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Paid Leave during COVID crisis
==News and Controversies==
===IWF/V Opposition to Paid Family and Medical Leave and Earned Sick Leave During the COVID-19 Pandemic===
The Independent Women's Forum attacked paid leave proposals to allow workers time off during an unprecedented global pandemic, calling such proposals "radical" and part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "far-Left grabbag of ideas." IWF has also attacked Democratic governors as "Little Tyrants" for issuing stay-at-home orders urged by disease control experts.
According to True North Research, "IWF has argued that 'a crisis is not the time for federal programs,' even as more than 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment during this pandemic and nearly 100,000 Americans have died —and millions have been affected by this contagious and debilitating disease. IWF has used its online platforms to cheer on right-wing lawmakers like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who tried to gut relief for American workers in the coronavirus aid package, and to attack progressive policymakers like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), who has defended stay-at-home orders as nearly 50,000 Michiganders have tested positive for Covid-19, nearly 5,000 of whom have died in the past few weeks, as of May 15, 2020. Meanwhile, IWF has been promoting uplifting stories of coronavirus heroes and pushed its marketing to independent women that we’re all #InThisTogether, but it has also continued to fight against paid leave. IWF has a long history of opposing workplace reforms that benefit women and chief among those is how it has attacked access to Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) and earned sick leave across the U.S."<ref name="paidleave"> Lisa Graves and Evan Vorpahl, [https://truenorthresearch.org/2020/05/frindependent-womens-forum-paid-family-medical-leave-sick-leave-pay-to-play-agenda-issue-one/ IWF Opposition to Paid Family and Medical Leave and Earned Sick Leave Policies During Covid-19 and Beyond], True North Research, May 15, 2020.</ref>
Read more about IWF's long-term and recent efforts to deny Americans access to paid leave [https://truenorthresearch.org/2020/05/frindependent-womens-forum-paid-family-medical-leave-sick-leave-pay-to-play-agenda-issue-one/ here.]
===IWF/V Claims it Helped Flip Wisconsin Red in 2016===
On February 23, 2020 Lisa Graves first wrote in ''The Cap Times'' that IWF/V claimed to have played a decisive role in delivering Wisconsin for Trump in the 2016 election, according to an internal report obtained by True North Research (TNR). The report, prepared for IWF/V by Shaw and Company Research, suggests that IWF/V's quizzes targeting independent and GOP women in Wisconsin may have moved the needle just enough to tip the state to Trump, who won by a narrow 22,748 votes in Wisconsin. IWF/V developed quizzes shortly before the election focusing on the ACA, Supreme Court, and workforce issues like paid leave to relay distorted information to voters, masking the group's extreme agenda while increasing support for Republicans like Trump and Senator Ron Johnson.
In October 2004 the [[Feminist Majority Foundation]] objected to the U.S. [[Department of State]]'s decision to award part of a $10 million grant to IWF for "leadership training, democracy education and coalition building assistance" to women in [[Iraq]]. Then-president of the Feminist Majority Eleanor Smeal said that the IWF "represents a small group of right-wing wheeler-dealers inside the Beltway."<ref>Feminist News, "[http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=8669 State Department Funds Anti-Women's Rights Group To Train Iraqi Women]," October 5, 2004. Accessed July 9, 2014.</ref> The funding was from the [[Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative]]. In a press release, IWF "denounced" the Feminist Majority's objection, calling it a "radical feminist group," and stated its plan to work with the [[American Islamic Congress]] and the [[Foundation for the Defense of Democracies]].<ref name="iwf assails radical">Independent Women's Forum, "[http://www.iwf.org/media/2434651/IWF-Assails-Radical-Feminist-Groups-Charge IWF Assails Radical Feminist Group's Charge]," press release, October 5, 2004. Accessed July 9, 2014.</ref>
==Ties to the Koch Brothers and Americans for Prosperity==
IWF has received funding from several sources with ties to the [[Koch brothers]]. The [[Koch family foundations]] donated $844,115 to IWF between 1998 and 2014 and no fewer than half of the Independent Women’s Forum’s full-time staff previously worked directly for Koch-controlled groups or for entities that received Koch funding.<ref name="cmd report"/> [[DonorsTrust]] and [[Donors Capital Fund]] have contributed over $5 million to IWF from 2002 to 2014.<ref>American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, [http://conservativetransparency.org/org/independent-womens-forum/?og_tot=225&order_by=donor_name+ASC Recipient: Independent Women's Forum], ''ConservativeTransparency.org'', accessed April 2015.</ref>
