April 9, 2024 — Leaders at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors explain that on a Tuesday morning in March during Women’s History Month, Ariela Blätter had some bad news. “No country in the world affords women the same opportunities as men,” Blätter, president and CEO of Women in International Security, said, quoting from The World Bank’s March 2024 Women, Business, and the Law report.
The report went on to say, in fact, women enjoy fewer than two-thirds the rights of men when taking into account childcare and safety issues. “Violence physically prevents women from going into work, and childcare makes it cost-prohibitive,” Blätter said. Click here to read more!
On International Women’s Day, we not only recognize the achievements and progress women’s rights have made, but also the constant threats and backlash they face around the globe. In multiple countries, rights have been rolled back in recent years with anti-feminist rhetoric and policies. According to UN Women, gender disparities are worsening. They believe it could take another 286 years to close the global gender gaps in legal protections for women and girls.
The global scope and scale of this backlash requires attention and response from governments.
Afghanistan: The Taliban have banned women and teenage girls from taking part in many aspects of daily life, restricting them from attending secondary school and universities, working in many jobs, and even moving freely outside of the home.
China: The government has silenced feminists as it tightens social control, imposing strict censorship policies, including by banning feminist terms and content they see as “harmful speech” or “inciting conflict between the genders.”
Poland: The government under the ruling party has actively targeted women’s rights activists and organizations, smearing them and punishing them for their activism. The government has spearheaded retrogressive laws and policies, obstructing efforts to address gender-based violence, and using its politically compromised Constitutional Tribunal to undermine women’s and girls’ reproductive rights.
United States: Women and girls are facing increasing restrictions to their sexual and reproductive health and rights as the Supreme Court and multiple states have moved to ban or heavily restrict access to legal abortions.
South Korea: The government has been considering anti-feminist initiatives, including a pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Disregarding the harsh realities that women and girls face, the term “women” is being eliminated from policies that initially addressed gendered discrimination, such as violence against women.
Pakistan: The annual Aurat March in honor of International Women’s Day has been the target of extremist backlash by the Pakistani Taliban, which have previously threatened women’s rights activists and the march’s organizers, demanding they be prosecuted for blasphemy.
These are some examples of the backlash women’s human rights face across the world. On this 111th International Women’s Day, we call on governments to recognize the global threat to women’s rights and reinforce measures to protect women and girls according to international standards. Click here to read more.
Women’s funders cannot—and will not—stand by as women, girls and other marginalized people once again face the brunt of risk, trauma and tragedy.
This article was originally published on March 30, 2022 by Inside Philanthropy. It is reposted here with permission.
As we watch the war rage in Ukraine with families separated and more than 2 million women and children forced to flee their homes to escape bombings, air raids and violence, we stand in solidarity with all those in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world where there are wars and devastating refugee crises. History shows us that women, children and LGBT+ people face a particularly high threat of violence during armed conflicts, and it’s critical to get emergency humanitarian aid as well as long-term rebuilding efforts into communities.
The consequences of Putin’s aggression are dire for women, girls and non-binary people. Whenever armed conflict breaks out, violence against women increases exponentially, and sexual violence often becomes a weapon of war itself, as witnessed in Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, among others.
There’s also the risk to pregnant women, who must try to bring new life into the world without losing their own in the process. The U.N. reports that 80,000 women from Ukraine will give birth over the next three months, many of them away from home and without access to medical care or even sanitary conditions. Already, Ukrainian women have had to give birth in a bomb shelter, in a subway station, and evacuate with their newborns just hours postpartum after the maternity wing of a hospital was bombed.
October 26, 2023 — Today, Washington Area Women’s Foundation is releasing its new report, “Thrive as They Lead: Advancing the Infrastructure to Support Black Women Leaders in the D.C. Metro Area Nonprofit Sector.” This report is the by-product of a six-month project assembling the voices, experiences, and recommendations of Black women and Black gender-expansive leaders across the Washington metropolitan area and the infrastructure that is needed to support them.
“I am so grateful to the small group of local leaders who recognized a disturbing trend and asked the Women’s Foundation to help launch this critical research,” said Tamara Wilds Lawson, President & CEO, Washington Area Women’s Foundation. “Our report reveals an alarming crisis of Black women’s leadership across the nonprofit sector. These leaders’ words are an indictment, and their recommendations present a unique opportunity to disrupt harmful systemic practices because this region cannot afford to lose their expertise and energy.”
In a time marked by resilience and visionary leadership, Black women leaders continue to shape our institutions, neighborhoods, and movements. They are on the frontlines, adeptly steering dynamic and responsive organizations while exemplifying leadership marked by grace, humility, and an unwavering dedication to public service. Yet, it is impossible to ignore the profound and multifaceted challenges Black women leaders within our sector and region grapple with daily, challenges that significantly hinder their ability to lead authentically.
This report arrives at a pivotal moment where it has never been more important to center the voices of Black women leaders to design the infrastructure needed to support their leadership, and in turn, the flourishing of our communities. To access the full report, click here.
March/April 2022: The pantheon of autocratic leaders includes a great many sexists, from Napoléon Bonaparte, who decriminalized the murder of unfaithful wives, to Benito Mussolini, who claimed that women “never created anything.” And while the twentieth century saw improvements in women’s equality in most parts of the world, the twenty-first is demonstrating that misogyny and authoritarianism are not just common comorbidities but mutually reinforcing ills. Throughout the last century, women’s movements won the right to vote for women; expanded women’s access to reproductive health care, education, and economic opportunity; and began to enshrine gender equality in domestic and international law—victories that corresponded with unprecedented waves of democratization in the postwar period. Yet in recent years, authoritarian leaders have launched a simultaneous assault on women’s rights and democracy that threatens to roll back decades of progress on both fronts.
The patriarchal backlash has played out across the full spectrum of authoritarian regimes, from totalitarian dictatorships to party-led autocracies to illiberal democracies headed by aspiring strongmen. In China, Xi Jinping has crushed feminist movements, silenced women who have accused powerful men of sexual assault, and excluded women from the Politburo’s powerful Standing Committee. In Russia, Vladimir Putin is rolling back reproductive rights and promoting traditional gender roles that limit women’s participation in public life. In North Korea, Kim Jong Un has spurred women to seek refuge abroad at roughly three times the rate of men, and in Egypt, President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi recently introduced a bill reasserting men’s paternity rights, their right to practice polygamy, and their right to influence whom their female relatives marry. In Saudi Arabia, women still cannot marry or obtain health care without a man’s approval. And in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s victory has erased 20 years of progress on women’s access to education and representation in public office and the workforce.
The wave of patriarchal authoritarianism is also pushing some established democracies in an illiberal direction. Countries with authoritarian-leaning leaders, such as Brazil, Hungary, and Poland, have seen the rise of far-right movements that promote traditional gender roles as patriotic while railing against “gender ideology”—a boogeyman term that Human Rights Watch describes as meaning “nothing and everything.” Even the United States has experienced a slowdown in progress toward gender equity and a rollback of reproductive rights, which had been improving since the 1970s. During his presidency, Donald Trump worked with antifeminist stalwarts, including Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, to halt the expansion of women’s rights around the world. And despite the Biden administration’s commitment to gender equity at the national level, Republican-controlled states are attempting to reverse the constitutional right to abortion, which is now more vulnerable than it has been in decades. Click here to read more!
We will remember 2019 as a year of uprisings. In over a dozen countries on five continents, people have risen up to confront economic inequality and even the most repressive governments. These mobilizations are answering the question of how to tackle ascendant right-wing authoritarianism — and women have been at the heart of it all.
In part, that’s because women know well the consequences of living under these draconian governments. Far-right politicians and groups have repeatedly sought to win political support by promising to keep women in their place. In the lead-up to their elections, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro touted his opposition to a law imposing penalties for gender-motivated killings, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte crassly joked about possibly participating in a gang rape.
Right-wing forces promote a toxic brand of masculinity that defines manhood through violence and aggression, promising men a slice of patriarchal power in exchange for backing authoritarian rule. They relegate women to silence and submission and force LGBTIQ people into hiding. They have targeted female human rights activists who defy patriarchal norms with harassment, criminalization and even murder. Click here to read more!
We will remember 2019 as a year of uprisings. In over a dozen countries on five continents, people have risen up to confront economic inequality and even the most repressive governments. These mobilizations are answering the question of how to tackle ascendant right-wing authoritarianism — and women have been at the heart of it all.
In part, that’s because women know well the consequences of living under these draconian governments. Far-right politicians and groups have repeatedly sought to win political support by promising to keep women in their place. In the lead-up to their elections, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro touted his opposition to a law imposing penalties for gender-motivated killings, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte crassly joked about possibly participating in a gang rape.
Right-wing forces promote a toxic brand of masculinity that defines manhood through violence and aggression, promising men a slice of patriarchal power in exchange for backing authoritarian rule. They relegate women to silence and submission and force LGBTIQ people into hiding. They have targeted female human rights activists who defy patriarchal norms with harassment, criminalization and even murder. Click here to read more!
They explain: “The empirical results suggest that economies with more female autonomy became (or remained) superstars in economic development. Institutions that excluded women from developing human capital, such as early marriage, prevented many economies from being successful in human history.”
In other words: Gender equity is often linked to rapid economic growth. For example, Botswana had the highest GDP growth rates in recent decades after reaching its highest rates of women’s equity.