We sparked a movement, now let's sustain it: Lessons learned and strategies for the future

Every successful movement needs to reflect on the lessons learned to improve its work going forward. Many women's health activists have difficulty perceiving our work for health care reform as successful, since the limitations of the bill that passed are so obvious. However, the successful establishment of the right of poor adults to health care is cause for celebration. The new rules allowing all able-bodied adults to qualify for Medicaid regardless of which state they live in overturn 40 years of racially-motivated discrimination by many state governments. This accomplishment is just one of the important advances we accomplished through successful advocacy. What lessons did we learn about how our strategies and tactics worked? How should we apply these lessons to the work going forward? The speaker will examine the various tactics used by the Raising Women's Voices campaign, explain how the tactics flowed from women's health movement emphasis on listening to women, and discuss how to apply these tactics as health reform moves to the states. When do we use insider strategies? When do we work within state health reform coalitions? When do we raise our voices as women?