In slightly weird news, Women Who Code is shutting down! I know, tech is having problems everywhere, and especially websites are having to figure out funding streams. But WWC is far from just a website, and it seems like they still have plenty of funding! More of my thoughts below the quote box.
Women Who Code (WWC), a charity which supports women who work in the technology sector, has announced it is shutting down because of a lack of funding.
The US-based organisation says it had 360,000 people in its community, across 145 countries.
-snip-
WWC announced that "with profound sadness," it had closed "following a vote by the Board of Directors to dissolve the organization".
My first thought was, “But they’ve helped hundreds of thousands of women get good jobs in tech! Shouldn’t those who have benefited be giving back and helping keep WWC going?” Then my second thought, after seeing their Partners page, was “What happened to all this corporate support?” I presume they lost some, but surely Microsoft, Boeing, healthcare companies, and so on need a tech expert pipeline. There are even lots of companies I can think of that aren’t listed, where executives might look to them for help recruiting talented people.
Is the dismantling of DEI commitments suddenly this widely spread?
And then there was this also at the BBC link above:
The most recent annual report, for 2022, showed the charity made almost $4m that year, while its expenses were just under $4.2m.
That seems like a pretty good income stream to me. They couldn’t cut their expenses just 5% to live within their budget? And if you read the whole thing at that link, it seems like they have been less than transparent that these discussions were happening at the Board. People in the industry are expressing shock. Maybe if they’d had a heads up, they could have helped them.
Thus my opening statement: Slightly weird news.
In Other News
Violence
HAMAS-ISRAEL: WAR OF, BY AND FOR MEN, ON EVERYONE ELSE, ESPECIALLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN UN Women *Gaza Gender Alert "Scarcity and fear: A gender analysis of the impact of the war in Gaza on vital services essential to women’s and girls’ health, safety, and dignity – Water, sanitation, and hygiene"
This week, UN Women released its latest Gender Alert on Gaza. Six months into the war, more than ten thousand women have been killed, over half of whom were believed to be mothers. This has led to an estimated nineteen thousand orphaned children. In addition, basic services, including access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (or WASH services), are not being met. Over one million women and girls are experiencing limited access to these services, and about half are of reproductive age, exacerbating specific challenges related to women who are breastfeeding, pregnant, and menstruating. A woman from Gaza was cited in the analysis, “I live in a house with 53 women. No pads are remaining anywhere to buy; we used all the cloth that we have in this house and can’t access any more, because the shops were either closed or destroyed.”
Abortion
The 19th Marilyn Lands, a Democrat, ran a campaign focused on abortion and won an Alabama swing district. Her supporters want more women to do the same so they're launching a new PAC focused on recruiting and training women candidates to run for office in the state.
CapitalBNews As Abortion Bans Loom, Black Families Are Left Vulnerable
Economics
A Guarantee income can mean the difference between being able to get that tire fixed or not being able to make it to work.’ Participation by 130 single caregivers in a $500 per month stipend program not only improved familial financial stability, but also parenting, quality time, outlook and children's grades.
Workplace
Tribal Business News Owamni co-founder launches social impact beverage brand rooted in Indigenous values
Entrepreneur Dana Thompson (Wahpeton-Sisseton, Mdewakanton Dakota), co-founder of the award-winning Owamni restaurant in Minneapolis, has launched a new social impact company and adult beverage brand called “Heti.” Thompson wants Heti, which means “home” in the Dakota language, to serve as an umbrella covering both products and social projects. The idea is that products like Heti’s THC seltzers can support infrastructure improvements or new housing on tribal land, for example. The seltzers launched in early April through the company’s website, as well as in stores across Thompson’s home state of Minnesota. Each contains locally sourced ingredients like sumac and rosehip, as well as 3 mg of THC and 5 mg of CBD....
The19th A groundbreaking shift - New regulations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act will give millions of workers, many of them low-income women of color, access to unpaid leave for the first time. "Why your boss now has to give you time off to recover from childbirth or get an abortion."
Law Enforcement
TheConversation Cities with Black women police chiefs had less street violence from both police and demonstrators during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests (from expert analysis published in the Journal of Management.) ,
...for instance, Black female Chief Catrina Thompson in Winston-Salem, North Carolina ... chose dialogue over force. She conveyed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter cause and affirmed that peaceful protests could spur change without destroying the city. ...research has found that through their personal and professional experience as they rise through the ranks of a traditionally male, white profession, Black women tend to develop a strong understanding of racial dynamics and use their knowledge to devise flexible strategies. Of course, not all Black women lead in exactly the same ways, but they tend to share similar experiences that can help foster peaceful outcomes in times of social unrest...
NativeNewsOnline California Moves Forward with Pilot MMIP Program
California lawmakers on April 16 unanimously approved a bill to create a pilot program for three tribal nations that will allow them to investigate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) in their communities. [Introduced by] Assembly member and tribal citizen James Ramos earlier this year, the bill sets up a pilot program for Blue Lake Rancheria, Yurok tribe, and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, that allows tribal police officers in California to become peace officers in the state under certain conditions. [This would] fix a decades-old problem created by Public Law 280 [enacted by Congress In 1953] which transferred public safety responsibility on designated tribal lands from the federal government to six states—including California—without reimbursing costs. [This] eroded tribal sovereignty, overburdened state law enforcement by passing them additional police responsibility without funding, [created jurisdictional confusion, conflict, backlog, and inaction, and caused] sub-standard and culturally inappropriate service to tribal nations. [Between this and sheer state size] “California ranks fifth in the nation for uninvestigated, unresolved MMIP cases,.." In December 2021, the Yurok Tribe issued an emergency declaration [on the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples here.] ... On reservations not subject to the law, crimes committed by non-Natives against tribal members are considered federal offenses and tribal police—with training and funding by the US Department of the Interior— are able to carry out arrests and investigations. ... [This bill aims to] reduce the number of unsolved cases by clarifying jurisdiction and permitting tribal police to pursue alleged perpetrators with the same authority as state peace officers if they meet California requirements....
Government
CouncilOnForeignRelations.org Backsliding on Gender Equity in Senegal
The newly elected President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, was elected on promises of ‘systemic change’ but immediately disappointed women’s rights activists after appointing only four women to his government, which includes twenty-five ministers and five secretaries of state. Many Senegalese had expected increased representation, particularly since the executive branch under previous administrations included either seven or eight women. Maïmouna Astou Yade, the executive director of JGEN Sénégal—a women’s rights organization—pointed to even more backsliding on women’s rights: [the ministry formerly focused on “women” and “child protection” has renamed for] “family and children.” This “sends a strong signal regarding the priorities of this new regime for the next five years,” she said.
Entertainment
TheConversation Taylor Swift’s homage to Clara Bow - a brief bio of Bow, and Swift's version.
Bow was a woman way ahead of her time, a star who owned her success and her sexuality. There’s the popular perception that Bow was a victim of her own demons. But her story is anything but a cautionary tale. It is a victory march.... ....It turns out, Bow was not a victim of her time. She wasn’t pushed out of film because talkies exposed her Brooklyn accent. Nor was she shunned by Hollywood society for the ever more scandalous stories that emerged. She simply left and, for the most part, didn’t look back.... -snip- [Although there was no “Taylor’s Version” production for Bow,] her choice to leave Hollywood ended up being a middle finger to the men whom she had made rich and powerful. Now, Swift is bringing Bow back into the spotlight for an encore – and for a new generation of fans to appreciate.
Sports
WNBA star Caitlin Clark will be making less than 1% of the salary of her men's NBA counterpart.
Assoc.Press Women’s soccer coach accused of sexual harassment in Brazil resigns after protests Male coach Kleiton Lima left Santos women's soccer club in September when media brought 19 anonymous accusations to light by media, but reinstated April 2 when Santos officials said they found no evidence of wrongdoing. Players across the league then protested during matches by placing their hands over their mouths as if being silenced, many wearing the number 19 to represent the accusations. In a statement on Monday, Santos said Lima made “a personal decision” to resign, to “protect his family, his integrity and the club.”
...“The coach has been under fire and has received death threats in recent days due to the accusations made last year. Even though he is sure he did not commit any of the actions he is accused of, Kleiton Lima understood his request to step aside is the best option for the preservation of all the parties involved.”…
Duh
The19th instagram New polling from Gallup found that women are more tired than men. The results surprised no women.
As always, War on Women is a group effort! Many thanks to Tara the Antisocial Social Worker and mettle fatigue for items and discussion behind the scenes.