Education and Advocacy
OWL has created a powerful and effective grassroots network of over 30 chapters nationwide composed of women and men of all ages dedicated to winning economic, health, and social equity for midlife and older women. OWL's current Executive Director is Bobbie Ann Brinegar. Brinegar has a strong background in voting rights and worked for the Florida League of Women Voters.
OWL leaders and members undertake national public education and advocacy campaigns, and work through forums, campaigns, and coalitions to put those issues in the public spotlight and on the legislative agenda. OWL works closely with the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO), the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO).
OWL’s Mother’s Day Reports spotlight issues of critical importance to midlife and older women, focusing on such issues as the health care coverage needs of midlife and older women, Social Security, pension reform, retirement security for women, caregiving, long term care, housing, elder abuse and domestic violence.
National campaigns on key health issues like prescription drugs, Medicare as a women’s health plan, and managed care’s effect on midlife and older women, as well as materials on mental health, osteoporosis, nutrition, and medication interaction, provide women with tools to negotiate the health care system effectively. In 1981 OWL shaped legislation in Oregon which required group health insurance policies to allow former dependents to continue coverage if they paid premiums. This legislation laid the groundwork for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) law. OWL has testified at congressional hearings on Social Security, the Equal Rights Amendment, end-of-life issues and long-term care.
Read more about this topic: Older Women's League
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“The Supreme Court would have pleased me more if they had concerned themselves about enforcing the compulsory education provisions for Negroes in the South as is done for white children. The next ten years would be better spent in appointing truant officers and looking after conditions in the homes from which the children come. Use to the limit what we already have.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)