Women are critical to our economy and future, featuring Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood

In technology, women’s needs and values should matter just as much as men’s do, says Steffania Paola Costa di Albanez. The Ford Mozilla Open Web Fellow is working to make all platforms more welcoming to women, particularly Black women, and designed to help fight gender inequality.

Empowering women in technology can help address the issue of gender inequality. The first Afro-Colombian woman and the youngest person to lead a cabinet-level ministry in Colombia, Paula Moreno is encouraging young women to become the next generation of leaders in tech and beyond.

Women leaving the criminal justice system face nearly insurmountable hurdles. They need support to not reoffend and get caught up in the prison cycle. According to Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life Reentry Project, expanding opportunities for women leaving prison can help end recidivism and create prison reform.

College & Community Fellowship’s Vivian Nixon believes education has the power to transform lives. To end mass incarceration and empower overlooked communities, Nixon is working to change the way society views formerly incarcerated people by helping women with criminal histories gain access to quality education.

Violence against LGBTQIA people in Africa needs to be addressed beyond legal and policy changes, says human rights lawyer Sibongile Ndashe. She advocates for working with people affected by the law to disrupt inequality and create lasting social change.

To achieve gender justice, Elizabeth Swavola believes prison reform for women in the U.S. jail system is critical. Swavola, as part of the Vera Institute of Justice, is working to make sure prisons are reaching and supporting women just as they do men.

Documenting overlooked communities is essential to disrupting inequality. African LGBTQIA voices exist—and need to be heard, says journalist and filmmaker Selly Thiam. By sharing their perspectives and encouraging them to tell their stories, we recognize their existence and begin to capture a fuller, more accurate picture of an equitable society.

Monica Simpson found her calling when she established SisterSong, an organization that focuses on the reproductive rights of women in marginalized communities. She explains how the reproductive justice movement, with its intersectional framework, is key to gender equality.  

Women need safe spaces on the internet. Steffania Paola Costa di Albanez believes gender inequality is possible when we address the issues women face online, which are the same as they face in real life, such as sexism, harassment and violence.

The criminal justice system creates a burden on the U.S. economy with the amount of money it spends on corrections. Susan Burton, who founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project, advocates for prison reform by expanding the opportunities extended to formerly incarcerated women.

College & Community Fellowship’s Vivian Nixon knows firsthand how higher education can be transformational in reforming America’s prison system. She helps women with criminal histories gain access to quality education to end mass incarceration and empower overlooked communities.

A cultural shift, in which people understand gender in all its complexities, is essential for equality, explains trans activist Isa Noyola. She says trans people deserve equal rights before the law and also within society at large.

Inequality exists wherever LGBTQIA people are attacked and prevented from participating in society. For Sibongile Ndashe of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation, LGBTQIA rights are human rights that need to be protected and upheld to advance social justice.

Trans activists face unique, at times dangerous challenges when they choose to speak out for justice. Trans activist Isa Noyola shares what it’s like to lose people when fighting for social change, valuable voices violently taken away trying to advance trans rights.

Reproductive justice is an intersectional framework created by women of color to help organize communities around issues of inequality and social change. As artist Monica Simpson explains, reproductive justice is about the human right to self-determine—and is essential for gender equality.

As the first Afro-Colombia woman and the youngest person to lead a cabinet-level ministry in Colombia, Paula Moreno is no stranger to breaking barriers. She sees power as a way of serving society, and is cultivating a new kind of leadership in her country through the work of Corporación Manos Visibles

Art has allowed #AfricaNoFilter fellow Phoebe Boswell the space to explore both her identity and the collective identities she feels connected to in her life. To her, art is a powerful tool that can help address race, gender and class inequalities.

Women with disabilities make up 20% of the world’s female population. Human rights lawyer Stephanie Ortoleva says the voices of women and girls with disabilities need to be centered because of their potential as change agents in the fight to end inequality.

Gender justice needs to include people with disabilities, and disability rights need to include women. Women Enabled International’s Stephanie Ortoleva says women and girls with disabilities deserve advocacy, protection and education so they can lead self-determined lives.

A longtime advocate of workers’ rights, Dina Bakst believes that workplace equity needs to be addressed with an intersectional lens. Economic justice can’t be achieved without tackling issues of maternal health, reproductive health, and racial inequity. To Bakst, workplace equity is a fundamental right for all Americans.

Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women’s Law Center believes creating equality through the law is possible. She credits her family’s activism in the civil rights movement as the inspiration for her own trajectory to become the first lawyer in her family and an advocate for human rights and social justice.

Equality is a fair and stable economy that supports the rights of millions of American workers. Dina Bakst of A Better Balance has a vision for building an economy where workers across the economic spectrum are able to care for themselves and their families without risking their jobs.

Cecile Richards, feminist and former president of Planned Parenthood, was inspired by her late mother, the former governor of Texas, to push for more women in government. She believes we need to create more opportunities to see women in government at both the state and federal level.

Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women’s Law Center finds inspiration in seeing young, Black activists exercise their power. She envisions a future where women and girls realize full equality and are free from discrimination.

Africans can change the narrative around Africa and drive social change. Visual artist and #AfricaNoFilter fellow Phoebe Boswell advocates for Africans to take ownership of their history, their stories and their futures.

Shifting the narrative around African LGBTQIA people begins with making sure their personal stories are told, shared, and preserved. According to journalist and filmmaker Selly Thiam, giving voice to LGBTQIA stories by documenting them can help in disrupting inequality.

America’s criminal justice system urgently needs reform, says attorney Elizabeth Swavola. The system now hurts individuals and families and prevents them from living in a just and equitable society. We need to shift thinking to make sure reform is designed to dismantle inequality.

Lourdes Rivera of the Center for Reproductive Rights believes women should have agency over their bodies. As a longtime advocate for women, she maintains that gender equality can only become a reality when society treats reproductive rights as human rights and protects them with law.

Around the world, women have become an unstoppable force for social change. They are rising up to create solutions to the biggest issues facing society, from institutional racism to abortion rights. In the #FutureIsHers, we spotlight the women rewriting the rules, redefining power and reimagining what equality looks like.

Women having individual agency over their bodies is an essential part of gender equality. But, reproductive justice advocate Lourdes Rivera believes, the government has a role to play in fighting inequality by helping secure human rights for all citizens.