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DOC.
L36.102:
W84/13
Irasema T. Garza Director
WOMEN’S BUREAU
withdrawn
University of Illinois Utaary
U.S. Department of Labor ^ ^ ^ ^
MISSION
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT urbana-champaign
The Women’s Bureau was created by the U.S. Congress with a mission to promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. As mandated, it is the only Federal agency designated to represent working women in the public policy process, and as such, advocates on behalf of working women to ensure that employment-related policies fully address the needs and concerns of women in the labor force.
VISION
Technological progress, changes in international trade, and greater competition pose important challenges to current service delivery and accountability systems of the Women’s Bureau. In response to these challenges, the Bureau continues to research cutting edge issues that will form the basis for the development and implementation of initiatives designed to facilitate change in the areas of pay and benefits, work and family, and access to education and training as it relates to women in a rapidly changing global economy. Through its regional staff, State and local partners, and other private and public stakeholders, the Women’s Bureau originates and supports outreach out to working women, and women who want to work, to ensure that they have access to information on apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations, as well as their rights in the workplace. The Women’s Bureau strives to capitalize on its experiences by providing its constituents with access to “what works’* m worker-friendly employer practices nationwide.
WB ORGANIZATION
Created in 1920, the Bureau is one of the oldest agencies within the U.S . Department of Labor. As part of the Office of the Secretary, the Women’s Bureau is a small agency with a workforce of 68 employees nationwide. The agency is headed by a Director, a position requiring Presidential nomination and Senate confirmation. Headquartered in Washington, DC., the agency’s programs are administered by staff in the national office and in each of the 10 Federal regional offices across the United States. The national office has 38 employees under three offices: the Office of the Director, Office of Policy and Programs (OPP), and the Office of Information and Support Services (OISS). The OPP provides leadership over three teams: the Training and Employment Team, Work and Family Team, and the Women in the Global Economy Team. The OISS provides leadership over the following three teams: the Public Affairs and Information Team, Support Services Team, and the Office of the Director Support Services Team. The OISS also supports and maintains two Clearinghouses within its National Resource and Information Center (NRIC): the Work and Family Clearinghouse and the Fair Pay Clearinghouse.
As the Bureau enters its ninth decade of service to working women, ready to address constant as well as emerging issues, it stands driven by the continued increase in the participation of women in the labor force. We look forward to the steady growth in the numbers of working women, the diversity it will create, and the challenge it will present as we carry our mission into the 21st century.
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MAJOR FY2000 PROGRAMS
Like much of the nation, the Women’s Bureau has directed its current efforts on the development of programs and policies that address the changing dynamics of the new millennium. To that end, the Bureau’s focus is toward helping the 64 million women in the nation’s labor force to achieve parity by encouraging and supporting equal opportunity workplaces - workplaces that recognize the needs of all of their employees. Specifically, the Bureau has placed significant energy on four major areas: equal pay, child care, migrant farm workers, and international programs.
♦	Equal Pay Matters Initiative — designed to provide women with information and resources that will lead them to opportunities that will put them on par with their male counterparts when it comes to pay and occupational choice. Targeted outreach efforts to increase women’s knowledge of job opportunities in non-traditional occupations - with special emphasis on careers in math, science, and information technology - include an equal pay partnership with NASA; roundtable and town meetings; public hearings and a study on equal pay.
♦	Child Care Initiative - places focus on the impact of cooperative efforts in the development of child care policies and programs as well as training and education for providers of quality child care. The Business-to-Business Mentoring Initiative on Child Care offers employers a no-to-low-cost method for providing or getting assistance in the area of child care. The Initiative connects employers with effective child care programs with other employers considering child care options for their workers. The Child Care Provider Training Pilot Project will place women transitioning off welfare into a training program operated by a licensed provider that will, in turn, place the women in permanent jobs with above minimum wage level salaries and benefits.
♦	Women Migrant Farm Workers Initiative - joins the Women’s Bureau in partnership with business and community leaders, state and local governments, and other DOL agencies to conduct a series of legal literacy workshops aimed at informing migrant farm worker women of their rights in the workplace. The workshops are designed and coordinated to reach migrant women across the country based on the migration season of the states.
♦	Central America Working Women’s Project -- establishes international support and recognition for gender non-discrimination as an international core labor standard in Central America. Through a selected Central American Labor Ministry, the Bureau oversees outreach efforts and legal literacy workshops in support of women workers.
CUSTOMER OUTREACH
The Women’s Bureau reaches nearly 30,000,000 customers annually, through its NRIC, conferences, workshops, grants, technical assistance, publications, special meetings, media interviews, international visitor briefings, literature, public education campaigns and a wide variety of projects encompassing issues of importance to working women.
The Bureau can be contacted in many ways:
Internet address	http://www.dol.gov/dol/wb/
Telephone	(202) 219-6611 or 1-800-827-5335 and 1-800-347-3743
Fax	(202)219-5529
Mail	200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Rm S3002,Washington, DC 20210