International Women’s Day
Resource type: News
Atlantic Currents | [ View Original Source (opens in new window) ]
In honour of International Women’s Day, we pulled out this article from our Atlantic Currents archives in which Gara LaMarche reflects on the importance of supporting women to achieve social justice and describes some of the remarkable projects we’re honoured to support.
Supporting Initiatives By and For Women Is Critical To Achieving Social Justice
27 October 2009
In their new book, “Half the Sky,” Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn assert that there can be no social or economic justice, or human rights progress around the world, that does not have women and girls at its core. It’s a compelling case that is beginning to be reflected more heavily in Atlantic’s grantmaking strategies.
The social justice framework that Atlantic uses to guide our programme investments leads us to support campaigns, build institutions, and promote leadership to tackle structural barriers to improving the lives of people who are systematically disadvantaged by their race, economic status, nationality or gender. I’ve often written about racial, ethnic and economic barriers relevant to Atlantic’s work, but rarely about gender. This is an all-too-common omission among social justice advocates and organisations, as Linda Burnham writes compellingly in her 2008 working paper “ The Absence of a Gender Justice Framework in Social Justice Organizing,” growing out of the Ford and Ms. Foundation’s New Women’s Movement Initiative. And yet I am increasingly convinced that no path to social change can be successful without the central engagement and involvement of women.