Advocacy in the United States

In the United States, ICRW has been a pioneer in advocacy to ensure that evidence—not ideology or intuition—guide the policy making that affects the lives of women and girls globally. Using ICRW’s research as a solid foundation upon which to build our advocacy efforts in Washington, we work independently as well as through leadership of the following coalitions:

Our efforts have led to bipartisan legislation like the International Violence Against Women Act, the U.S. Protecting Girls by Ending Child Marriage Act, and the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018. Our work has also resulted in ground-breaking executive branch policies such as the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls (the first foreign policy in the world to focus explicitly on the rights and well being of this demographic) and the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Throughout our over 40 years of history, we have enjoyed working with members of Congress as well as representatives from agencies and offices within the White House, U.S. Department of State, USAID, Peace Corps, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to explain the evidence on the barriers girls and women face and tested solutions that U.S. investments and policies can foster, ultimately unlocking opportunities for girls and women to thrive and contribute to the overall social and economic development of their communities and countries.

Following our recent merger with Re:Gender, formerly the National Council for Research on Women, ICRW advocates are now exploring opportunities to leverage our research evidence to inform policy solutions for women and girls right here at home.