Feminist movements need every form of capital to sustain democracy.
This essay is part of a Women & Democracy package focused on who’s funding the women and LGBTQ people on the frontlines of democracy. We’re manifesting a new era for philanthropy—one that centers feminism. The need is real: Funding for women and girls amounts to less than 2 percent of all philanthropic giving; for women of color, it’s less than 1 percent. Explore the “Feminist Philanthropy Is Essential to Democracy” collection.
With billions of people in more than 80 countries heading to the polls this year, 2024 is a turning point for democracy. This comes at a time when democracy is backsliding globally, with the proportion of countries defined as “free” dropping from 46 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2021.
Women’s rights not only serve as a powerful weathervane for democracy: democracies are healthier when strong feminist movements exist. Women’s status in a country and the country’s democratic health are strongly correlated, according to research led by Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. In a sample of 96 democratic countries, the status of women was found to be “strongly and significantly” associated with all three dimensions of democracy—election integrity, freedom of association and assembly and checks on executive power.
It’s no surprise, then, to see women’s rights in the bullseye of those trying to undermine democracy.
Anti-gender forces have been using powerful, well-funded strategies to roll back the rights of women, often using ‘gender’ as a smokescreen to divert attention and exploit political divisions. The anti-gender movement is not only present in almost all countries around the world, the number of people supporting it is growing, according to CNN. What’s more, the three main forces behind these movements—governments, religious groups and civil society groups—are increasingly well-coordinated, forming “national and transnational alliances with shared strategies and objectives,” a United Nations report found.
Women’s rights not only serve as a powerful weathervane for democracy: democracies are healthier when strong feminist movements exist.
The results are as tangible as they are dangerous, especially for marginalized communities. In the United States, over 600 anti-trans bills have been introduced this year in state legislatures. Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, a global treaty on gender-based violence, because it threatens “family values” and “normalizes homosexuality.” In Ghana, a shocking new bill not only criminalizes LGBTQ relationships, but anyone who advocates for LGBTQ rights.
So, what would a counter-force look like? It starts with philanthropic dollars.
Feminist movement leaders need abundant, flexible resources to work at their highest and best. From defending bodily autonomy to advancing political participation, their work on the ground creates the conditions for durable democracies. According to the Global Philanthropy Project, U.S.-based organizations associated with the anti-gender movement collected $6.2 billion in revenue from 2008 to 2017.
We see every day how feminist movement leaders around the world make the critical difference in building sustainable, free and thriving societies:
- Organizations like Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Sociales y Ambientales successfully lobbied the Peruvian government to protect human rights defenders in the country.
- Equal Ground of Sri Lanka was one of the first organizations to raise awareness of anti-LGBTQ clauses in 2022 emergency regulations and had these sections successfully repealed, working alongside allied organizations.
- As part of a coalition for safe and democratic elections, AzMINA in Brazil helped to expose misinformation leading up to the 2018 general vote, and their viral advocacy campaign to get more women in politics helped boost the number of women elected by 51 percent.
But philanthropic dollars are only part of the solution. The scale offered by government must be met with the bold innovation of the private sector. Social and political capital must be deployed as abundantly as financial resources. What does that look like in practice?
For the Equality Fund, this means leveraging our connections for a delegation of feminist activists from Ukraine to advocate their needs directly to Canadian politicians in the midst of Russia’s illegal invasion. Or collaborating with funders and activists through Black Feminist Action for Sudan to ensure money gets into the hands of Sudanese women’s rights organizations.
As the rise of anti-gender movements and democracy comes to a head, we need radical (re)imagination and a robust strategy to move from defense to offense. Success will depend on our shared commitment to use all of the power at our disposal—including political and social capital—to change the game.
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