February 22, 2002

Contact: Nancy Bennett, Institute for Women's Policy Research, (800) 834-1110; Katie O'Neill, (202) 785-5100; Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.

Research group to study status of women in Kansas

LAWRENCE -- Kansas is one of nine states the Institute for Women's Policy Research is studying for its "Status of Women in the States" report series, to be released in November 2002.

The status of women in Kansas will be ranked in five major areas: political participation, employment and earnings, economic autonomy, reproductive rights, and health and well-being.

Five KU representatives -- a dean, a professor, an administrator and two students -- are part of a statewide advisory committee that will assist the institute in developing the report.

The "Status of Women" reports compare quality of life for women in all states studied and include a ranking system for a state-by-state comparison. The benchmark studies are compiled using original data that reveal where women stand economically and how the states stack up on reproductive rights, domestic violence legislation, environmental health risks, child support, women's political participation, and women's economic status, among other indicators.

"'The Status of Women in Kansas' will have far-reaching implications for how policies affecting the women of Kansas should be designed and implemented in the future," said Katherine Rose-Mockry, drector of the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center at KU.

The data come from a variety of sources, including government agencies. IWPR works closely with a group of leaders in Kansas. The Kansas Advisory Committee will play an active role in compiling IWPR's findings. Galvanized by earlier reports on the status of women in their states, activists in Mississippi and Illinois, for example, established their states' first Commission on Women.

The Kansas committee will highlight statewide demographic diversity, in particular immigrant issues and issues of rural/urban diversity, and its differential effects on women across the state.

"Kansans will be interested in learning about the differences in opportunities and in their lives between women in rural areas and women in larger communities, between women with basic or advanced education and between women and men," said Ann E. Cudd, director of women's studies at KU and co-chair of IWPR's Kansas Advisory Committee.

The committee will focus on such issues as reproductive health care, violence against women, access to quality child care, women's access to economic development dollars in rural and urban communities, and the state-level effects of the 1997 Welfare Reform Act. Kansas Action for Children, the Kansas Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, Planned Parenthood of Wichita and various state government agencies assist the committee in its state-level research.

Members of the Kansas Advisory Committee are:
 • co-chair Ann E. Cudd, professor of philosophy and director of women's studies, KU;
 • co-chair Linnea GlenMaye, assistant professor of social work, Wichita State University;
 • State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, associate vice chancellor of student affairs, KU;
 • Deborah Powell, executive dean and vice chancellor of clinical affairs, KU Medical Center;
 • Loretta Pyles, Oklahoma City graduate student in social work, KU;
 • Almas Sayeed, Wichita senior, KU;
 • Gary Brunk, executive director of Kansas Action for Children;
 • Diana Endicott, Rainbow Organic Farms Co., Bronson;
 • Dorothy Miller, director of women's studies, Wichita State University;
 • Kristi Parker, editor of Liberty Press, Wichita;
 • Marci Penner, executive president of Kansas Sampler Foundation;
 • Linda Thurston, professor and assistant dean of education, Kansas State University;
 • Gracia Toubia, Wichita; and
 • Kris Wilshusen, Wichita Planned Parenthood.

IWPR began the series in 1995 to inform researchers, advocates and policymakers about advances and gaps in women's economic, social and political rights. Every two years, IWPR studies and produces reports on about 10 states.

This is the fourth round in the series, bringing the total number of states studied to 42 plus the District of Columbia. The nine remaining states will be studied in 2004, and the IWPR will release those reports at that time.

IWPR is a nonprofit public policy research organization dedicated to informing and stimulating the debate on public policy issues of critical importance to women and their families. IWPR focuses on issues that affect women's daily lives, including employment, earnings and economic change; democracy and society; poverty, welfare and income security; work and family policies; and health and violence.