Women. Power. Peace.

Women's Action for New Directions
WAND's mission is to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.

Who We Are

About WAND: Our mission, our members, our work

Our mission
WAND's mission is to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.

Who we are
What we do
What we've done: We've been around since 1982, and we've accomplished a lot.
About us: We're concerned with changing the core values at the heart of decisions about resources and priorities. This unites us. We're activists, legislators, students; all ages, all races, all creeds; we're women and men.
Our materials: We produce that resources are intelligent, timely, and vital to the struggle to change our budget priorities.

We are women. We are working together.

We will build a better world.

WAND is a community of women working together to lead our country to a secure future.


What we do: WAND's History

WAND was founded in 1982 as Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament. With the end of the cold war, we became Women's Action for New Directions, and have been dedicating our energies to redirect federal budget priorities away from the military and toward human needs. We have been working to:

  • Rewrite national budget priorities from the perspective of women;
  • End the culture of violence in our society and prevent violence against women;
  • Empower women to act politically, encourage women's leadership and bring more women into the public policy arena to further WAND's goals;
  • Eliminate the testing, production, sale and use of weapons of mass destruction;
  • Clean up the environmental effects of nuclear weapons production.
"The United States leads the world in military expenditures and exports. We spend more each year testing an unsuccessful 'Star Wars' Missile Defense system than we spend annually on immunizing children and protecting them from violence. Our children don't need protection from phantom wars in the stars; they need protection from the real threats they face every day like poverty, poor education, and lack of health care."
-Marian Wright Edelman
President and Founder, Children's Defense Fund

Who we are

Members and Supporters: More than 10,000 people nationwide who receive educational information, take part in actions, and support WAND's work both financially and philosophically.

Chapters: Local groups of energetic and concerned women who come together to bring WAND's message to their local communities.

WiLL (Women Legislators' Lobby): Roughly 500 state legisltors from 49 states representing tens of millions of constituents. WiLL is the only multipartisan national network of progressive women state legislators working to influence federal policy and budget priorities. One out of every three women state legislators is a member of WiLL, and 20 former WiLL members are now members of the 107th Congress.

Education Fund: The WAND Education Fund creates educational materials for training and briefing individuals, elected leaders and the media.

STAND (Students Taking Action for New Directions): Introduces passionate and informed high-school and college-aged women to WAND's issues and WAND's network of activists, organizations, and women legislators. Founded by 12 high school students in 1999, STAND's mission is to empower young women to get involved in policymaking by encouraging them to vote and connect with legislators across the country, and to promote peace, equality, and progressive social change.

WAND Partners: organizations throughout the US linked with WAND to advance progressive public policies that redirect excessive military spending to unmet human and environmental needs. WAND's Partner network currently stands at more than 675 groups and spans 34 states.

WAND PAC, WAND's political action committee, supports progressive women candidates for the U.S. Congress who are members of WAND or WiLL.

What we produce: WAND Resources

WAND's Alternative Platform for Peace with Justice
December 2003. We believe we should explore all possible solutions to the world's problems. There are always alternatives to war.
Federal Budget Basics
November 2003. Basic facts about how the discretionary federal budget is allocated.
FACT SHEETS
Full of interesting and eye-opening facts, the Fact Sheets bring light and clarity to complicated subjects, including:
  Federal budget | Reducing Nuclear Threats | Arms Control | Much More...
News Bulletin 
WAND produces an emailed News Bulletin every couple weeks. They are a great source of information about actions and events.
Quarterly Bulletin
WAND produces a printed Bulletin four times a year.
 
Women are the majority in the United States. We start most of the new businesses, make most consumer decisions and are the majority of Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries. Women have the most at stake in federal budget priorities, yet traditionally our voices have been absent or dismissed in debates on budget priorities and national security policies.

WAND is working to ensure that women's voices are heard at every table where those decisions are made.

Please join us!

We invite you to find out more about WAND on this website, or contact us for a free brochure, fact sheets, and additional information.