Laramie, WY — Last week, seven “Jane Doe” plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Wyoming Federal Court, seeking to keep their Kappa Kappa Gamma (Kappa) chapte...
Author: Lynn Hatcher
Independent Women’s Network Launches Austin, Texas Chapter
AUSTIN, TX – Independent Women’s Network (IWN), the national grassroots community activist arm of Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), celebrated the launch of its Austin, Texas Chapter. This chapter joins 21 chapters around the country and an online community of more than 32,000 members.
The chapter leader is Michelle Evans, who has been a long time community leader, parental rights advocate and volunteer for various political campaigns. “My passion for protecting sex-based rights, combating gender ideology, and promoting parental empowerment led me to Independent Women’s Network,” said Evans about the chapter launch. “Now, I’m excited to bring the energy and message of IWN to Texas, and to get women in my area interested in being active and engaged about policies that directly impact them and their families.”
Nicole Solas, Education Freedom Center senior fellow at Independent Women’s Forum, IWV’s c3 sister organization, said, “The launch of the Austin Chapter of IWN is another challenge to the dominant political narrative. Political movements almost always are led by small groups of people making a big impact. I can’t wait to see how this group of independent, civically engaged women will disrupt false narratives and shine a light on solutions to local and national problems.”
IWN was created to build a supportive community for women and to give them the tools they need to make a positive difference in their neighborhoods and our country.
“We heard from thousands of women from across the country who said they wanted a community where they could connect, share ideas, and take action,” said IWN’s Carrie Lukas. “We launched Independent Women’s Network to stand shoulder to shoulder with women who are ready to turn our economy around and fight to save our freedoms by countering the woke mob and standing up to cancel culture and out-of-touch bureaucrats.”
An engaging and growing community of independently-minded women work together to advance shared principles through chapter gatherings and the IWN online movement. Membership to IWN opens access to message boards, curated news, smart content, a resource center, exclusive events, and an action center.
“IWN members are happy warriors who stand up to bullies — bullies with positions in school boards; bullies on social media; bullies in corporations and in politics,” said IWN Director Julie Gunlock. “We support one another, and our members are not alone when they stand up to lead on issues critical to our country.”
Members of the community who are interested in joining Independent Women’s Network Austin, TX Chapter should email IWN Membership Director Jenny Avis (jenny.avis@iwnetwork.com) or visit iwnetwork.com for more information.
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www.iwnetwork.com
Independent Women’s Network, a project of Independent Women’s Voice, in partnership with Independent Women’s Forum, is a positive, supportive community of engaged, informed, and activated women working together to inspire, interact, influence, and have impact.
Independent Women’s Network Celebrates Florida’s ESA Expansion
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed H.B. 1, which would dramatically expand access to K-12 education savings accounts (ESA), into law. Nearly 70,000 Florida students with disabilities have already benefited from ESAs through the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for Unique Abilities. Now, all Florida students will have the same opportunities.
Roslyn Stevens, chapter leader of Independent Women’s Network Palm Beach Chapter, said, “Thanks to our great Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature, the future of our students is no longer dependent on a zip code! Parents are now free to enroll their children in private or religious schools or even homeschool with funds earmarked for their children and not government schools.”
“For over two decades, Florida has led the nation by providing robust education options to students who need and deserve alternatives to their residentially-assigned public schools.l,” added Ginny Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at Independent Women’s Forum (IWF). “Florida has once again set an example for other states to follow. H.B. 1 expands the eligibility requirements for the state’s existing education savings account (ESA) program so that all K-12 students in the state can participate in the upcoming school year. Homeschool families who choose to participate in the ESA program can do so through a Personalized Education Program.”
For more information about the history of Florida’s school choice programs, listen to IWF’s Students Over System podcast interview with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
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www.iwnetwork.com
Independent Women’s Network, a project of Independent Women’s Voice, in partnership with Independent Women’s Forum, is a positive, supportive community of engaged, informed, and activated women working together to inspire, interact, influence, and have impact.
In Fairfax County, Va., the Spaghetti and Meatballs of Public Education
Public education in Fairfax County, Va., and throughout much of the country is like an Italian restaurant in decline.
It was once a neighborhood gem but has become confused and over-extended itself. You go to the establishment to eat spaghetti and meatballs. The chef thinks he knows what you’d prefer, so he brings you a burnt souffle. You never eat souffle and definitely didn’t want this one. The chef tells you that people need and love it and that the restaurant has stopped serving spaghetti.
Suddenly, you hear screams because there are rats in the kitchen. On your way out the door, the chef winks and proudly claims his restaurant is the only one in town, so he’ll see you tomorrow.
Sound familiar? Parents hope that they are sending their children to school to get a classical education and learn essential life skills. Aside from the fundamentals, schools used to teach children how to tie shoes, tell time, write cursive, type, spell, and balance a checkbook. But no more.
Now, teachers hand them a computer or iPad in elementary school and hope for the best. But hope is not a method. Instead of basic curriculum (spaghetti and meatballs, if you will), they teach children subjects far beyond the public school domain — like gender transitioning and racial power structures — and administer severely invasive surveys.
To make sure our children internalize and subscribe to this alternative curriculum, school boards in districts like Fairfax County Public Schools hire pricy equity consultants, regional equity specialists, individual school equity leaders, and recruit student equity officers for the hallway patrol. Even as student enrollment numbers declined from 190,000 to about 178,000 in the last couple of years, the budget in Fairfax County ($3.5 billion for 2024) increased substantially in part to pay the salaries and benefits of the extra administrators. Consequently, our property taxes also increase (up 8 percent this year).
Aside from the inappropriateness of it all, schools are failing to teach our children the basics. Test scores are low across the country. As I flip through my three sons’ public school computer slides because, of course, they don’t have physical textbooks anymore, I’m genuinely underwhelmed with the content of their courses. Even if students don’t learn the material, there are no worries because there’s equitable grading, where they all start with 50 percent on their assignments and tests.
If this isn’t bad enough, parents have the extra concern that public schools are actively trying to keep secrets from them about their own children. In Fairfax County, for example, teachers and administrators were forced to undergo training to keep students’ gender identities secret from their parents. All this secrecy prompted Sage’s Law in Virginia to affirm that parents are relevant and necessary in the upbringing of their children.
Public education has gotten so out of control that we need to specifically legislate parental significance. Shamefully, but par for the course, the Virginia Senate killed the bill in committee in mid-February.
Many families are fleeing public education for these reasons. I attended a National School Choice Week event sponsored by EdReform Virginia and Independent Women’s Forum in January. There was standing room only for all the concerned parents who were desperately searching for alternatives to the indoctrination souffle that monopolizes public education.
Tax dollars must follow students. We need more options and choices. We, the parents, are begging for public education to return to the basic spaghetti and meatballs, the three “R’s” — and support parental involvement in our children’s lives. With the direction public education is headed, this will take time, if it is even possible at all.
In the interim, we need and deserve alternatives for the actual education of our future citizens. Public school indoctrination centers need competition; average families require educational savings accounts to make that happen.
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a Virginia mother, author of “Coping with Gender Fluidity,” and member of Independent Women’s Network.
Could women athletes lose hard-earned gains?
As a former NCAA champion, American record-holder and track and cross-country athlete at the University of North Carolina, I know what it takes to compete at a high level. I also know firsthand the many benefits sports can provide to young women, and how sports can shape the woman you become.
Because of Title IX and the hard-earned efforts of women before me, I was able to compete in many sports growing up and earn a full scholarship to college to run track and cross country. Now, as the mother of two young girls, I am concerned about the future of women’s sports. Because male- bodied athletes are increasingly competing in women’s sports, female athletes are losing scholarship spots, podium spots and, worst of all, the chance to even be on the team in the first place. I gained confidence from competing on a level playing field and winning. Was I among the last generation of women to have this opportunity? I hope not.
Thanks to actions from the Biden administration and the spineless leaders within sports associations like the NCAA, biological males identifying as women are allowed to join and compete on women’s teams all across the country. Everyone is familiar with Lia Thomas, the trans swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania. But Thomas is just one example. Increasingly, trans athletes are dominating women’s sports at all levels.
Most Americans (68%) oppose the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports, and for good reason. Science confirms what we already know: male-bodied athletes have a physical advantage. According to a study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, men have stronger bones, greater muscle mass and strength, and better aerobic capacity, on average, than women. Another important difference is hormones. On average, young men from the onset of puberty secrete 20 times more testosterone than females, resulting in circulating testosterone levels that are 15 times greater in healthy young men than in similar-age women, according to a study published in The Endocrine Review.
In fact, women athletes have long been prohibited from taking testosterone, because it is widely understood to be a performance-enhancing hormone. When I won at the NCAA level, as soon as I crossed the finish line, I was followed to the bathroom, where a monitor (always female) would watch me deliver a urine sample. This drug testing wasn’t a pleasant after-race activity, but I didn’t mind, because it kept the sport fair.
This raises the question about hormone therapy: can trans athletes adjust their hormone levels to a point where fair competition is possible? The current NCAA ruling is that a biological male identifying as trans only has to do hormone therapy for a year before competing in women’s sports.
But this does not level the playing field. One hormone level is not the measure of a woman, and hormone therapy doesn’t eliminate the male advantage. The British Journal of Sports Medicine studied the effect of gender-affirming hormones and found that even after two years of taking feminizing hormones, male trans athletes were still 12% faster than biological females in a 1 1/2-mile race.
If anyone understands the razor-thin margins between winning or losing a track-and-field race, it is me. Often, a race comes down to one-tenth of a second. I cannot fathom having to race against someone that had a 12% speed advantage over me at the starting line. It is cheating and it is unfair.
Of course, we all want every child to have the best opportunities in life, and many people want to change the world of sports in the name of inclusivity. But here is the thing: competitive sports aren’t inclusive. No one has the right to be an NCAA athlete. No one has a right to be a champion. You earn it through an insane amount of hard work, grit, and passion. In the name of inclusion, we are now excluding girls and women and robbing them of the wonderful opportunities that sports provide.
I gained so much from sports, and sadly, my two little girls may not be afforded the same opportunities. Coaches, parents, current and former female athletes: it is time to use your voice to save women’s sports.
If we want to preserve all that women have worked for and preserve sports for the next generation — now is the time to act. Otherwise, before we know it, every female record will be broken by biological males identifying as women, and we won’t be able to get them back.
Megan Burke is a two-time NCAA champion runner from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, as well as an American record holder in the distance medley relay. She also leads the Denver, CO, chapter of Independent Women’s Network (www.iwnetwork.com).
IWN New York City Chapter Launches Action Center to Address Public Safety, Fight Surging Crime
NEW YORK, NY – The New York City Chapter of Independent Women’s Network (IWN), the national grassroots community activist arm of Independent Women’s Voice, today announced the launch of an Action Center to address public safety in New York City and to fight surging crime that is sweeping the city.
Crime in New York City has increased 37% since the bail reform law took effect almost two years ago and crime is at its highest rate in over 30 years. The data is clear; current progressive policies being advanced by New York City public officials is not working.
By targeting representatives in the New York State Assembly and members of the New York State Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, IWN’s NYC Action Center aims to push back on policies that hurt families and communities, such as decarceration and de-policing.
“Crime is destroying the city we love. It is my hope that the IWN NYC Action Center will help empower more voices to speak out on this issue, provide the resources necessary for impact, and pressure local officials to take appropriate action in their respective jurisdictions,” said Aundrea Anime, Independent Women’s Network New York City Chapter Co-Leader. “We must work together to end progressive policies that increase crime and advance policies that will keep families and communities safe.”
“Out-of-control crime is rampant in New York City, and underserved communities are hurting the most.” added Regan Otto, IWN Chapter Co-Leader and former Assistant District Attorney. “I’m glad Independent Women’s Network is a leading voice on this issue at the local level. Recent data has shed light on just how many people are leaving New York City. We want people to move to America’s largest and greatest city, not flee from it.”
To learn more visit https://iwnetwork.com/get-serious-about-crime-in-nyc/
Media Inquiries: press@iwnetwork.com
IWN Background:
IWN was created to build a supportive community for women and to give them the tools they need to make a positive difference in their neighborhoods and our country.
An engaging and growing community of independently-minded women work together to advance shared principles through chapter gatherings and the IWN online movement. Membership to IWN opens access to message boards, curated news, smart content, a resource center, exclusive events, and an action center.
Members of the community who are interested in joining Independent Women’s Network New York City Chapter should email IWN Membership Director Jenny Avis (jenny.avis@iwnetwork.com) or visit iwnetwork.com for more information.