In this insightful episode, I engage in a profound discussion with the esteemed Latanya Mapp Frett, Executive Director of Global Fund for Women, and author of ‘The Everyday Feminist: The Key to Sustainable Social Impact – Driving Movements We Need Now More than Ever’.
Fun fact: Latanya was my boss over 20 years ago when I interned at UNICEF and we’re reconnecting!
We delve into the heart of influential feminist social movements, examining the leaders, art, and narratives that have propelled them to success. Mapp Frett shares her expertise, offering practical steps that organizations and individuals can implement to further their impact.
We discuss the significance of feminist funds, the role of men and boys in advancing a feminist future, and provide actionable advice to enact change globally.
‘The Everyday Feminist’ serves as a strategic blueprint for effecting social change. You can find the book in our show notes or click here to purchase. This episode is a crucial listen for anyone committed to making a difference. Tune in for a deep exploration of practical feminism in action.
“Women are the ones who are doing the work. So why are matching the resources not getting to them?” – Latanya
Episode Transcript
RHEA 0:05
Welcome to nonprofit lowdown. I’m your host, Rhea Wong. Hey podcast listeners. Welcome once again to nonprofit lowdown. Today, my guest is Latanya mount fret who is the new author of a book called The everyday feminist, the key to sustainable social impact driving movements we need now more than ever. She is also the president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women fat. She was also my boss when I was a little bitty intern over 20 years ago at UNICEF, so LaTonya. So good to connect. Welcome to the show.
LATANYA 0:38
Thank you, Rhea. I love the way worlds collide and come back together. This is so cool to be able to do this with you today.
RHEA 0:46
I know it’s so funny. You knew me as a little 20, something intern like fetching coffee and doing all the things. So it’s really fun for us to reconnect before we jump into the book, which is very exciting. Congratulations, just about yourself and your career, which has been very interesting International, you’ve done many things, what did it all begin for you?
LATANYA 1:09
That’s a great question. Because it is just it goes right back to your family, we were talking earlier about growing up in the Bay Area. I grew up in Philadelphia, and both of my grandparents, my maternal and paternal grandfather, parents were very active in their communities, they gave back all the time. So you grow up not knowing that it’s anything different or special, but you give back, you’re a part of a community wherever you are. And I’ve taken that with me in more than 15 countries. I’ve lived in four continents over my career. And I partner with all of these different types, whether they’re NGOs, or the United Nations, or governments and foundations. And for me, it always landed on one thing I wanted to get back. And I really want it to advance gender justice, social equality, the big thing that you want to change, you want everything to be equal, and people treat it fairly around the world.
LATANYA 1:59
And so it was easy. For me, it came easy to end up in this world where I’m doing international development and philanthropy and some supporting communities, and in particular women and communities. Because in every single country I’ve lived in every single organization I’ve been in, there was always this everyday feminist, right, there was this activist that was creating this kind of change. And I was always in awe of how they moved and how they acted, and how it was just so easy for them. And they befriend you, and they teach you and they help you and you learn. And for me that was like a part of my power was the ability to be able to find these women, and to become friends with them. And so now, quite frankly, in my career, I think I ended up as the president and CEO of this organization. But it’s been a wonderful ride to get here. And all while doing what I love the most of what my grandmothers would say is what my duty is to give back to my community. So I felt like that’s how it started.
LATANYA 3:00
And that’s where it’s ending, because I guess I got a good, I got another good decade in me workwise. But I do feel like that it’s been a wonderful ride. And I think you can stay committed to what you want to do give back and have a wonderful career.
RHEA 3:15
Yeah, I love that in your career. It’s actually so inspiring. For me when I was I think I was 20 years old, and it was working for you. And I was like, tying his career. So cool. You’ve at the time, we’re both in Ethiopia. And actually, I remember, one of the assignments you sent me out on was to look at the different projects that UNICEF was funding and consistently, the ones that seem to do the best were microcredit loans to women. I was like, why don’t we just give all the money to the women shouldn’t doesn’t figure all this stuff out. So talk to me a little bit about what you mean by everyday feminist.
LATANYA 3:51
So I write about this in the book, because it’s I think the terminology has gotten to where, depending on what camp you’re from, it could be very corrosive, or it could be incredibly empowering feminists. And I really wanted to bring this into a setting where when I talk about everyday feminists, I am talking about these women in their organizations in their movements. And sometimes they’re men because I want to put that out there. A lot of times you do find men who are doing this special kind of work to really set strategies around their issues, and their issues are not just women’s issues, right? These are issues for society. These are women who are trying to change the narrative.
LATANYA 4:30
They’re trying to change the system. Right now my I should do a blog like everyday feminist of the week or something because right now, I just watched me a motley speech in Paris and I’m like, she’s definitely my everyday feminist for the week because these are people who like just aren’t afraid to speak what they know to be true. They are not afraid to move their lived experiences into the halls of power into the rooms where the money sits and talk about what’s required.
LATANYA 4:59
For us to have a better world. So when I’m talking to everyday feminists that these are the women I’m talking about, and they don’t need notoriety to stand on the stage like me and Motley. Right? The all they need is any kind of platform to bring justice to their communities. And so I really wanted us to have a book where we talk about how do we support them, right? How do we get out of their way, so they could do this work, but make sure they have the resources because all revolutions are financed, I don’t care which one and they need the support behind them to be able to continue to tackle these really challenging issues. And to me, it’s like they’re looking at the long term impact. While a lot of us are stuck on this short term, what can we do? They’re looking at what does my community and my country look like 10.20 30 years from now. And I think that’s what matters. And that’s why I talk about movements that we need now, because we need to figure out a future that looks better than quite frankly, right mental we can see.
RHEA 5:58
I want to talk a little bit about inequities in philanthropy, when we look across the board, at least here domestically, and I haven’t seen the statistics for internationally. But we know that women are not funded at the same rate as men philanthropically, and we know people of color, and specifically black women are not funded at the same rate as white LED organizations. So I’m wondering like, how are you thinking about? I don’t know, if it’s changing the conversation, or at least bringing it to light that many of the everyday feminist that you are advocating for our women of color?
RHEA 6:33
Yeah.
LATANYA 6:34
So let me just start with one piece of it, which is that these don’t speak for these women. These women are not out here, begging for scrapes, right? They’re trying to change the way it works. And so me and Molly is a great example. But think about Lisa Bowie, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Liberia. And people know her story from Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which was done by Abby Disney some years ago. But it was the story of a woman who worked amongst women in her community. And they were tired of civil war in Liberia. And they were like, just, they’ve got to do something, they didn’t have organizations behind them, they were just coming from the community and just didn’t want any more depth and wanted to stop the killing.
LATANYA 7:17
And she needed money to take buses over to the peace talks in Accra. And so Global Fund for Women gave her I think it was like 10,000, that was the first check. And she used that 10,000 to take those buses over to Accra. And those women, if you remember, chained themselves around that building, and would not let those men because it was all men up there. And the peace talks would not let them out in a room until they came up with a peace agreement. And that’s the kind of thing that we’re talking about. When I write the book I’m really trying to draw attention to it doesn’t take much for these women to do what’s necessary to get the job done. And we’re not even giving them that we’re giving them such a small amount of funding. The latest study showed that only 1.9% of all funding and so we’re looking at all overseas funding to global south countries, makes it to organizations dedicated to women and girls.
LATANYA 8:11
So we’re talking about grassroots organizations in their community. And so I know when I’ve said this before, people are always like, it can’t be that small. It’s that small. It’s not even 2% Of all the money gets to them. And then you can slice that with black feminist social movements, which we just saw report that says that it’s point 5%. So half of 1% of philanthropic dollars is getting to these women of color, who are just doing amazing work. And I know people are like so why does it matter? Why does why are we counting these pennies, because there is a direct correlation between the support that we give to these movements and outcomes that we don’t want. I remember when I was in Egypt at that time with USA ID and we had such a difficult time I was running the program office, but such a difficult time getting the government to allow us to support local human rights groups. Now, people might not be surprised at that.
LATANYA 9:07
But normally USA ID does offer some funding to small local groups, especially once in their democracy portfolios, but skip ahead three years and then Arab Spring happened all messy depending on how you look at it. It was an opportunity for civil society to stand up. But because they didn’t have that support, they hadn’t been funded. They hadn’t been taken care of and those years leading up to that they really didn’t have the the resources necessary to make the change, I think that they were trying to see happen after the Arab Spring. And for those that know Egyptian history much more about modern history anyway, much better than I do know that the steps that happened afterwards were diminishing and civil society continues to close in Egypt. So you know those opportunities that are only going to happen once in a lifetime. We’ve got to resource them
RHEA 9:59
We got to get behind these women who are doing this work so that we can see the systemic changes that we know needs to happen. That’s really helpful because I think we talked about funding feminist movements and funding women doing systemic work. But really, it’s work for all of society. Because I think we can point to the fact that like, when we put resources in the hands of women, when we put resources in the hands of Mother, we can see a very clear ROI, whether it’s your economy, building, democracy building, and so forth. So I’m wondering, can you speak a little bit to some of the data that you’ve seen, that supports this idea of like, when we fund women, we’re funding the greater good, you know, who puts out some good data around this, this idea of making sure that we find women because they then use that money to fund their children’s education, to fund community work that’s happening.
LATANYA 10:50
And then that then makes the community more able to participate and ask for resources from their government, and then their government has the ability to direct resources. So it’s like, it’s like a cycle that starts to happen when women get money, and it’s normally almost never goes outside of that circle. So they’re funding their children, their communities, their gardens, their farms, all the things that they’re doing. And that’s why the micro credit program was so successful in Ethiopia. So this cycle was just happening, it makes the community and makes the family better, the community better the country better, and in the region better, and in the world better, as most of you and women looks at this all the time.
LATANYA 11:31
I will say though, something a little disappointing that I just saw last week, you may have seen the UNDP report that was actually looking at perceptions about women, and they were specifically looking at perceptions about women in politics, business, and work generally in 80 countries. But that number nine out of 10 people are biased. So basically they’re saying men are better at politics, men are better at business and men are better at work. It’s very disappointing, because we’ve seen so many great achievements over the last few decades that women have given in talking about that cycle, you would think it would have improved perceptions coming from people. And don’t be fooled. These are not just men being surveyed. These are women too. So we do have a big jump that we need to move from rhetoric around gender equality, where everyone’s Yeah,
LATANYA 12:23
To what actually is happening in the reality, when we look at it from development assistance in my organization towards gender equality, and we’re seeing that it’s flatline. So at the same time, that everyone is saying, even with climate justice, right this week in Paris, that women are actually the ones who are doing the work for mitigation and adaptation. So why is that not matching the resources getting to them? So lawmakers are talking all of this stuff, but they’re still you see it curtailing bodily autonomy is one of them. But even just human rights defenders, women are still experiencing all these violence in their communities on their websites. So all of these things, though, we really have to get at. So we know, we’ve proven that it works, the cycle of giving women more makes more happen. But we somehow are not getting people to realize that they need to put their money where their mouths are.
RHEA 13:20
Yeah, that’s so important. So to that point, how do we start to shift that because I think particularly if we’re looking at organizations funded by women, it’s less than 2%, of all giving, as you said, and then point 5% for black women led organizations, we know that unconscious bias is real. We know that, particularly in a cultural context, there are probably cultural things that we are up against as well. What would the advice be for an individual person running an organization that’s trying to get resources to do the work?
LATANYA 13:55
Yeah, I was just on this call in the UK talking about childcare, and how we support families that need childcare, that one of the things that was commented on is this act of listening. It’s the nature of policymakers. And I have my Master’s in Public Policy too. But it’s the nature of policymakers to try to find solutions. And we love that. But what we’re trying to engage also in the development community, also in the feminist communities, is that should not happen without active listening with the communities. Because the assumption that there’s a one size fits all on any of these issues that we’re talking about. I feel like we’ve already passed that day where you sit in Washington, DC, or New York or whatever, London, whatever capital in the world and come up with programs for communities, and then give it to them, quote, unquote, I felt like we had already had those conversations and already discovered that’s not the way it works. The way it’s going to work is that you’re going to have to include the communities on the solutions that affect them. It seems so simple but first
LATANYA 14:59
Some reason, it’s very difficult for us to get our heads around governments, philanthropy corporations, and asking what we can do how we can be of service to these everyday feminist is the question that I’m interested in us asking, because it’s not enough to come up with the solution, then that wasn’t created by them, and expect them to fill in the gaps and make it happen and be successful. So a Global Fund for Women, we use a mix of things, right. So we use data, I’m very much supportive of using data. But you have to mix that with on the ground insights, right. So what we do is we have a couple of things. We call it a data hub, a gender justice data hub, where we take all of this data, and including AI, I know AI gets a bad rap, especially now with chat GPT.
LATANYA 15:46
But we use AI, the same way you would shopping for shoes, right? So when you hear noise over the internet, over social media, about actual feminist movements coming emerging, then we want to take that data and then we want to move it into the field to advisors and ask them we have more than 300 advisors across the world, what’s happening, can we be in support of this emerging movement, and actually get funding to those movements when they need it at that moment. So that’s the kind of thing that I think is going to be important. It’s like showing up when we’re needed, instead of coming up with all these programs and stuff, and then saying, Okay, send me a proposal on how you fit into my program, let’s find out what’s happening at the time using data and other machine resources, and then ground truth that will communities and do some active listening on what is necessary. So that’s where I see us utilizing where we are in society to really help more and to change this narrative around the way that we fund feminist movements.
RHEA 16:48
So as you’re talking, it occurs to me, when you use the term feminist movement. It’s not a monolith. And I think that term can mean lots of different things to lots of different people, depending on cultural frameworks, and so forth. So when we think about feminist movements, is it like, how would you define specifically movements that are led by women? Is it specifically movements that have a gender equity agenda? What do you mean when you say feminist movement?
LATANYA 17:16
Yeah, and it’s a great point. Thanks for Yeah, because I’m, of course talking about the work that we do at Global Fund for Women, when I talk about feminist movements, where we do narrow the playing field a little bit, but we are talking about movements that are either led by women in their communities and or movements that are focused on feminist issues. And there’s, that’s a broad intersectional. So climate is a feminist issue. And from where I stand, it may not be for everyone. But those are the way that’s the way we think about it. That’s the way we talk about it at Global Fund for Women, because it’s super important not to get caught up in this language around whether it’s a womanist movement or something else. And yes, it is a womanist movement to write. But so what we’re trying to figure out is how do we make sure that these organizations that we support are not just hopefully led by women, but also addressing issues that are important to women in the communities where they live.
LATANYA 18:17
And so that’s why I use the terminology feminist movements when I talk about the funding that we need to get out to them. And we look at it like artists there, we have a group called artists changemakers, and they’re very much involved with feminist movements around the world, may not necessarily even be women. They can be any category of genders, but we have what we call the adolescent girls advisory group. And these are young girls between the ages of 14 and 21, who we want to support younger, a lot of the climate work, as you probably know, is actually getting started by young girls. I know it’s really incredible. And I am here for Yeah, inspiring. Yeah.
RHEA 18:59
Everyday people like everyday feminists, but like everyday people, and I’m sitting here and I’m LaTanya Yes, I want to be a part of this. I want to fund feminist movements and support my everyday feminist. What can I as a person do in support of this movement? I do I so I do talk about this in the book, especially in the conclusion because I am asking individuals and individuals are the people that make up all of these organizations, whether that’s in philanthropy, government or corporate, but I am asking that we embrace and value the slow path to real lasting change. Because I think that is what everyday feminists have to do. They don’t get up in the morning and say today, I’m going to change everything. It is the life that they live. It is getting up every morning moving towards change. And I think sometimes for individuals and I know we used to have and I hope we’re moving away from this these discussions around oh, what kind of impact are you making? Show me your numbers. How many people did you talk to today?
LATANYA 20:00
or how many all of this sort of nonsense that really doesn’t mean anything, but that we get wrapped up because we have built an industry and how this works, I’m asking that we actually many do already, but that we really value what lasting change looks like, and stick with everyday feminist through the natural ups and downs of movement work. And so it’s not to have a flavor of the day, but to have a passionate partner, and the work that you’re thinking about in your community or communities that you care about around the world. And it’s important that I say that because I think the way that we think about giving and supporting is sometimes built around honestly, the flavor of the day. But if you take it up a notch, and you say okay, so now that’s what individuals do, they find their passion, the organizations that represent that, and they’re trying to make change, and stick with them over time.
LATANYA 20:53
And to see that change actually materialized. I’m then saying to governments, people make up governments too. So if you’re working in government, and whether it’s bilateral or multilateral, it doesn’t really matter. I asked that we actually protect everyday feminists who are in many ways serving as human rights defenders everywhere, because I don’t think we have enough no tolerance policies for countries that don’t comply. So we do these sanction things that you could look at Russia, or you can host of examples that we can use. But I do think that it’s far too often just okay, that women are doing this work and don’t have any kind of protection and are often hurt maligned, and then sometimes killed, and just in the duty of being an everyday feminist and working for their community.
LATANYA 21:41
So I am asking that we have a no tolerance for that. And I think so. So it means when a woman is killed, just because she’s a woman is big enough for women issues, that we actually, as individuals resist that and literally push back with our governments when that happens. And for corporates and business, let me just say, I think we started doing this a little bit around George Floyd’s murder, but I feel like a lot of it was rhetoric, and a lot of things started and then ended and didn’t continue. But we do need to clarify what our values are, especially in capitalist structures, right? What are the values of the leadership that we bring in their boards and their staff, because we want to ensure that they listened to in partner, which is probably the most important thing, but listen in partner with everyday feminist, so I think there’s a role for everyone.
LATANYA 22:30
But I do think those three things are gonna be super important that we stick with the everyday feminist, that we protect them. And that then we clarify our values so that we can partner with them. Do you want if I get a little bit more personal here? Sure. So in your career, you’ve had very impressive leadership roles. Have you also been in the seat of having to do fundraising? Yes, I do fundraising. In some ways, I’ve always done it. But let me I’ll just go backwards. So Global Fund for Women, we absolutely. We are a fount we are a foundation of fund, which means that what we raised is what we use to give money. So not unlike foundations that have like endowments, or by a billionaire. So we are a public foundation raised money to give money. So yes, I have been doing that since I’ve been with this organization.
LATANYA 23:22
And even before that, I was with Planned Parenthood Global. And we absolutely raised everything, we use the phrase, we eat what we kill, so we are naturally out there. Every year, I’m starting from zero. And I now just feel like the rock is exact, exactly. It’s the NGO way. But I would say that even when I was with the US government, there was a big piece of my work that I did, which we used to call the Partnership Office. And the Partnership Office was what we PPP, public private partnerships. And so it wasn’t the same as like raising money, but it was really seeking to be in partnership with private sector to get work done. In fact, when I was in Nigeria, we worked with Shell, which was an extractive in that country to work in the Delta area, but actually putting money towards community and I was at the cusp of that now it’s more normal to see that happening.
LATANYA 24:16
But when I had started back in Nigeria, it wasn’t as normal and shell actually combined resources with USA ID 25 million in order to ensure that livelihood work that was happening in the Delta was actually benefiting those directly in the communities where they were working. So this this kind of concept of fundraising I’ve been doing for quite some time. And even when we were together, I don’t know if you remember, I was actually raising money from USA ID to do the street children program.
RHEA 24:46
Oh, I didn’t realize that. I was like a little internet. I didn’t know the whole context. But talking about this because I’m imagining that we’re folks are listening to you, particularly women of color, particularly black women and thinking like there’s a lot that comes with having to be on their front line of fundraising and whether it’s your microaggressions unconscious bias assumptions about who and what you are based on how you look and your lived experience. So I’m just curious for yourself as a successful fundraiser, how have you been able to sustain yourself? When you’re looking at the stats? And it’s stacked against you? Not you personally, but like, against women of color in general? Yeah, yeah,
LATANYA 25:26
No, absolutely. And I see it, I feel it often, personally, and I have colleagues that look like me, we get into these roles, then, despite how we tend to over deliver, still people don’t trust your vision. So you have to convince people that you know what you’re doing, it does get tiring when, especially when you see someone, especially a white male doing very similar things, and people are lauding them as the next whatever. And when you do it, it’s just Oh, yeah, she’s okay.
LATANYA 25:59
That kind of thing, but I can’t, and I’m assuming many of my colleagues who are like me, really can’t do it on that we can’t spend a whole lot of time and what I’ve done since I’ve joined Global Fund for Women, which we just had our top grantmaking year and the history of the Oregon, congratulations, one, we’re not even at the end of the fiscal year, but we’re already at like close to $29 million in the field this year. I’m super, super excited about that, I think, our highest before that was 17 million. Amazing. That was a partnership, right with other feminists. So one of the things that we’re doing is Fiscal Sponsorship with a black feminist fund with other sister funds that are regional and national around the world, Afro Latina black women leaders, we can’t breed.
LATANYA 26:44
So these are just some of the partnerships. And I think you understand fiscal sponsorship, because I think you talked about it at the show, but it’s just bringing their brand into Global Fund for Women and saying, Hey, what you’re doing is worthwhile, you are amazing, you are doing God’s work, go out there and do it. And we’ll take care of the back end for all of those smaller NGOs that have to really deal with all of these sorts of legal and financial and compliance issues. We’re saying, let us take care of that for you. And you just got to go do the work that women need. And so I think together from my perspective, it’s been how do I do that better? How do I do more of that? And how do I how do we see us together, bringing more funding to the gender justice world. And so I’m excited that it has worked. And we just have to keep getting innovative. And despite the naysayers, and what they think and their unconscious biases, we have to move beyond that and keep doing the work that’s required for the world.
RHEA 27:43
So if I could unpack that, because I think that’s really powerful is a kind of acknowledging that it’s there, but not dwelling on it and moving forward anyway, and be creating community to sustain is that absolutely right. And we honestly have done better together on these issues than we could ever do separately. So I’m a huge proponent on where you see opposition, draw closer to your allies, so that you can so you can win. Yeah, I love that. I’m imagining that being an everyday feminist and running a movement is not an easy task. I think women, we, there’s so much that we know about the inequities in the domestic responsibilities plus the professional world. Plus, now we have this movement building that we’re doing, how have you seen your everyday feminists sustain themselves there because like, I get it, women will find 27 hours in a day to get all the things done, but at a certain point, you can’t pour from an empty cup. So how are you seeing some of these feminists really sustain themselves over time?
LATANYA 28:50
Yeah, it’s true. And I even make a little fun in the book, when I talk about some of the places where I’ve met these everyday feminists and how gorgeous they look, they spend, they’re doing all this work, and they still come out looking amazing. But one of the things that I think you will find, for most of these women, they are actually using their own resources to do this work. And so many of them are in probably all of them are very entrepreneurial, right. So it’s not that they’re just out there trying to get it these issues. They’re also trying to resource it right.
LATANYA 29:23
So I talked in the book about innocent who owned a braiding salon in Nairobi, a very popular braiding Salon at the time that I was there. And so in she was using all of this money that she was making at the salon doing all kinds of stuff, but she was also selling stuff. She was selling contraception to clients. She was just moving in these dynamic ways that were both bring income, but then using that income to fund the movement. And so I think so many of the women that specially that I talked about in the book, but everywhere I’ve been are doing that they’re thinking about not just how we can keep this movement alive, but also
LATANYA 30:00
How do we find it? How do I find myself we were just in Barbados with the fisherfolk women vendors or fish there. They have all these great ideas about how they can get into new sectors as the fish is being depleted because of climate change. And they’re thinking, what’s next? How do we continue to have an income? How do we have a business now that we’re seeing these changes in our climate? And for me, it’s, I know, it’s not easy for them. But I have seen the most entrepreneurial women doing this work. They not only bring money to feed their families, which is primary, but they also then use that money to feed literally the movement.
RHEA 30:41
So that’s really interesting, because you’ve cited a couple of international examples that are philanthropic but also income producing a revenue producing, is that a trend that you’re seeing internationally and seeing more of? Because I think, in the American context, certainly we’ve seen for profit and revenue generating entities, but generally with nonprofits, we’re seeing like you’re either philanthropically funded, or you’re a for profit. And so I guess my question is, do you see more of a hybrid trend taking place?
LATANYA 31:14
I don’t know about taking place, I think it’s just been the way it is. Think about it, right. So in most of the countries where we work, the informal sector is where most women are. So we have numbers, some countries that go as high as 60 to 70%, on average, even in neighboring Caribbean countries, right? 40 to 50% of the women are in the informal sector, business sector, I’m saying so they’re making their money off of these small enterprises in the US, we have the privilege of being able to because there is not as many people in the informal sector here, to be able to distinguish this for profit and not for profit thing that we do here. It is a privilege. And I hope we realize that because in many parts of the world, most parts of the world, there is not that privilege, the difference between nonprofit and for profit is just a thin line.
LATANYA 32:02
And it depends on what you have to eat today. And that’s why over COVID, right, it was a real challenge. You tell people to stay home, but you they’re only they have to get literally going back to that thing. They have to eat what they kill that day. And so by not being able to go out and bring in funds means that you may not be eating, and your family may not be eating. So it’s not a trend, I think it’s the way it is for most places in the world, is that women have had to be entrepreneurial, they have had to really lean into the informal sector, to make sure that they bring the required resources into their homes.
RHEA 32:39
So when we think about and I’m just thinking about myself as one person, when we think about the scope of everyday feminist globally, that feels like such a big thing, right? It’s huge. What can I as one person do for someone like myself, who wants to make an impact? Who wants to make a difference? I’m not a billionaire. But I want to do something. How would you recommend? Should I start small? Should I start domestically? Should I start with one country? What’s the way in which an individual can make a difference?
LATANYA 33:08
Yeah. And so I think other than changing your mindset about this, which is back to the UNDP report, and what I’m asking people to really take the slow path in their philanthropy because everyone is a philanthropist when you give, but I would say liken it to an issue like climate change, right? Enormous, but critical. And it’s like you just as an individual, are just trying to figure out how do I stem what we’re seeing happening. And I think every one is going to find those little actions that they can take in order to actually make a difference in their own hearts, right, and with their own vision. And I think that’s super special. And I think that we just have to do some self analysis to figure out what that is, what’s meaningful for you Rhea may not be the same as what’s meaningful for me.
LATANYA 33:58
But we both around the climate, and I’m using climate because I think it might be a little easier for people than gender justice, to visualize. But we’re both doing something right now in our everyday lives that we are hoping will change the tide for where we’re headed for climate. But then, because of the enormity of the challenge and the urgency, we also are looking at ways that we can give modestly and I think whether that’s in your community to a group that’s looking at climate and trying to make some changes your school, and I think giving more resources is going to be very important for all of us, whether that’s $1 or a million dollars. I think we know we have to do everyday actions, but plus we have to give because that’s the only way we’re going to disrupt the status quo. And so for us, like a Global Fund for Women we give to local organizations. And I think it that do climate, right that do other issues that do intersectional range of issues.
LATANYA 34:59
And I think If giving more resources is possible than people, I think should give to organizations that are really trying to get at the root of community issues as much as they can. Because changing that power, and we talked about, we talked about shifting power a lot, but changing that power between making your individual decisions around what you can do for climate, and then what you do for your community is going to be very important as we try to tackle this really big problem. So the so I hope that wasn’t too like esoteric, but really, it’s like making some decisions about what you can do in your own life, and then making some decisions about how you can give to organizations that are really trying to tackle that.
RHEA 35:42
Yeah. And I think that’s right to that, to not be intimidated by the enormity of the issue to do something is better than to do nothing. Because I do think that there’s this fight flight freeze idea of, oh, gosh, this is so big. I am just I can’t do anything, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s gender justice, whether it’s education, you name it. Okay, last question for me. Again, congratulations on the book, having written a book, I know, it’s no small feat, who should read this book? Who’s it for?
LATANYA 36:10
So I it’s too easy to just say everyone, but I am really hopeful that first of all people that are challenged with this term around feminism, like literally people who are like, I am no feminist, or I don’t like using that term, because it’s for white rich women, I hope they read it, because I think they’ll end the book, by the time they finish the book, they’ll have a changed sense of understanding around what it means to be a feminist out to stand in feminist solidarity with others. And quite frankly, that you don’t even have to call yourself a feminist to be supportive of the work that I’m talking about in the book.
LATANYA 36:44
So other than that, though, I think people who Fund and Resource this kind of work so philanthropists, government, corporations, I hope they also read the book because I think it gives some real practical examples of what it means to be in solidarity with and in partnership with everyday feminists in the work that they do in their countries. And like, let you know how it makes you think about how you appreciate everyday feminists in your own world, your own community, your own schools. So I’m hoping that people who are interested in gender justice issues generally and who fund them can actually read the books so they can see some steps to how you move from supporting everyday feminists to actually resourcing the work that they do. And then a change transformative system for us all.
RHEA 37:32
That is so great. And it’s such an important call to action. We don’t have any time to waste. The window is closing on so many issues, particularly climate that we have to act now. There’s a sense of urgency Latanya, thank you so much. I’m going to make sure all of your info is in the show notes folks go out, get this book to support the work to support everyday feminists to resource them, but also to support my friend LaTonya who wrote a fantastic books. Thank you so much.
LATANYA 37:59
Pleasure to be with you today.
RHEA 38:02
It’s so nice to reconnect. So hopefully it won’t be another 20 years, but I doubt it. Yeah, we good. But with you. Okay, yeah,
RHEA 38:11
very good. And actually, I’m very much in support of you doing your everyday feminist weekly, because I think that would be so fun. So if you get that started, let me know and I’ll make sure to put it out over by platforms.
LATANYA 38:22
Thank you. I am thinking about it. Thank you so much. You take care.
RHEA 38:25
Thank you. Bye bye
—
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nonprofitlowdown/support
