4 Ways to Strengthen Feminist Movements Online – Without Social Media
Despite Julia’s quite dystopian last post about the harms of social media, she is a strong advocate for using digital tools to strengthen feminist movement building around the world.
Yet, as the harms of social media can outweigh the benefits at times, she want us to be inspired by approaches that go beyond building a social media following.
Read about why social media might not be the best tool for your activism or advocacy work.
And learn from organizations and platforms that are building and strengthening feminist movements online – without social media as their main platform.
This post is part of a bi-weekly column on feminism in a digital world and other issues, by Julia Wiklander, Founder of Girls’ Globe. Please share your thoughts in the conversation section.
Tackling Period Poverty in Rwanda by Being a Safe Space for Teens
In 2018, I realized how period poverty is a hindrance to many girls and how they lack sexual and reproductive information.
I grew up with my mother and we are very close to each other, but in my early years we never sat down to have conversations related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
When I had my first period I was at school and my classmate helped me put on a pad. I had no idea about period cramps and mood swings and I didn’t know who to ask. It was a very private topic to open up to anyone.
Many of my friends have similar experiences.
Dukataze is a social enterprise of young people who took it upon themselves to share the knowledge and information they have with adolescents. I feel like the adolescents we meet are getting more information and knowledge than I had as a teen.
Can you be a feminist and STILL use social media?
Today, we can look back and see how social media has been used to spark movements of positive change. Young people from around the world have been inspired to join protests against racial injustice and women’s rights. They’ve held global and national leaders accountable in the midst of a climate crisis – a lot thanks to social media.
Even Girls’ Globe has social media to thank for its early growth back in 2013. Yet, in a post-me-too world that’s only beginning to recover from a pandemic, we can also see how social media has been detrimental for personal wellbeing, democracy and human rights.
So, it makes sense to ask. Can you be a feminist and STILL use social media?
This post is a part of a bi-weekly column on feminism in a digital world and other issues, by Julia Wiklander, founder of Girls’ Globe.
7 Midwives Share Why Midwifery Leadership Needs To Be Strengthened
Around the world midwives face challenges in implementing the lifesaving care they’re needed to provide. Ensuring that midwives can lead the way to strengthening maternal and newborn health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, is an essential step in reaching global and national goals.
On this International Day of the Midwife, seven midwives from the International Confederation of Midwives’ (ICM) Young Midwife Leaders (YML) Programme reflect on why they see the need for midwifery leadership to be strengthened.
Photographing the Most Resilient Women on Earth: Three Lessons I’ve Learned from the Fighters Conquering Fistula
I once heard an obstetric fistula surgeon describe fistula survivors as “heroes.” After meeting patients from East Africa, I wholeheartedly agree. When you meet a woman with fistula, you are meeting a fighter.
I’m a photographer who works with Fistula Foundation, the global leader in treating fistula and other childbirth injuries that leave women incontinent and shunned by their communities. Over the course of my work with the Foundation, I’ve been able to capture the photos and stories of patients from Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania. It’s a humbling experience, and I’ve learned many lessons from these women. They are lessons that everyone could learn from.
How Two Organizations are Combating Child Trafficking in Bangladesh
Human trafficking remains a pressing global issue, with millions of unsuspecting individuals, usually from low-income and less privileged backgrounds, falling prey each year. Although boys and men are trafficked too, girls and women continue to comprise the majority of people trafficked in South Asia.
GFC partners in Bangladesh are dedicated to addressing trafficking and exploitation of children and youth in informal settlements in the capital city of Dhaka and in other areas of the country. Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with over 5,000 slum settlements that are home to an estimated 4 million of the poorest urban dwellers.
Read this post to learn how they are working to identify and prevent trafficking in their communities.
It’s abortion care today. What’s next?
The April 7 ruling by a federal judge in Texas forces the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke its 20+ year approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in abortion care that is endorsed by 12 leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Medication abortion is on the chopping block today. Tomorrow, it may be contraception.
Where does it go from here? Where does it stop?
Michele Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and the author of “Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.”
Dr. Eva Lathrop is an OBGYN and the Global Medical Director at Population Services International, a global health NGO.
How Enfold Creates Safe Spaces for Children in India
To protect children from gender-based violence and sexual abuse in India, Global Fund for Children partner Enfold has adopted a unique approach: taking personal safety, sexuality, and child rights education to classrooms. To enfold someone is to hold and surround them with care until they feel safe. Enfold India does exactly this. It strives to […]
How African Women’s Participation in Public Life is Essential for Development
Gender is a central concern in politics and development, as women have often been excluded and marginalised from public participation. This article highlights the potential that lies in women’s participation in politics and the workforce, and how their exclusion is limiting the development of African countries.
Solidarity Can’t Wait: 4 Things You Can Do This Year
In some parts of our world, the backlash for gender equality is here. And in other parts, we’re seeing the fruit of bold feminist movement building. To fuel the fire of change and to avoid the burnout that so many activists, advocates and changemakers experience, we need to organize. In an increasingly connected world, building global solidarity is the only way to sustain movements of change for gender equality, human rights, social justice and sustainability.
We’re facing growing obstacles for movements of positive change.
In this post, Julia shares 4 things you can do this year to build solidarity for gender equality, human rights and sustainability.
Why We Must Harness the Collective Power of Mothers
Five years ago, after giving birth to my daughter, I decided to commit the rest of my life to ensuring that every woman has access to world-class maternal care.
I suffered from postpartum hemorrhage—excessive bleeding due to obstetric trauma. Postpartum hemorrhage can be a life-threatening complication and is the leading cause of maternal death globally.
In impoverished areas, the rate of maternal mortality and morbidity remains staggeringly high. The good news? Most maternal deaths are entirely preventable, as are disabling childbirth injuries like fistula.
Your action today can change lives. Read the post Harnessing the Collective Power of Mothers, published on Girls’ Globe. Then, brighten a woman’s world by making a year-end gift to Fistula Foundation, an organization that believes that no woman should suffer a life of misery and isolation simply for trying to bring a child into the world.
Keeping Hope Alive in Myanmar in the Midst of Atrocities Against Women
It has been nearly 2 years since Myanmar’s junta began their violent attempt to overthrow the country’s fledgling democracy. Even though their atrocious war crimes have accelerated, the people, especially young women, persist in their resistance. What is MOST remarkable about their Civil Disobedience Movement is the sheer strength and resilience of women’s activism, particularly […]
