The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania

Femisphere: COVID-19 and the succeeding economic inflation impacted everyone, but women, especially women of color are bearing a much bigger burden. Women are four times more likely than men to have lost work since the pandemic began. They also are more likely to be low-wage, front line workers, at greater risk of catching the virus, yet without access to paid family or medical leave. Covid-19 exposed our current system for being inequitable, inefficient, unhealthy, and unjust. In total, more than 2.3 million women were pushed out of the workforce in 2020 alone (National Womens Law Center, March 2021). Every day WGF is working with coalition partners, at the local, state, and federal levels, advocating for women to be central to economic recovery plans. This means family sustaining workplace policies including increases to the minimum wage, paid sick days, paid family leave, access to affordable healthcare, transportation, and child care.

GirlGov: Is WGFs successful civic engagement program designed to ignite high school-aged women and femmes passion for social justice; cultivate their critical thinking, spark their interest in careers in public service, build their understanding of history and government, and prepare them as our next generation of voters, leaders, and change-makers. We accept teens from anywhere in Southwest PA and are proud to announce that we have a diverse cohort of participants from over 40 different high schools. The entire GirlGov program is offered free of charge year-round. Recognizing past barriers to participation, particularly for students of color and those from resource-limited families, WGF expanded GirlGov to reach middle school-aged youth in 2024. This expansion aims to create an early pipeline for students facing barriers, focusing on girls of color, girls from New American families, and girls from low to middle-income families.