It's the MOST wonderful time of the year: International Women's Day!
The ??? ??commemorative day comes along once a year, on Mar. 8, and marks the perfect time to get a game plan together for supporting women around the world.
The United Nation's theme this year — "I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights" — can inspire action. After all, we haven't reached equality yet. So, how to make ourselves "generation equality?" Education is a great place to start.
Around the world, more than 132 million girls are not in school, due to a host of different issues, according to UNICEF. Obviously, this figure needs changing. This International Women's Day, it's high time to ensure that women around the world are getting equal access to educational opportunities.
The first step? Supporting organizations that fight for girls' and women's education.
The organizations below, which all received three- or four-star ratings on Charity Navigator, an evaluator of charities, help provide girls and women with access to crucial educational services.
You can support these organizations by staying informed on their events and programs, as well as donating where possible.
AnitaB.org
Named after trailblazing scientist Anita Borg, who inspired other women to embrace tech as a career path, AnitaB.org continues to expand the number of women in STEM. Through events and programs designed to foster the recruitment, training, and development of women tech leaders, including the Grace Hopper Celebration, billed as the world's largest gathering of women technologists, AnitaB.org is helping to build the next generation of women in STEM.
While it focuses on a wide variety of issues around getting more women in STEM, it also offers events catered to young people, various scholarships, and awards for students.
You can directly volunteer to help out at some of the many different events it hosts. You can also donate to fund their programs and services here (though this will not necessarily go directly to education efforts.)
Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED)
CAMFED describes itself as a "pan-African movement," with the goal of multiplying the amount of girls in school and providing them with new opportunities for leadership (with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa). According to Charity Navigator, since 1993, CAMFED's programs have directly supported over 3.3 million students in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi to attend school.
To get involved, you can fundraise for CAMFED, participate in nearby events, when available, develop corporate sponsorships, or donate.
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
The American Association of University Women aims to break educational and economic barriers for women and girls through advocacy, education, charity work, and research.
Its advocacy work focuses on civil rights, gender fairness in education, economic security for women, and the enforcement of Title IX and other civil rights education laws.
To support these efforts, you can take action directly by joining AAUW's "Two Minute Activist" sign-up to receive email notices that let you know when advocacy is needed the most, helping you contact your member of Congress or state legislators and writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. (On the sign-up, you can select your policy interests, which include options for civil rights, STEM, economic security, education, Title IX, and pay equity.)
If you want to support AAUW in other ways, you can also become a member or donate directly. On the donation page, you can specifically choose to support education and training for women.
Friendship Bridge
Friendship Bridge provides educational, microfinance and preventative health services to women in Guatemala in order to empower them to choose "their own path." The goal is to empower women, especially those in rural areas, so that they create self-realized solutions for poverty for their communities.
To support Friendship Bridge, you can directly donate, give in other ways, join or start a friendship circle, or keep up with its happenings.
Related Video: 4 ways to extend your activism beyond the Women's March
Topics Social Good Innovations