2014 has been an interesting year for women’s rights developments – this can be seen in popular UN movements such as HeForShe and on social media networks.
Vital Voices, an American company that invests in women and a fundraising site called Indiegogo have launched a campaign to improve the lives of women.
The campaign was introduced on International Women’s Day and raised $10,000, and now the message to invest in women is spreading across the UK via Twitter. #InvestInWomen, a hashtag on Twitter, has become very popular thanks to Vital Voices.
Vital Voices trains women all over the world and invests in them through “individualised support, mentorship, leadership training and network-building.”
They have worked with 14,000 women in over 144 different countries, investing in women who are fighting for change in their societies and helping them through donations to put them into schools and businesses – they have the facilities to track the progress of each woman.
Major news companies such as Thomson Reuters and The New York Times are now using #InvestInWomen to promote the global women’s movement.
Women’s organisations are now showing great enthusiasm to the trend. The UK Department for International Development financially supported the action.
Loving @LaurenYoung moderating #investinwomen convo “Trading on Diversity” at @thomsonreuters with @wbcny pic.twitter.com/zIRPDBvzGI — Lily Jamali (@lilyjamali) October 21, 2014
Other major corporations including human and women’s rights groups are telling the Twitter community why they #InvestInWomen.
Carron Mann from Women For Women International (WFWI) said, “Women represent half the population and their exclusion is not justifiable.”
Investing in the lives of these women is putting theory into practice, from big cities to rural villages, women are moving whole communities forward.
Even though we might live in a world where we are seeing the benefits of years of women right’s, there are still those, both in the West and in developing countries that don’t and who still lack basic gender equality rights.
“No country can ever develop socially, politically or economically without the full, free and equal participation of all its citizens. Women have fundamental human rights to freely and equally participate socially, economically and politically to men” says Mann.
Economics author, Pilar Stella, stated that, “Girls and women need to see the importance of investing in the future for themselves and their daughters,” she adds, “they need to start investing in other women.”
WFWI tell us they #InvestInWomen, for “those that have never been to school, survivors of violence, never been allowed to participate socially.
This means support is crucial for rebuilding their lives and their communities. They offer women “human rights and health education, basic numeracy, vocational training, basic business skill and a safe environment to create bonds with other women for sustainable support,” says Mann.
With so many social media outlets discussing these issues, it can only benefit the women and young girls in society to support movements like these. Lauren Young from Thomson Reuters and an active member of the Twitter community told us she thinks #InvestInWomen is a great hashtag and that the movement will definitely “have an impact, [that] it’s certainly pushing the conversation forward.”
Photo Courtesy of RRI Photos via Flickr