Federal Women's Program Resources * Why do we have an FWP? * Marketing the FWP * Involving a New Top Manager * Training the FWP Committee * The Ideal FWPM Audio Clips Why an FWP? (30 secs.) AIFF Format Please note that this file may take some time to download. For help listening to the audio, please click here. About my work Mary Dingee Fillmore, Director Clients Projects	Why We Have a Federal Women's Program The purpose of the FWP is to assure equal opportunity for women in the Federal government, by improving their employment status. It is a legally mandated Program with a central focus in the Office of Personnel Management, and Federal Women's Program Managers in each agency and department throughout the government. How and why was the program initiated? 1961 Eleanor Roosevelt chaired a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, which found that a major barrier to advancement was the policy that agencies could request applicants of a certain sex for different job categories. For GS 13-15 positions, 94% of the requests were for males. 1962 Attorney General Robert Kennedy ruled that agencies could not ask for a specific sex when requesting candidates -- except for certain custodial jobs and those requiring a gun! 1963 A new Commission was formed, and the first Federal Women's Program was created at the Civil Service Commission, headed by Evelyn Harrison. Its purpose: to make the Federal government the nation's model employer of women. 1964 The Civil Rights Act included sex as well as race, and told the President to issue an Executive Order applying the same standards of equal opportunity to Federal employers as to private ones. But E.O. 11246, signed in September 1965, did not cover sex; finally, on the urging of the Federal Women's Award winners, President Johnson moved ahead, and in 1967, made Federal women employees just as entitled to equal opportunities as anybody else. 1968 To help agencies identify appropriate activities to support the Federal Women's Program, the Civil Service Commission issued Federal Personnel Manual Letter 713-8. In the same year, Federally Employed Women was organized as an outside pressure group to lobby and undertake other activities on behalf of Federal women. 1969 The FWP was integrated into overall EEO programs in E.O. 11478. 1972 In the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972, Federal employees and agencies were brought under the provisions of the Civil Rights Act, and the Civil Service Commission was given more power to enforce rights.
© 1996 - 1998 Mary Dingee Fillmore, Changing Work <mfillmore@usa.net>. All rights reserved.