Women’s Information Service (WISE)

WISE has been criticized for promoting sexuality-and-gender-ideology-themed content in elementary schools, including distributing a survey that asked 5th graders about their gender identities and sexual histories.

WISE has partnerships with local law enforcement agencies and has received federal grants.

History

In 1971, WISE was founded as an employment training center for women. Over the following decade, WISE shifted its focus to supporting abused women. In 1981, WISE joined the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault and created a crisis hotline. ²

In 1994, WISE expanded its operations into social advocacy by starting an education program. In 2001, WISE opened its first shelter for abused women. In 2015, WISE opened a location on the campus of Dartmouth College. ²

In 2018, WISE opened the Welcoming All Nationalities Network (WANN) which provides legal assistance to female immigrant victims of abuse. ²

In 2019, WISE partnered with the Windsor County State’s Attorney, the Windsor County Unit for Special Investigations, and the Hartford and Woodstock Police Departments, on the Multidisciplinary Interview and Training Center, which assists abuse victims with filing police reports. ²

Funding

In 2017, WISE received a three year grant for $490,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to promote the safety of rural victims of abuse. ³ At the time, the annualized portion of the grant represented more than 10 percent of WISE’s funding. ⁴

Also in 2017, WISE received part of a three-year, $395,000 grant from the DOJ to support organizations that combat elder abuse. ⁵

In 2022, New Hampshire Legal Assistance received a three-year grant for $600,000 from the DOJ. The organization used the funds in a partnership with WISE to expand their services for abused individuals. ⁶

Education

WISE provides teacher training and curriculum development to schools, children, parents, and communities to combat and prevent abuse. ⁷

WISE engages in social advocacy against “rape culture,” which it claims “is all around us” and “describes all of the little and big ways our society makes sexual violence seem normal, inevitable, or not that big of a deal.” Allegedly, rape culture is supported by less harmful but still destructive common behaviors and trends, such as lewd “locker room banter,” “jokes that normalize rape,” “companies that use women as objects to sell their products,” and mockery of men who fail to attain sex. ⁷

Controversies

In 2018, parents of students at Windsor Elementary School in Vermont lodged numerous complaints after a class of 5th graders was given a survey by WISE that included questions about their sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual history. The school claimed that parents should have been notified about the survey in advance with the option to opt-out, but they received no notification. The Lebanon School District in New Hampshire also distributed the WISE survey, but distributed the parental consent forms. ^{8 9}

The survey also included questions about the degree to which the media influences gender stereotypes, like the notion that “girls are more likely to be valued for their appearance than boys.” Another question asked: “if there were no gender stereotypes, what would you like people [to be valued for]?” ⁸

A WISE spokesman noted that the survey was designed in cooperation with the University of New Hampshire and was designed to raise awareness of sexual abuse. ⁹ WISE executive director Peggy O’Neil apologized for “not sufficiently [engaging] parents at an earlier stage in the process.” Windsor Elementary School responded by suspending all WISE curricula. ^{10 8}

In 2023, an individual testified before the U.S. House Education Committee that his kindergarten-aged son was being encouraged to draw genitalia at his school. NH Journal later revealed that the curriculum, Caring for Kids, was designed by WISE. The curriculum included making self-drawings that included sexual anatomy. ^{11 12}