This Is What Fierce and In Control Looks Like
On International Women’s Day, we were reminded that Battery Powered is a special place because it provides a safe space where “we can talk about what scares us and challenges us”, shared Allison Duncan, CEO of Amplifier Strategies. There’s hasn’t been a Battery Powered theme that has felt so urgent. At Organization Night, six stellar organizations shared their stories of impact and got us thinking about how each of us can participate in the fight for women’s health and dignity here in the US and around the world.
We can’t wait for the day when we won't have to fight for those basic human rights for women: the right to safety, the right to choose, economic rights, political rights. For this day to come, we have to act now.
The right to be safe
Carol Robles-Roman, President and CEO of Legal Momentum, noted that as the oldest civil rights organization in the US, every single person in the room has benefitted from their work. “The time is now for us to reimagine gender justice.” Robles-Roman pointed out the need for those rights to be accessible, for women to know their rights, understand the law and be able to rely on it to defend and protect themselves. Legal Momentum’s Battery Powered project is to aggressively continue and scale their pro bono legal representation services.
Jess Ladd, Founder and CEO of Callisto, a reporting platform for sexual assaults on college campus, emphasized that not feeling safe means “women make themselves smaller and quieter, in the streets but also in the classroom, in the boardroom, when on a date”. She spoke of the shame around sexual assault on college campus, where 85% of survivors know their assaulters. She shared her personal experience with the room, which too many survivors go through, of a reporting process more traumatic than the assault.
Callisto has the potential to create “a culture of accountability and survivor support” on college campus, but could also be used in other places such as the military. Jess encouraged members in the room to support survivors of sexual assault by connecting Callisto with their alumni boards to get their platform on their campuses.
The right to choose and be healthy
Last year, the Center for Reproductive Rights won the biggest abortion case in 25 years. Those court cases set a precedent and a powerful message that the fight for a woman's right to choose won’t stop. The fact that in some states, ‘women's constitutional rights depend on where they live’ is not acceptable. Julie Rikelman, Litigation Director of US Legal program for the Center for Reproductive Rights, is fighting so “my daughters, and all our daughters, can set the course of their own lives’.
‘It’s not ideological, it’s just obvious’
That is Chuck Slaughter’s answer, Founder of Living Goods, as to why he is hiring women to be his ‘Avon-like’ health entrepreneurs selling life-saving health products. Researches all agree, when women have the financial means, they tend to invest in their family’s health and education and in their community. Living Goods’ model shows impressive results. In areas where they work, child mortality has dropped 27%, while providing livelihood opportunities for thousands of women.
The right to have a seat at the table
Women’s World Banking is the global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources they require to build security and prosperity. Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO, puts this simply, “Women World Banking supports women around the world to achieve their leadership”. Having more women in leadership positions translates into more women being served.
IGNITE closed the night showing Battery Powered members change in action: Jenny Cortez, an inspiring young woman from Oakland and IGNITE high school program alumni, who is now studying at UC Berkeley. If we want a world where there is equal day and pay, where there is no sexual assault, where there is access to health care, “we need to have women in office at the same rate as men”, both Republican and Democrat, stated Anne Moses, IGNITE Founder & President.
Borrowing Chuck Slaughter’s words: ‘The time to act is now'.
To meet all 20 of our finalists, check out their project pages which includes and full proposals to Battery Powered.
Allocation Night takes place on March 29th. Contact [email protected] for information on how to join the fun.
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Battery Powered is The Battery's giving program. To learn more or get involved, visit thebatterysf.com/giving or contact [email protected]