women Work! can do for you during two sessions of Women Work!shops. Women Work! staff and members will give you an overview of the resources, teaching tools, curricula and training the organization has to offer. You will leave each session with new tools and suggestions for how to use them in your work and life. Topics include:

Domestic Violence Survivors and the Legal System
Presenter: Rebecca Henry
Women Work! and the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence recently partnered to produce Finding a Lawyer, a tip sheet which helps survivors of domestic violence understand the basics about finding and working with a lawyer. In this session you will learn more about recent research which sites access to legal services and improved economic status as the top two factors affecting declines in intimate partner violence. You’ll also learn more about the ways you can help your clients navigate the legal system.

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Women WorkBusiness

Women Work! Pay Them Fairly!

Capitol Hill Equal Pay Day Rally

US Capitol Building West Lawn (front lawn)

1:30 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.

April 24, 2007

Equal Pay Day is observed in April to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. In 2007, April 24th symbolizes the day when women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from the previous year. Because women on average earn less, they must work longer for the same pay. For women of color, the wage gap is greater.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) brought the rally to a triumphant conclusion with the words. Equal pay is fair for women, good for families and right for America!

 

Legislators leading the fight for wage equity in the House and the Senate were featured speakers at the rally. (l. to r.) Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) joined Women Work! President and CEO Jill Miller at the podium.

Women Work! organized an Equal Pay Day Rally to demand Congressional support for women’s wage equity in 2007.

The rally was motivating for all who attended.

Evelyn Murphy, founder of the WAGE project also spoke at the rally.
Women WorkBusiness

Perkins Career and Technical Education Act: Implementation Center

After years of effort, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act was signed into law by President Bush on August 12, 2006. The law takes several positive steps to ensure that women in transition have greater access to the career and technical education system.

Read Women Works!’s Advocate’s Guide to Perkins IV

Policy Resources

Perkins Implementation Action Kit

Perkins III Data Tables
Inform your Perkins advocacy with statistics on displaced homemakers and single parents in career and technical education programs in your State.

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Women WorkBusiness

4 Good Reasons for Starting a Business

Starting a Business

While statistically it seems that it is mostly males who start up their own business, this doesn’t have to preclude an woman from doing so. In fact, women may have more reasons to start up their own business and often, more skills. For instance, few men would want to be a beauty consultant, create beautiful nails or apply make-up for a living, but if you have those skills you can easily branch out on your own.

Setting up your own business is not that hard when you put your mind to it. It does not need to be a national retail store. You can start off small and you may even be happy to stay that way, so long as you are making a living.  Here are 4 good reasons for starting your own business.

  • You have marketable skills, but there is no one in town to hire you. This means that you have found a niche in the market that will likely make you successful if you start up your own business. That said, marketable is the keyword. If you know how to make wagon wheels starting up such a business is not likely to bring in many customers. But if you know how to make other women look fabulous or feel wonderful, then go for it.

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Women WorkBusiness

State Affiliate Activities

IN – Indiana Women Work! has seen extensive growth since affiliating. In addition to their annual Women & Work conference this year, INWW will be awarding a small scholarship to a woman going back to school.

NE – Nebraska Women Work! is a newer affiliate that has cultivated a committed core of members. They are very proud of their recent accomplishments, including media coverage and the creation of a survey to assess the barriers NE women face in the workforce.

MD – Maryland Women Work! sponsored a conference early this year called “Opportunities for Change in Ocean City ”. They host an annual legislative day where service participants learn about their valuable role in civic matters and meet with delegates from around the state.

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Women WorkBusiness

Public Policy and Advocacy at Women Work!

  • NEW! Women Work! introduces the 2009 Public Policy Agenda! The Public Policy Agenda sets priorities for legislative and advocacy work in the Women Work! national office and in the field. In 2009, Women Work! will fight for policies that bolster the economic security of women and their families.
  • Learn more about women’s economic justice issues.
  • Follow the status of key public policies that affect women’s employment and educational equity. Visit our Policy Tracker
  • Subscribe to Action Works! and add your voice to the nation’s largest network of advocates demanding economic justice and equality for women.
Women WorkBusiness

Policy Tracker

Use the Women Work! Policy Tracker to follow developments in federal legislation that affects women entering, re-entering, and advancing in the workplace.

Workforce Investment Act (WIA) 
The nation’s workforce investment system, WIA is long overdue for reauthorization. Women Work! advocates for reforms in WIA to increase women’s access to training for high-skill, high-wage, and nontraditional careers.

Pay Equity Legislation
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act are critical to women’s workplace equity and economic security.

Higher Education Act (HEA)
The 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act contains provisions that will aid nontraditional students in obtaining higher education.

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Women WorkBusiness

Teaching Tools & Curricula

Women Work!’s teaching tools and curricula are available FREE to organizational members. Resources listed in this section can be downloaded from the Members Only section of this website. Select resources are also available in hard copy or on CD. To order resources complete the order form and mail or fax it to Women Work!. A processing fee of $5 will be charged for each CD ordered.

Work Your Image!

Leader’s Guide – Item # 11

Participant’s Guide – Item # 12

Personal Worksheet – Item # 13

Personal Tip Sheet (English) – Item # 14

Personal Tip Sheet (Spanish) – Item # 15

Family Guide Tip Sheet – Item # 16

Creating a Professional Image to Get and Keep a Job®

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