Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute

Herndon, VA

Karen Houppert
The Nation
November 24, 2002

Wanted: A Few Good Girls

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20021125&s=houppert

...With academia considered the breeding ground of liberals, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute is the right's attempt to do some breeding of its own--of smart, savvy conservative women. Originally launched by Michelle Easton in 1993 to play "women's auxiliary" to the mostly male Young America's Foundation, the institute is less a think tank than a consciousness-raising organ, dedicated to convincing disgruntled students that feminism is the source of their woe.

Though the Luce Policy Institute has mostly skirted the media's radar screen, this may be the conservative group to watch in the coming years. It's not big or powerful--yet--but its existence and agenda speak to the right's next great assault: Guns are trained on the nation's women's studies programs, and smart, secular young women are being recruited as the foot soldiers...