Putting Research to Work : Applied Research on Women. Working Paper No. 97 / Laura Lein and Peggy McIntosh.

Research on women can influence policies and behavior in the public and private sectors if existing institutional structures and the areas to be influenced are taken into consideration. Five projects undertaken by the Center for Research on Women and Wellesley College (Massachusetts) illustrate optimum strategies for conducting applied and policy-oriented research on women. Individual projects addressed the problems of a dearth of research on women conducted by women, women's inability to compete equally with men in the job market because of family responsibilities, the absence of women in positions of executive power within American businesses, the failure of men to take responsibility for the daily care of their children, and the Center's failure to award grants for women's research to minority women. Each of these projects met considerable success in alleviating the given problem because it worked from within accepted political or social structures and thus the findings and recommendations were accepted and publicized. For example, the goal of encouraging research on women by women was met by establishing a grant program for tenured female faculty within the college, the problem of female entry into executive business positions was studied through a grant provided by a private business corporation, and the issue of women's inability to compete with men for jobs because of child care demands was addressed through a United States Civil Rights Commission grant to study child care facilities. (LP)

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