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Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is an American nonprofit publishing organization that was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The organization works to increase media democracy and strengthen independent media.

Basic information

WIFP was founded in 1972 by Donna Allen in Washington, DC. She was an economist, historian, and civil rights activist.^[1] The organization conducted seven conferences at the National Press Club in the 1970s and 1980s on "Planning a National and International Communications System for Women".^[2] WIFP held two international satellite teleconferences from the 1975 UN World Conference of Women, in Copenhagen in 1980 ("Dateline Copenhagen: A Woman's View") and Nairobi in 1985 ("Dateline Nairobi - Woman's View").^[2]^[3] These were each four hours if international interactions between women. During the 1980 conference, women gathered in six US cities and several female delegates from other countries called in from the Second U.N. World Conference in Copenhagen. Five years later in Nairobi, groups of women came together similarly to in Copenhagen but with the addition of more countries and their delegates.^[4] As of 2017, WIFP became a member of Corporate Reform Coalition, which is a group of organizations and individuals who join together to address the influence of corporate America on the country's elections through shareholder protection.^[5]

Publications

When the Institute was founded, it immediately launched the periodical Media Report to Women with the subhead "What Women Are Doing and Thinking About the Communications Media." It was edited the first fifteen years by Donna Allen.^[6] Media Report to Women was transferred in mid-1987 to Communication Research Association Inc., where it is still published.^[7] WIFP currently publishes two annual print periodicals: Voices for Media Democracy and the Directory of Women's Media.^[8]^[9] The first version of the Directory was published in 1975, and had 154 women's periodicals. Out of these 154, there were 24 periodicals that were published outside of the United States. Fourteen years later, the Directory contained 702 publications with 300 published outside of the United States.^[4]

Issued awards

Women and Media Award

WIFP began an annual award entitled "Women and Media Award" in 2013. It which is given to women who have made exceptional contributions toward expanding female voices in the media. The recipients of this award are:

2012 – Maurine Beasley
2014 – Tobe Levin
2015 – Roxanne Dunbar
2016 – Soraya Chemaly
2017 – Vinie Burrows
2018 – Angela Peabody
2019 - Luci Murphy
2020 - Esther Iverem, Eleanor Goldfield, Medea Benjamin, Margaret Flowers, Alina Duarte, and Anya Parampil
2021 - Margaret Kimberley, Laura Flanders, Jennifer Pozner, Barbara Ransby, Nayoung Kim Park, and Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Staff and Associates

Staff

President

Dana Densmore first became a board member and officer of WIFP when the organization was founded in 1972. During her time at the organization, she served as senior editor and research director. In 1968, when the women's liberation bloomed, Densmore had been a systems programmer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an outcome, she worked with Roxanne Dunbar to found the feminist organization Cell 16. The two women went on to found the journal No More Fun and Games as the organization's periodical in the same year. She is also the founder, co-director, and editor for Green Lion Press. She received her B.A. in 1965 from St. John's College in Annapolis and her M.A. in 1993 from St. John's College in Santa Fe.^[10]

Director

Martha Leslie Allen has been the Institute's Director since 1985.^[11] She is an activist for media democracy and the promotion of women's involvement in the media. In 1973–1975 she founded and chaired Women's Media Project in Memphis, TN. Additionally, she was an organizer of the 1973 Women's Leadership Conference in Memphis. From 1978 to 1985, she served as the associate director of WIFP, before taking the director position. Allen earned her Ph.D. in 1988 from Howard University in Washington, DC, with a dissertation on the history of women's media. She is Donna Allen's youngest daughter.

Associate Director

Elana Anderson, with a Ph.D. from Howard University, is on the board of directors of WIFP, as well as serving as the Associate Director since 2011. Anderson is a native Washingtonian, instructor, lecturer, parent, and performance and fiber artist. She is a member of the American Guild for Musical Artists (AGMA) and the National Council for Negro Women. Anderson serves as an Associate Artistic Team Member of Chicago-based Deeply Rooted Productions.

Associates

In 1977, WIFP formed the Associate Network composed of "women who worked for media or were interested in how the media covered women and their concerns".^[4] This network grew to more than 800 members; some of the notable associates are listed below.