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The Mass Action for Women Audit, a grassroots organizing and participatory action research project for women and girls in Massachusetts, is a joint project of the McCormack Institute's Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy and Mass Action for Women - a statewide women's organization founded in 1996 in response to the United Nations 4th World Conference in Beijing.
Since the project's inception in 1998, the Audit has received major funding from local and national foundations including a $240,000 grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and $30,000 from The Boston Foundation. A recent grant of $10,000 from the Cisco Foundation will allow the project to develop its website and develop community connections using new technologies. Additional support has come from the Office on Women's Health, Region I, U.S. Public Health Service, the McCormack Institute, a UMass Boston Public Service Grant, and donations from women around the state.
The Audit offers many ways for women and girls to "join the action." Regional Women's Action Committees have formed or are being formed in four regions of the state: Greater Boston; the Southeast (from Rte.128 to New Bedford and Fall River); Cape Cod and the Islands; and Mass Action West (Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties).
Our statewide Women's Resource Team is off and running. In these groups, women are talking to each other about their concerns,hopes, and accomplishments. Ideas for action are emerging as well. Lisa Moore, a participant from Springfield, said recently: "The meetings are multicultural and inter-generational...When I think about the women [twenty-something folks] I am representing who can't seem to find the energy to come - I know that if they'd come to one meeting, they'd be hooked!!! It's nice to be able to be really honest about what you think."
The Mass Action for Women Audit originated in - and maintains links to - the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. Our progress in bringing women together at the local level to move from dialogue to action has been reported to the President's Interagency Council on Women in Washington, which is pulling together information on all efforts that are going on across the country since the Beijing conference. The Audit will be featured at the "Women 2000: Beijing Plus 5" conference on February 5th and what women and girls have to say will form the basis for the Commonwealth's report to the United Nations on its response to the mandate's from the Beijing Platform for Action.
We are poised to begin the new century and millennium with a commitment to working for and with women and girls. We are eager to listen to the ideas of students, faculty and staff at UMass Boston and women from communities around the state The word "audit" comes from the Latin word for "to listen" - so, join the action by contacting Audit Organizing Coordinator, Marie Thérèse (Tess) Browne at 617-287-5569, or Project Director, Carol Hardy-Fanta at 617-287-5546.