WEEA Equity Resource Center
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WEEA Staff |WEEA Grantees| What is gender equity?

WEEA Program
The Women's Educational Equity Act, known as WEEA, was first enacted by Congress in 1974 and amended and extended several times since. The purpose of the law is to make education more equitable for girls and women by providing incentives and assistance to educational institutions and community groups. In contrast to Title IX, which includes sanctions for noncompliance, WEEA provides grants and contracts to all levels of education for the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs of national, statewide, or general significance to overcome sex stereotyping and achieve educational equity for girls and women. The key priorities of WEEA have included Title IX compliance, educational equity for racial or ethnic minorities, and educational equity for women and girls with disabilities. The program was among the first to fund innovative work to increase math and science achievement for girls and to increase female participation in nontraditional careers.

Since it was established, the WEEA Program has funded more than 700 projects throughout the United States, as well as a number of contracts, including the WEEA Equity Resource Center at EDC. These grants address critical educational issues, including career education; sexual harassment and gendered violence; math, science, and technology education; leadership development; women's history; and bilingual education.

As a federal program, WEEA has helped to shape equitable outcomes for an entire generation of girls and women. WEEA grantees continue to offer leadership for inclusive education reform, and the thousands of participants in WEEA projects are at the core of the development of equity initiatives in education, work, and public life. Funds from WEEA have supported Title IX's vision, helping the country to reach such benchmarks as those noted by the U.S. Department of Education in Title IX: 25 Years of Progress (1997):

  • In 1999, girls and boys had similar achievement levels in mathematics.
  • In 1994, 63 percent of female high school graduates ages 16 to 24 were enrolled in college, compared with 43 percent in 1973.
  • In 1994, 27 percent of women earned a bachelor's degree, compared with 18 percent in 1971.
  • In 1995, women made up 37 percent of all athletes in college, compared with 15 percent in 1972.
  • In 1996, girls constituted 39 percent of high school athletes, compared with 7.5 percent in 1994; women received 38 percent of all medical degrees, compared with 9 percent in 1972; and women attained 43 percent of all law degrees, compared with 7 percent in 1972, and 44 percent of all doctoral degrees, compared with 25 percent in 1977.

A small program, with no more than $3 million in annual funding, WEEA continues to help create equitable education for all students while it raises awareness of emerging educational issues, including gender equity for students with disabilities and the underrepresentation of women and girls of color in the sciences.

The WEEA Program office funds and administers the grant program. For more information on WEEA and its funding, contact Diane Austin at 202-260-1280.

 

WEEA Program | WEEA Staff | What is gender equity?

 

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Gender Equity Works for All

WEEA Equity Resource Center
EDC
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Newton, MA 02458-1060

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