Women's Foundation Updates
Our Giving Circles Award $395K in Grants to 18 Organizations
Over the last 16 years, our giving circles have collectively awarded over $10.8 million to 518 outstanding nonprofit organizations that serve low-income women and girls.
Ten Life-Changing Books by Women of Color
Ever notice how the classic books that you read all throughout high school and college are almost entirely written by white men, while literature by women or people of color is relegated to elective courses that hardly anyone takes?
Want Change? You Have to Do It Yourself.
“This whole policy thing is very new to me. I have an organizing background. I know how to talk to people, listen to their stories and make them understand that they’re leaders. I know how to help people see the power that they have within themselves.”
Ending the Silence: How Mass Incarceration Affects Women
In the era of mass incarceration, what happens to the women who are left behind?
The Kiss That Said It All
It was a simple kiss between two married women, candidly captured by a photographer on a cold winter morning. Yet within months, it had spread like wildfire.
It Takes A Community
“I want to help people. I know that I didn’t go through all the struggles in my life for nothing. I can’t cry over it for the rest of my life, but I can do something with it.”
The Untold Story of Domestic Violence
There is no doubt that women are disproportionately victims of domestic violence, usually at the hands of male partners. But when we frame domestic violence as an issue that only occurs in heterosexual relationships, we erase the very real issue of intimate partner violence within LGBT communities.
Enough! This is not love.
From domestic violence survivor to human rights activist, Women’s Policy Institute-Riverside fellow Nancy Valenzuela has overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to become the formidable champion for women that she is today.
Hysterical Housewife No More
“Luckily for us, the teachers told us about the looming hazardous waste disaster. We had no idea. My two boys were playing and splashing in the puddles. I cringe when I think about it: They were making foam beards!”
Needed: Modern-Day Rosie the Riveters
Surina Khan, The Huffington Post, May 20, 2015—Some of us remember Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter, her goggles, her uncanny […]
We’re Funding Reproductive Health, Rights & Justice
We recently secured funding that will allow us to re-engage and support the reproductive health, rights and justice field in California. We’re accepting grant applications and deadline to apply is Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
I’m with Rosie
This statistic took my breath away: Half of all the women in Los Angeles County who have a child under the age of 5 live in poverty. How do they cope? What are the long-term implications for their children? How can we change this situation?
Rest in Power, Kalief Browder
The tragedy of Kalief Browder caused me to reflect on my own work and life experiences. The kids I’ve met on the inside of the system (94 percent of whom have undergone serious trauma). How quickly an injustice like this is to explode on the Internet as a talking point. Yet how uncomfortable an injustice like this is to sit too close to.
Who Gets the Right to Choose? Reproductive Justice Is a Race Issue
Reproductive rights are essential to the safety and wellbeing of all women. However, the specific reproductive issues faced by women of color are often left out of the mainstream reproductive rights movement.
Policy By Women, For Women
Public policy should not be gender- or color-blind. That’s why we’ve been training extraordinary community-based women—in particular low-income women, women from communities of color and immigrant women—to become policy advocates.
What’s New at the Women’s Foundation of California?
This is a sneak preview of all the exciting things that have been happening at the Foundation since Surina Khan became CEO. Stay tuned for more blog posts about our Women’s Policy Institute, giving circles, grantmaking initiatives and advocacy work we’re doing through the Stronger California coalition.
Tribute to Kathryn Green
Kathryn was a dear friend and we will miss her terribly. The celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, May 16 at 4 PM at the Stanford Faculty Club.
My mother is fierce because
This Mother’s Day join us in celebrating strong women in our lives. Share a photo and fill in the blank: My mother (grandmother, sister, friend) is fierce because __________.
L.A. Women Fasting for $15
Eleven women in Los Angeles started fasting on April 16 demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage. If working women and mothers in California are to thrive, as opposed to barely survive, they need to start earning a living wage.
People Not Prisons
Deborah Drysdale is a member of our Race, Gender and Human Rights (RGHR) giving circle. The mission of this San Francisco-based giving circle is to promote human rights and racial and gender justice by challenging the criminal justice system and its use of mass incarceration in California.