Women's Foundation Updates
We Want Affordable, Accessible Child Care
Child care is not a luxury, but a necessity for working mothers. It is key to both women’s and children’s success, said Mary Ignatius, who organizes women to advocate for increased public investments in subsidized child care as an organizer at Parent Voices. For low-income and many middle-income women, subsidized child care is out of reach. At this very moment, some 200,000 children are on a three-year waitlist. In the meantime, their parents struggle to make ends meet, unable to find and keep full-time work.
We Want Women’s Work to Have Equal Value
Sabrina Johnson is a therapist with a vision: She wants San Francisco’s home care workers to be treated with dignity because their contributions to our society are tremendous. “[Home care workers] need to be valued like we value the tech industry,” said Johnson. “Tech cannot get elderly people out of bed and feed them.”
We Want Political Parity
“There was a need for local voices,” said Margarita Luna, a program manager with The California Endowment. She funded the creation of the Women’s Policy Institute-County to empower women to advocate for social and economic change in the Eastern Coachella Valley, an unincorporated part of Riverside County where many residents are poor agricultural workers from Latino immigrant families.
New Database Tracks Women’s Wellness Across California
KQED, The California Report, March 29, 2016 The nonprofit California Budget and Policy Center has launched a new database detailing […]
New “California Women’s Well-Being Index” Provides First-Ever Comprehensive, Composite Portrait of How Women Are Faring Across the State
Sacramento, March 29, 2016—Californians who want to make sure that women are full and equal participants in the state’s economic […]
We Want Reproductive Freedom
Griselda Reyes Basurto is helping to create a radical health initiative—teaching Mixteco and other immigrants from indigenous backgrounds in Ventura County about their bodies and reproductive rights—called Cuidando mi Cuerpo, meaning “caring for my body.”
We Want Overtime Pay and Labor Protections
The very nature of their work keeps domestic workers hidden from view. It might have stayed that way but for the commitment of organizers like Katie Joaquin. In 2013 domestic workers used public policy and their powerful voices to win a workplace right they had been denied for decades: overtime pay. In 2016, they are advocating again to make that hard-fought right permanent.
We Want Affordable Housing
California is the seventh largest economy in the world, yet it accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s homeless population—nearly 115,000 people. Women and children are the fastest growing homeless population today. Kim Carter, executive director of Time for Change Foundation, overcame homelessness, prison and addiction to start a visionary organization that supports women as they rebuild and reclaim their lives.
We Want Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
In fairy tales, justice prevails miraculously and everyone lives happily ever after. But in the real world, women must take leadership and demand the change they wish to see. Jessie Ryan joined our Women’s Policy Institute in 2009 and used her experience and voice to transform the California’s community college system through public policy change.
Meet Teenage Philanthropists Who Are Making a Difference in Los Angeles
Violets, all juniors and seniors at Marlborough, have awarded over $200,000 in grants since 2006 to organizations that are working to improve the lives of underprivileged women and girls in the Los Angeles area through education. This year they awarded $10,000 each to four remarkable organizations.
Local Women Lead Policy Change in Inland Empire
Surina Khan, January 25, 2016, The Press Enterprise What happens when we give women the tools, resources and relationships they […]
Will the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Remember All Our Daughters?
Surina Khan, December 15, 2015, The Huffington Post The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative ignited a firestorm of response earlier this month. […]
California’s success depends on lifting up poor women
Surina Khan, November 30, 2015, Sacramento Bee—When women thrive, our communities and our state thrive. Yet, across California, far too […]
Partnership of Women’s Foundations Pledges $100 Million to Create Pathways to Economic Security for Women and Their Families in America
Women’s Foundation of California Joins the Partnership to Demonstrate the Collective Power of Women’s Foundations in Effective Grantmaking SAN FRANCISCO, […]
WomenGO! Beyond Grantmaking
Norma Alvarez is a member of the WomenGO! giving circle based in Silicon Valley. WomenGO! is one of six giving circles in our network. In this post, Norma describes an experience that transformed the way she thinks about her philanthropy and her contribution to the economic and gender justice movements.
Announcing $450,000 in reproductive justice grants
We are proud to announce that we just awarded $450,000 in grants to 20 reproductive health and justice organizations in […]
My First Year as CEO
Last month I celebrated my first year as CEO of the Women’s Foundation of California. Since 1979, this statewide community […]
Defining Ambition and Success on Our Own Terms
As I read Kristin van Ogtrop’s article, Why Ambition Isn’t Working for Women, in last week’s Time magazine, I reflected […]
It’s Not a Compliment: A Response to Street Harassment
How many times have you been harassed by men you didn’t know as you walked down the street? If you are a woman, the answer is probably more times than you can count.
A Letter to Women on the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
Surina Khan, January 25, 2016, The Huffington Post Feminism is alive and well today. Dare I say it, it's mainstream. […]