Women's Rights are Human Rights and Human Rights are Women's Rights

Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights.

And we are all entitled to human rights. These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination, to be educated, to own property, to vote, to earn an equal wage, and to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

The leaked draft decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade will be a direct assault on the rights, lives, dignity, and personal authority of women in our country. We may soon find ourselves in a time where women and girls actually have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had, in a country with the highest maternal mortality rate, no paid maternity leave, no universal child care, no continued birth parent care, and the need for increased mental health care. 

As highlighted in the WGC's State of Women and Girls in Howard County, many women and girls continue to face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. Gender inequality underpins many problems which disproportionately affect women and girls, including lower pay, lack of access to education, inadequate healthcare, domestic and sexual violence, and reproductive health.

The Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County is building a community of philanthropists and creating a permanent legacy to address the needs of women and girls in Howard County. With a vision for women’s philanthropy to shape the future for women and girls through the power of collective giving, our goals are to:

• Expand philanthropy and increase giving by local women.
• Implement a diversity, equity and inclusion lens to all of our work.
• Build a permanent endowment fund.
• Increase the life skills of women and girls.
• Encourage the healthy development and personal authority of young girls.
• Raise the awareness of gender disparities in our community.
• Sustain the WGC for future generations.

We believe:

• All Howard County women and girls, and those who identify as women, have a right to an adequate and sustainable quality of life and an opportunity to develop their full potential.
• Healthy development for girls is achieved through education, life skill training, and a sense of personal authority and safety.
• The needs and concerns of all women and girls in Howard County must be fully understood, acknowledged, and addressed.
• Available resources should be directed to achieving systemic change in the political, social, and economic institutions that influence the lives of women and girls.
• Philanthropy is not measured by the amount of the gift but by the intent of the giver.
• Women’s philanthropy has the power to improve the lives of women and girls in Howard County now.
• A permanent endowment provides a legacy of giving to the generations of women and girls who will follow.
• Education is the cornerstone of understanding and giving.
• Women of concern, compassion, and generosity can make the greatest difference by working together for change.

We also believe that we are stronger together. Read our Statement of Unity here.

And, we believe women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights.

We must and will continue to support the fight for women's rights ... now, more than ever. 

- The Women's Giving Circle of Howard County Advisory Board

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H/T: Amnesty International, Hillary Clinton, Tocarra Mallard