Gloria Awards Celebrate Women of Vision

"Last night's gala was a tremendous success," says Anika Rahman, Ms. Foundation president and CEO. "With great pride we celebrated Women of Vision who -- whether advocating for the rights and well-being of women, workers, immigrants or youth -- are tackling the most urgent issues of our time. They give us renewed hope that, despite our nation's many challenges, we will one day achieve justice and equity for all."

Below is a sampling of event photos. See all 23rd Annual Gloria Award photos. Watch the videos of this year's Gloria Award honorees: Kathy Miller, Priscilla Rorie and Attica Woodson Scott.

The 2010 Women of Vision Awards: What a Success!

Alongside more than 400 invited guests, last Thursday we had the honor of celebrating the 22nd Annual Gloria Awards, a tribute to grassroots women activists and philanthropists who ignite change on behalf of women, families, and communities across the US.

Hosted at Manhattan's Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the evening began with powerful opening remarks from Ms. Foundation Founding President and inspirational activist Gloria Steinem, set against a backdrop of stunning Central Park views. Together with President and CEO, Sara K. Gould and Event Chair, Kayrita M. Anderson, Steinem helped lead an evening that was an emotional recognition of the powerful work of many noteworthy women.

Carol Burnett, (pictured above with Gloria Steinem) Founder and Executive Director of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative and Moore Community House was recognized with a 2010 Woman of Vision Award for her outstanding leadership as an advocate for child care and other programs serving low-income communities in the South. Silvia Henriquez, Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH), was recognized with an award for her groundbreaking work transforming NLIRH into a leading organization in the push to advance the reproductive health, rights, and justice for Latinas in the US. And the recipient of the Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award, Jasmin Woodbury, was honored for her amazing success as the youngest paid organizer -- her volunteer work began at age 12 -- at Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) in Providence, RI, which works to engage community youth in leading and making change.

Special tribute was also paid to outgoing Ms. Foundation Board of Directors Chair, Katie Grover, who was honored for her nine years of service to the Foundation. For improving the lives of countless women and girls through her philanthropic endeavors, Jane Stephens Comer was honored as the Woman of Vision and Action, and Jennifer and Peter Buffett and NoVo Foundation were recognized for their pioneering work to end child sexual abuse.

Additional highlights included a show-stopping, hilarious performance from Tony Award winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones, and a closing performance from entertainer, teacher, activist, and immense vocal talent, Holly Near -- which moved much of the room to tears.

After our 22nd powerful, joyous, and successful evening, we feel so thankful for the support of our friends and donors -- and can't wait to honor more outstanding, inspiring women next year!

To learn more about the 2010 award winners or past Gloria Awards visit our website.

Child Care Cuts Leave Women Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

As part of their ongoing series “The New Poor”, which seeks to tell the stories of our national struggle to recover from the Great Recession, yesterday’s New York Times featured a revealing piece about the plight of low-income mothers, many of whom are finding that recent cuts to child care subsidies in their states are making it impossible to find affordable, quality child care – and thus pushing them towards welfare as the only viable means of supporting their families.

Despite an increase in overall federal funding for child care subsidies by the Obama Administration (to the tune of an additional $2 billion this year), experts agree that in many states, funding simply isn’t keeping pace with the growing need for affordable child care -- especially as job markets remain difficult to penetrate. Add to that the fact that states are given the discretion to structure the dispersal of the monies they do receive for subsidies as they wish, and you've got a recipe for plenty of bureaucratic red tape and the creation of perpetual holding patterns when it comes to granting aid. Wait-lists thousands for subsidized child care of children deep have become the new normal, according to the Times, and as a result, more and more mothers are finding it impossible to hold down jobs that would keep them off welfare and help keep their families afloat (if barely).

Though this growing problem may be new news to some, it happens to be an issue that Carol Burnett – named a 2010 Woman of Vision at last week’s Gloria Awards gala – knows inside and out. Calling child care the “single most important work support that helps low-income women move toward economic self-sufficiency”, Burnett has been working for two decades to ensure that families in her home state of Mississippi have access quality child care that they can actually afford.

As executive director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative (a Ms. Foundation grantee), Carol advocates for state policy reform and works to strengthen the capacity of child care centers across Mississippi. To date her organization has offered assistance to more than 800 providers and continues to work to ensure that one day, “families will get the services children need so that parents can work and so that children’s development will be supported at every age level beginning at birth—without regard to whether the parent can pay.”

It sounds like a utopian ideal -- but it's one that we're fully committed to fighting for. Learn more about Carol's vision for a better future for all of our children -- and take a look at how another grantee, the National Women's Law Center (featured in the Times article) is addressing this important issue.

VIDEO: Kirbie Platero: Champion for New Mexico's Youth

As we gear up for this week's Gloria Awards, where we have the privilege of honoring grassroots women activists and philanthropists who ignite change in communities nationwide, we wanted to share the inspiring story of one such awardee from last year's gala: Kirbie Platero.

At just 20 years of age, mother, artist, and full-time youth activist Kirbie is living proof that the future of the reproductive justice movement is alive and kicking – and in good hands.

The 2009 recipient of the Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award, Kirbie has played a leading role in the comprehensive sex ed movement in New Mexico. An outspoken member of Ms. Foundation grantee group Young Women United, Kirbie helped lobby the departments of health and education in her state, as well as the Albuquerque Public School Board, to adopt standards calling for medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education – leading the way for New Mexico to eventually become the 15th state to refuse federal abstinence-only funding.

A survivor of sexual assault as a child, and now raising a young son born in 2007, Kirbie’s life circumstances haven’t always been easy. But what this video below makes clear is how powerfully she’s translated her own experiences into a passion for providing others with the resources they need to make informed and safe decisions about their own lives.



Please join us in paying tribute to yet another amazing group of grassroots women activists like Kirbie at this week's Ms. Foundation's 22nd Annual Gloria Awards: A National Salute to Women of Vision, Thursday, May 20 in New York City. Purchase your seat online now! And stay tuned for more powerful stories to come as we share the voices of our 2010 awardees.

Recognize an Outrageous Original: Gloria Steinem

As the Ms. Foundation for Women recognizes Gloria Steinem’s 75th birthday on May 21, we ask you to make a contribution in her honor. Help the Ms. Foundation further her legacy of building grassroots action.

Read Gloria’s words (our emphasis added) from her letter to attendees at the Women of Vision Awards:

The Ms. Foundation has grown to a staff of 35 whose President, Sara Gould, is a national pioneer of women’s economic development. It has also grown thanks to the expert help of 15 board members, including men who not only care about wives and daughters, but understand that there is no such thing as democracy without feminism. It has inspired the spread of local women’s funds across this country and in other countries, and earned the support of individuals and foundations by multiplying the human benefits of every dollar given.

Yet Ms. has never sugar-coated the fact that having greatly increased the amount of charitable dollars going to projects for women and girls still leaves this sum at less than ten percent of corporate, foundation and individual giving. Most important, it has never lost its personal link with the diversity of women and girls on the ground who know best what they need, and are infinitely creative about how to achieve it.

I think that, for all of us, this is the best gift: Ms. has kept its spirit, its soul, and its ability to link rather than rank; a rare thing as institutions grow. Ms. has successfully made the journey from a dream with only money enough to last a few months to a reliable, deeply-rooted, transforming source of energy that we can include in our wills and bequests with confidence.

Make a gift to help further Gloria’s legacy.

Recognizing Outrageous Actors: 2009 Women of Vision Awards

This week the Ms. Foundation holds its 21st Annual Gloria Awards: A National Salute to Women of Vision where we will recognize three grassroots leaders and an individual and corporate donor who are each committing outrageous acts for simple justice. These women exemplify, in Gloria Steinem’s words, “women and girls on the ground who know best what they need, and are infinitely creative about how to achieve it.”

• Naina Khanna, Director of Policy and Community Organizing at Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Disease (WORLD), supports, educates and mobilizes women living with and affected by HIV/AIDS to advocate for policy change that meets their unique and, often, unmet needs. Naina recently co-founded the U.S. Positive Women’s Network and is the youngest leadership team member of the Ms. Foundation’s National Women and AIDS Collective. Her work results in better prevention, treatment and care programs for women and their families across the U.S. [Read more.]
  
  
• Gina Womack, Director and Co-Founder of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), is an impassioned community organizer dedicated to creating a better life for all of Louisiana’s youth, especially those involved in or targeted by the juvenile justice system. With chapters across the state, FFLIC builds the leadership of parents and others to share testimony and advocate for the rights of youth and families, including an end to the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Under her leadership, FFLIC has helped reduce the number of juveniles in detention in the state from 2,000 to 541 between 2000 and 2007. [Read more.]
  
  
• Kirbie Platero is the recipient of the Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award. Kirbie, member of and organizer at Young Women United, is a 19-year old activist, mother and artist working to secure reproductive justice for girls and women. She recently helped lead a successful campaign in New Mexico that brought young women of color to advocate before state officials for the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education in public schools. [Read more.]
  
  
• Bonnie Schaefer, Woman of Vision and Action Award recipient and former co-chair & co-CEO of Claire's Stores, Inc., is being honored for her strong commitment to issues affecting women and girls in the U.S. and around the world—from human trafficking to women's visibility in the media. Bonnie serves on the Host Committee for the Women's Division of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and she is a new member of Women Moving Millions, a partnership of visionary donors and the Women's Funding Network. [Read more.]
  
  
• MAC AIDS Fund and Executive Director Nancy Mahon, recipients of the Corporate Philanthropy Award, are being honored for the Fund's crucial support of women and HIV/AIDS advocacy. Their partnership with the Ms. Foundation has been critical to the success of the National Women and AIDS Collective, the first and only national policy coalition led by and for HIV positive women in the U.S., formed in 2005 by the Ms. Foundation's Women and AIDS Fund grantees. [Read more.]
  
  

More on the 21st Annual Gloria Awards: A National Salute to Women of Vision.

Huffington Post on Gloria Awards

Our celebration of the 20th Annual Gloria Awards was a time to note the remarkable achievements of women activists and visionary philanthropists whose strength, courage and leadership move us towards the realization of the long-cherished vision: a just and equitable world. For 35 years, in partnership with our grantees, we have acted on this vision by building women's collective power to ignite change.

Marcia G. Yerman attended the event and shared her experience in the Huffington Post. She notes:

...within that room was tremendous solidarity for feminist activism, social justice, leadership, and courage.

The crowd was wowed by the story of 21-year-old Yunuen Rodriguez (winner of the Marie C. Wilson Young Women's Leadership Award), and her involvement in taking on a Chicago Spanish-language radio station that had run an ad campaign depicting a rear view of a line of Latina women in short-shorts. The caption "25 pegaditas" (translation being hits/slaps) was positioned on their behinds. Working with Females United for Action (FUFA), an initiative of the Women & Girls Collective Action Network (a Ms. Foundation grantee), Rodriquez developed a public relations strategy that led to a sit-down with the station's general manager, as well as an owner's rep from the Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System. The ads were pulled, and they gave FUFA airtime to discuss their agenda on how to combat violence against women.

Read Marcia Yerman's full report at Women Get Respect -- Part 2.

Photo: Gloria Steinem © Kevin Wick/Longview

We're 35!

Last Wednesday, our 35th Anniversary Celebration and 20th Annual Gloria Awards energized us all! We're so thankful to everyone who made the event a success. Our awardees spoke movingly about their work and partnerships with the Ms. Foundation as they accepted their Women of Vision awards for outstanding social justice leadership in their communities and companies. Meanwhile, through song and speech, our presenters, performers, event chair Loreen Arbus and co-hosts Gloria Steinem and Sara K. Gould entertained and inspired us the whole evening long, leaving us with a resounding charge to forge new connections across organizations and movements and demand lasting progressive, feminist social change during this election cycle and beyond.

For coverage of the event, see Divine Caroline's website for a Q&A with our President and CEO Sara K. Gould and profiles of three of our awardees Lucy C. Félix, Brenda Dardar-Robichaux and Yunuen Rodriguez -- all grantees of the Ms. Foundation.

Also see the fantastic piece by Jennifer Pelly, "At the Gloria Awards, Feeling the Promise of My Generation," published by the Women's Media Center. Pelly, a college student in New York, was particularly bowled over by the powerful leadership and accomplishments of awardee Yunuen Rodriguez and reflects on how the entire evening reinforced her commitment to, along with others from her generation, drive progressive social change into the next three decades.

Again, thank you to everyone who supported this fun and important event! Here's to another 35 successful years and many more powerful, visionary women leaders to come.

Photo top left: Sara K. Gould, Ms. Foundation President & CEO © Kevin Wick/Longview
Photo above right: Dolores Huerta (Presenter), Lucy C. Felix (Awardee), Blythe Danner (Presenter) © Kevin Wick/Longview