The Women's Action Alliance was a feminist organization in the United States, founded in 1971 during the Women's Movement. It was founded by Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman-Hughes. Steinem is a noted journalist, activist, and feminist leader. Upon its founding the Women's Action Alliance announced to the press its mission: "to assist women working on practical, local action projects; projects that attack the special problems of social dependence, discrimination, and limited life alternatives they face because they are women". The founders noted that the group was the "natural result of the success of the Women's Movement to date," now that both women and men had begun to see "depth and destructiveness of sex-role conditioning". By marshaling their considerable access to expertise in many fields, the founding members of the WAA sought to serve the "large numbers of women who want to change their lot in life." It made many contributions to the Women's Movement and to American women, including helping to open the first battered women's shelters.