About the Committee on Women's Rights (COWR)
The APHA Committee on Women's Rights is a standing committee established in the bylaws of the APHA Constitution. The Committee is comprised of members appointed by the APHA President. The committee’s core emphases focus on promoting national and global policies that improve the status of women, girls and transgender females. The Committee encourages policy and advocacy strategies that positively affect women’s lives, particularly those policies that impact women’s health access, health equity, cultural diversity, self-determination, respect, education and meaningful employment.
The goals of the APHA COWR are:
To improve the quality of life for all women
To ensure access to healthcare and appropriate healthcare services
To improve services that focus on health promotion and injury/illness prevention
To promote and protect the physical and social environment
To preserve and protect the rights of all women
To promote equal rights and opportunities for women in health careers
To learn more about the APHA Committee on Women’s Rights, please visit https://www.apha.org/about-apha/governance/apha-committees/committee-on-womens-rights.The theme of the 143rd Annual Meeting of APHA is "Health in all Policies”. The APHA Committee on Women’s Rights invites abstracts concerning critical social justice issues for women. Abstracts on topics such as healthcare reform, sexual health, abortion rights, women’s health challenges across life span addiction and eating disorders, weight concerns, intimate partner violence & rape, chronic diseases and aging, career development in public health for women, effect of careers on personal/family life options, and health of marginalized populations are welcome.
The Committee on Women’s Rights program at the Annual Meeting is an opportunity for presentation and discussion of many topics affecting the health and wellbeing of women, particularly those that may not receive sufficient attention in other sections. If you feel that the topic of your abstract does not fit within the Committee on Women’s Rights Program, please consider submitting to the Women’s Caucus. The Program includes both oral and poster sessions.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS
Abstracts are limited to 250 words. Please do not include citations in the text of the abstract. All abstracts must be submitted with at least two learning objectives in the proper APHA format (i.e., “By the end of the session, the participant will be able to…”). Please check the abstract title (only capitalize the first letter and proper nouns per APHA guidelines) and text for spelling and grammatical errors. Please do not include your name or contact information in the text portion as this prohibits blind peer review. Lastly, all abstracts should contain sufficient details to fully evaluate the scientific and/or conceptual value of the work rather than alluding to what “will be” included in the presentation. Abstracts that do not adhere to these requirements will not be reviewed. Please check with the program planner if you have any questions.
Review Guidelines for Abstracts Peer review of abstracts is blinded. Abstracts will be peer reviewed based on the following criteria:
Innovation: Innovative information/cutting edge/topic not addressed elsewhere
Completeness: How complete is the described research/project/concept, supporting data or conceptualization of work
Global Focus: International focus welcome
Political Focus: How does the research or concept translate to political agendas
Policy Relevance: How does research or concept influence or have the potential to influence policy
Overall Relevance: How well the abstract relates to important women’s rights issues
Advancement: Extent to which the work described has the potential to inform and advance the science of ensuring women’s rights
Quality: Quality of methodology, supporting data, study design, analysis or conceptualization of work
Overall Clarity: Clearly written and conveys essence of research
Overall Impression: Overall impression of the described research/project/concept
Presenting Abstracts at APHA Only listed authors who are both APHA members and registered for the Annual Meeting may present accepted work (unless specifically invited by COWR and the program planner). Individuals should submit an abstract only if they are committed to presenting the paper or poster themselves or to finding a substitute willing to register, attend the meeting, and present the paper or poster instead. Invitations to present will be withdrawn should authors of award abstracts be unable to present at the Annual Meeting. APHA and the Committee on Women’s Rights are unable to provide financial support for author attendance at the Annual Meeting.
Continuing Education Continuing Education Credit
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, health educators, and those certified in public health at its annual meeting. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract so members can claim credit for attending your session. These credits are necessary for members to keep their licenses and credentials.
For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter, panelist, discussant, and/or faculty must provide:
1) An abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names;
2) At least one MEASURABLE SINGLE objective (“to understand” or “to learn” are not measurable objectives and compound objectives are not acceptable). Use ONLY the following Measurable Action Verbs: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define or List.
3) A signed Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form with a relevant qualification statement; Example of Acceptable Biographical Qualification Statement: (I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple federally funded grants focusing on the epidemiology of drug abuse, HIV prevention and co-occurring mental and drug use disorders. Among my scientific interests has been the development of strategies for preventing HIV and STDs in out-of-treatment drug users.)
4) All continuing education learning content must be of sound science or professional practice and serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills and professional competence of the health professional. Learning content should be evidence-based if available. A list of over 30 areas will be provided online for you to choose from. You will be asked to choose at least one or up to 6 areas that your presentation will address.
Thank you for your assistance in making your session credit worthy. Contact Annette Ferebee at annette.ferebee@apha.org if you have any questions concerning continuing education.
For program questions, contact the program planner listed below.
Ready?
Constance L. Jackson, MPH, CEIO, COWR CHAIR
Healthcare Informatics Department
Media Health Technologies, LLC
904 Silver Spur Rd, Suite 510
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Phone: 310-366-4996
constancejackson@mycaremedia.com