| Welcome |
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Efforts over the last several decades
to improve women's lives have produced
new concepts and methods. We have
more sophisticated understanding of
how organizations and markets work,
critiques of nationalism and other
ideologies that negatively affect
women, new social technologies like
microcredit, new ways of hearing women's
voices in literature and the arts,
activist movements within countries
and across the globe, and a substantial
recognition by mainstream institutions
of women's critical roles in national
development. It is now well-documented
that more enlightened gender policies
and investments in women's education
and health lead to higher human development
and economic growth.
Yet many challenges remain in addressing
women's roles across the world. The
UN Beijing conference in l995 identified
a substantial agenda of actions needed
to enable women to enjoy full human
rights, to have access to critical
resources like land and water, and
to realize their potential contribution
to national development. Several international
communities of research, programming
and activism have formed to carry
these issues forward. Among these
issue communities are networks concerned
with women and economic development,
human rights, conflict and international
relations, reproductive health, women's
studies, women in welfare states,
organizational change and political
participation. Some of these are more
concerned with women in developing
countries, others deal with issues
in industrialized countries, and some
but not many span issues in rich and
poor countries.
The multidisciplinary and multinational
group of New Century Scholars will
share their work and build collaboration
within and across these issue communities.
Through participating in a program
of seminars and research exchange,
they will engage in collaborative
thinking across cultures and issue
communities to identify ways to use
research, education and policy changes
to improve the lives of women.
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| NCS
Distinguished Leader |
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 Carolyn
Elliott, an alumna of the Fulbright
Program, is Professor of Political
Science Emerita of the University
of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. She
received her Ph.D. from Harvard University
and held faculty positions at the
University of California, Santa Cruz,
Wellesley College and Case Western
Reserve University before joining
the University of Vermont. She was
the founding director of the Wellesley
Center for Research on Women and a
Senior Program Officer in Social Science
at the Ford Foundation in India. In
l997-9 she served in the Fulbright
position of Director of the Indo-American
Center for International Studies in
Hyderabad, India.
Professor Elliott has played a leading
role in the international women's
movement. She served as President
of the Association for Women's Rights
in Development (AWID), an international
membership association of researchers,
practitioners and policy-makers, and
led their delegation to the Beijing
conference. Earlier she led the Wellesley
conference on Women in National Development,
one of the first research conferences
in this field that yielded the volume
Women in National Development in l977.
In India she developed the Ford Foundation
program in Women's Studies that assisted
the creation of many women's research
centers.
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