Craigslist UPDATE

Women's Funding Network Chief Program Officer Deborah Richardson has co-authored a commentary in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on preventing child sexual exploitation. Read it here.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster responds to GEMS founder Rachel Lloyd's criticism of the online service as contributing to the sexual exploitation of girls. Read it here.

And, of course, join our effort to prevent child sexual exploitation. Sign our petition to Craigslist here (or at the link below) and learn more about A Future. Not A Past.

Tell Craigslist: Make Real Changes to Adult Services Ads to Protect Our Children

Craigslist is making a $40 million profit from "Adult Services" -- a section that includes the sale of children for sex.

Tell Craigslist you will BOYCOTT them until they take action to prevent the sexual exploitation of children on their site!

Our goal is to get 150,000 signatures for every girl at risk of being endangered and sold this year. Sign NOW and spread the word.

JOIN US NOW!

Thank You

Thanks to all of you who voted, the band Metric won the Pepsi Refresh SXSW Challenge. As a result, Women's Funding Network will receive a $100,000 grant toward the national expansion of A FUTURE. NOT A PAST., a campaign to stop the commercial sexual exploitation of girls in the United States! Women's Funding Network is grateful to Metric and the Pepsi Refresh Project for making this possible. You can read the announcements at Spin Magazine and Pepsi's Refresh Blog.

Deborah Richardson, Women's Funding Network's Chief Program Officer, says, "It is estimated there are more than 200,000 children -- mostly girls -- being bought and sold in this country every year. Your clicks were for them!!"

A FUTURE. NOT A PAST. was created in 2007 to address and prevent the prostitution of girls in the state of Georgia. The campaign seeks to protect and inspire hope in girls who have survived commercial sexual exploitation, disable demand and prosecute and increase penalties for pimps and johns. The Georgia campaign has been so successful and the issue is so prevalent in states across the country that Women's Funding Network is launching the national expansion of A FUTURE. NOT A PAST. this Spring.

The $100,000 grant from Pepsi will support Women's Funding Network's efforts to:

• Collect data on the number of sexually exploited girls in target states to document the national scope of the issue
• Develop a plan of action for a nationwide comprehensive system of care for sexually exploited girls
• Create and implement public awareness and advocacy campaigns to decrease demand and provide support for survivors
• Increase programming that prepares girls to lead full and healthy lives

Vote for Us As Many Times as You Can in the Pepsi Refresh SXSW Challenge!

Vote here as many times as you can! Don't stop clicking until midnight Eastern tonight!

The band Metric approached us this month to be the recipient charity for the Pepsi Refresh SXSW Challenge. This is a challenge between the bands Metric and Broken Social Scene in partnership with Austin’s SXSW Challenge. If Metric gets the most votes we could receive $100,000. The winner will be announced March 31.



Metric chose Women’s Funding Network to support the launch of the national expansion of A Future. Not a Past. to end the prostitution of girls across the U.S. This phenomenal concept originated in Atlanta, where child sexual exploitation was running rampant before city officials partnered with Atlanta Women's Foundation and The Harold and Kayrita Anderson Family Foundation to create ways to prevent and end the trafficking of children. Women's Funding Network wants to take the work done in Atlanta and replicate it nationally to make all our communities safer.

Please visit the great Video about the Pepsi Refresh Challenge, Metric and Women’s Funding Network. Please take a couple of minutes to link to our Facebook page, too and VOTE! You can vote as many times as you want!

Vote here!

What's In Store for Women and Girls This Decade?

Some of the remarkable women who lead women's funds and partner with them as donor activists got together to share what they feel is possible for women and girls in the next 10 years.

Have a listen and share what you think is possible.

Happy International Women's Day!

Progress or Regress?

Lately it seems we've seen several instances of women selling their virginity in the media, whether for college expenses or even academic study. Recently The Associated Press reported on a young woman in New Zealand, known only as Unigirl, who is selling her virginity to pay for her college tuition.

Last month, Natalie Dylan of San Diego, CA posted her virginity for sale, and now bidding has surpassed the million-dollar mark.

Dylan has a degree in Women's Studies and insists that she is not demeaning herself.

Both women appear to believe that the ends justifies the means.

On an individual level, one might be able to say that these women are wholly in control of themselves and their desires, which is a wonderful thing. It is empowering to know you may do what you want with yourself.

However, if measured against a broader scale, couldn't it be construed that their actions perpetuate a perspective that is unhealthy toward women? Namely, the perception of women as objects that may be purchased and sold.

These organizations – all women’s funds and members of Women’s Funding Network – fund innovative programs and organizations that improve the lives of women and girls by educating people about human rights and equality:

Global Fund for Women
V Day, founded by Eve Ensler
Equality Now

African Women's Development Fun

It's somewhat of a paradox that higher education has led Dylan and Unigirl to sell a portion of themselves on the Internet.

What is your take on their actions? Are they signs of progress or regress?

Measuring Real Wealth: Beyond GDP by Riane Eisler

The U.S. Commerce Department recently announced a growth in Gross Domestic Product of 5.7 % for the last quarter of 2009 — the fastest growth in six years. This sounds like great news. But it's only a small part of the economic story, which is why GDP is so misleading.

Besides the fact that GDP doesn't measure unemployment or other dire realities facing businesses, workers, and families in the U.S. today, GDP fails to measure what really counts. It tells us nothing about the degree to which a nation invests in its real wealth: people and nature.

Investing in what economists call "high-quality human capital" is essential as we shift to the post-industrial knowledge/service economy. Yet here are some statistics, from even before the "Great Recession," showing how the U.S. has actually been neglecting its most important resource: its people, starting in childhood.

• Infant mortality: The United States ranks 44th, behind every industrialized nation, and behind much poorer nations, according to the 2008 CIA Fact Book.
• Childhood Development: The Save the Children "report card" comparing 25 wealthy nations on 10 key benchmarks of early childhood development shows that Sweden meets all ten, Finland, Denmark, France, and Norway meet eight, and the United States only meets three.
• Child and overall poverty levels: The U.S. had the highest child poverty rate (21.9%) of industrial nations and the highest overall poverty rate (17.0%) of the 17 OECD countries, according to the International Comparisons chapter of The State of Working America 2004/2005. Finland (5.4%), Norway (6.4%), and Sweden (6.5%) had the lowest overall poverty rates.
• Maternal mortality: The United States ranks 41st according to a UN analysis of 171 countries.

None of this information is shown by GDP, or even by the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness index. Nor does GDP reflect whether or not a nation is investing in caring for nature – even in face of mounting environmental threats

Because government and business leaders urgently need more accurate and inclusive economic measures, the Center for Partnership Studies (CPS) has commissioned the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., to survey the current movement toward measures that go beyond GDP – from the earlier United Nations Development reports and the recent Sarkozy report by noted economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to less – publicized environmental, gender, and children’s well-being indicators – and to make specific recommendations.

One of the concerns of CPS is to ensure that new economic indicators are inclusive, and particularly that the majority – women and children – are not again forgotten. This is not only for their sake, but because data about children and women is essential for any accurate assessment of global economic and social conditions. As was recently posted on this blog, "A healthy global economy needs a strong societal foundation and this cannot be achieved without the contributions and participation of 51 percent of the global population."

There is strong evidence of this. Studies (including the CPS "Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life” report and the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap reports) show a strong correlation between a nation’s general quality of life and the status of women. Similarly, Canadian and other studies show that national investment in children, such as in high-quality childhood education, is key to success in the post-industrial economy.

I urge all policy makers and developers of new economic measurements to consider these correlations. Only by taking them into account will business and government leaders have the inclusive and accurate economic indicators they need to develop more effective and humane economic and social policies.

Riane Eisler wrote this post as a guest of The She Change. She is a systems scientist and cultural historian, president of the Center for Partnership Studies, and author of the international bestsellers The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations.