
This Week in the War on Women — End-of-Year Giving Edition
If this publishes while still incomplete, it’s because my computer has been cutting off fairly often lately. I wanted to be sure something got posted, especially once the main part had been written. I therefore put it in queue and scheduled it, in case my computer was down.
‘Tis the season when, amid the physical (and for many, emotional) chaos of holiday preparation and celebration, some of us may be making donations to charities, as gifts ahd/or for tax deductions before the end of the year. If you are reading this diary, you are probably interested in what happens to women here and elsewhere in the world, so I hope I can give you some suggestions of non-profits that focus on helping women and girls. It’s especially important this year, when so many of us are feeling overwhelmed by what’s happening around us, I begin with a quote from the Nicholas Kristof article linked below:
If you’re feeling dispirited by national or global events, remember the adage that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. It feels like a relief and privilege at this time to be able to do something so positive.
When I was beginning to think about this year’s giving diary, I happened upon Nicholas Kristof’s column about charities helping women and children. Somehow I’ve missed it in previous years, but I won’t again.
Give a woman her life back! One of the most heartbreaking conditions I’ve reported on is obstetric fistula, a childbirth injury that happens in poor countries when a woman endures many hours of obstructed labor and no doctor is available to perform a C-section. The baby usually dies, and the woman is left with injuries affecting the vaginal wall and the bladder or rectum, so she continuously leaks bodily waste.
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The good news is that together we can help them reclaim their lives, with a corrective surgery that costs just $619 per person. A nonprofit called the Fistula Foundation has financed more than 100,000 surgeries through a network of more than 150 hospitals in more than 30 countries. Yet need remains enormous.
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These three nonprofits [Fistula Foundation, Muso Health network, Reach Out and Read] will share the $150,000 Kristof Holiday Impact Prize, an award underwritten, as in previous years, by three donors. Focusing Philanthropy, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that promotes high-impact giving, helps me run the impact prize and donation program; it also covers credit card fees when donations are made through KristofImpact.org, so that the nonprofit receives 100 cents of each dollar donated.
Focused Giving
Women’s Health
Center for Reproductive Rights
MSI Reproductive Choices — provides reproductive health care to women in 36 countries — US and international.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund — Gifts to PPAF are not tax deductible as charitable contributions. I think it’s possible to make tax deductible contributions to your local or regional PP clinics directly. You can also give to the International Planned Parenthood Fund (IPPF).
Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL) Our mission is to support, as a fundamental right and value, a person’s freedom to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices through education, training, organizing, legal action, and public policy. Tax-deductible donations support educational and accountability work.
Society for Women’s Health Research
Women have unique health needs, and many diseases and conditions affect women differently than men. The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) is the thought leader in advancing women’s health through science, policy, and education while promoting research on sex differences to optimize women’s health. We are making women’s health mainstream.
Also consider giving to local groups helping women travelling for abortion care to other states.
Education for Girls and Young Women
Malala Fund — Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network supports the work of educators and advocates and helps bolster girls’ secondary education around the world.
K.I.N.D. (Kids In Need of Desks A partnership between UNICEF and MSNBC providing school desks and secondary school scholarships for girls in Malawi.
UNICEF also works to advance girls’ education around the world.
Rated Women’s Non-Profits
Charity Navigator has a list of their best-rated women-focused non-profits.
Peace
Peace is a women’s issue, which has never been clearer than in the world today. An important provider of service in war zones is Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres).
For a rated list of groups focused on peace-making, Impactful Ninja has a rated list of the nine best organizations.
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There’s Still News
Resurgence of misogyny.
Throughout American political history, two capable, qualified, experienced women have run for president on a major-party ticket. Both have lost to Donald Trump, perhaps the most famous misogynist ever to reach the highest office. But in 2024, what was even more alarming than in 2016 was how Trump’s campaign seemed to be promoting a version of the country in which men dominate public life, while women are mostly confined to the home, deprived of a voice, and neutralized as a threat to men’s status and ambitions.
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All his life, Trump has ruined people who get close to him. He won’t ruin women, but he will absolutely destroy a generation of men who take his vile messaging to heart. And, to some extent, the damage has already been done.
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Isn’t it time men learned the basics about menstruation?
The reason all of the above [internet jokes about men not knowing the most basic facts about menstruation] is so annoying is because of the deep incuriosity it shows. Not only about the world but about the experience of the women in these men’s lives – ranging from family members, friends, and women whose bodies you want access to. For straight cis men in particular who date people with periods that are severe or more painful or difficult, I can’t imagine not wanting to know as much as I could about what was happening and how I could help.
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We need to stop laughing at the ignorance of these people, and reinforcing that it’s somehow cute or masculine or funny to know exactly nothing about this regular experience for 50% of the population. We need to introduce the concept of shame to the men who laughingly let it be shown that they don’t care about women – or anyone else. If your boyfriend deserves you he will be curious about you and want to know about something that impacts your life every month.
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Former chair of Criminal Bar Association found to have ‘inappropriately initiated sexual contact’ with aspiring lawyer
Disciplinary tribunal upholds three charges of professional misconduct against Navjot ‘Jo’ Sidhu, who was once a contender to be director of public prosecutions
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In Germany there were 360 femicides in 2023 alone, according to the federal criminal police office in a recent report. The statistic counts closed criminal cases, which are, by definition, “killings of women because they are women”.
Cases of domestic violence in Germany rose drastically during the pandemic, as they did elsewhere – but instead of returning to pre-lockdown rates they are still rising, even though women are not, at least in theory, confined to their violent homes any more. In practice, many German communes lack space in women’s shelters or the resources to help women who are financially dependent. The constant rise in rents, the still prevalent gender pay gap, the unequal division of care work – all these factors mean that many women simply can’t afford to leave their abusers. Where are they supposed to go?
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The Taliban’s ban on Afghan women attending nursing and midwife courses has been condemned as “an outrageous act of ignorance” by human rights organisations.
The official decree detailing the ban has not been shared publicly, but several media reports confirmed that the order was announced at a meeting of the Taliban public health ministry on Monday and communicated to training institutes soon after.
Nursing students and medical trainers from Kabul and the provinces confirmed to the Guardian that they had been informed by their institutes that their courses had been suspended.
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When it comes to gender equality rankings, there’s various datasets and reports out there analysing which country is the most supportive of women.
In a recent analysis, Forbes combined the results of eight different datasets to argue that Iceland is the most feminist and gender-equal country in the world.
Iceland has been the most consistent country in terms of gender equality for the last 15 years, according to the Global Gender Gap Report, and ranked at #1, it’s the only country to ever score higher than 90 per cent within the report. It’s considered to have closed 91.2 per cent of the male-female divide.
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As always, thanks to the WoW crew for links and discussion, this week including Angmar, TaraTASW, elenacarlena, mettle fatigue.