Joining Women of Concern connects you with women here and around the world. Through a series of events and related content, you will hear from women on the frontlines at the forefront of creating change. Together we can build bridges, remove barriers, bring about positive change and make a lasting impact.

Women of Concern, Women of Change

At the collective heart of Women of Concern are Women of Change. It’s why we exist. Widespread gender inequality throughout the communities we serve means that women and girls are disproportionately affected by poverty and oppression. Despite some progress, Sustainable Development Goal 5, ‘Achieve full gender equality and empowering all women and girls’ remains unreached. Girls are three times more likely than boys to miss out on an education. Globally, 75% of unpaid work is performed by women, including 200 million hours spent every day collecting water. More than one in three women worldwide have experienced some form of gender-based violence and last year, a UN report found that almost 90% of both genders hold some sort of bias against females.

This is why we place women’s empowerment at the heart of our humanitarian and development programs. Our ultimate aim is to work with communities to develop approaches that transform the root causes of gender inequality at different layers of society.

Women of Concern is a global community connecting you with change-making women. We enable positive and practical change for women and girls living in extreme poverty across fragile communities, the world over. We believe we can all be Women of Change, and by changing one woman’s life we change many more. We invite you to join.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Women of Concern?

   • Women of Concern is a global community connecting people in the US with change-making women from across the world. Women of Concern aims to build a community of people who have an interest in gender equality within a global context.

     Women of Concern acknowledges that our supporters, like the women we inspire and support, are people who are changing lives. Those who get involved with Women of Concern will, through engaging digital content and events, become part of a community bringing about practical, positive change for women living in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

2. How is Women of Concern different than Concern?

   • Women of Concern is a community within Concern that connects individuals with a specific interest in working towards gender equality for the most vulnerable communities around the world. Persistent inequality in all societies means that women and girls are disproportionately affected by poverty and oppression. As such, we place women’s empowerment at the heart of our humanitarian and development programs. Women of Concern will focus more on these aspects of our programs.

3. What is the benefit of becoming a Woman of Concern?

   • When someone joins the Women of Concern community, they will have the opportunity to hear from women at the forefront of creating change in some of the world’s poorest places. They will gain access to incredible stories and bear witness to real, lasting change through email and a variety of digitally-shared content, including invitations to remote and face-to-face events. More importantly, they will have the opportunity to be part of this change-making by taking action in a variety of ways.

4. Who can join Women of Concern?

   • Anyone and everyone is welcome to join Women of Concern.

5. Can men join Women of Concern?

   • Yes. Women of Concern encourages everyone to become part of the community and actively participate in conversations. Our focus is on connecting individuals to bring about change for the better, empowering women and promoting gender equality.

6. Why are you focusing on women in the program?

   • Throughout all our programs, we focus on both women and men, but this initiative focusses on our work specifically with women. Women are still more likely than men to live in poverty therefore it is right that we focus on this issue.

7. How does signing up to Women of Concern help women across the globe?

   • Our mission is to permanently transform the lives of people living in extreme poverty. Gender equality is globally the most common form of inequality and remains a major obstacle to the eradication of poverty. We are working towards a fairer, more equal world – and by joining Women of Concern, you will be too. By learning about the practical interventions Concern implements, participating in events and sharing networks and ideas, you will be raising awareness among peers to support women across the world.

8. What work are you doing to eradicate gender inequality in the places you work?

   • All of our programs are ‘gender sensitive’ – meaning it identifies and takes into account the different needs, abilities, and opportunities of girls, boys, women and men. Our ultimate aim, however, is to move from ‘gender-sensitive’ to ‘gender-transformative’ in all our programs. This means working with communities to develop programs that transform the root causes of gender inequality at many layers of society – from the individual to the institutional and national, and across all contexts of our work, from our development programs to our work in conflict-affected areas and emergency response.

     We also work to engage men. Our research, and work on the ground, has proven that equality will never be achieved if men are not engaged, consulted and trained as allies and ambassadors. Concern’s ‘Engaging men’ projects – implemented across nine countries from Sierra Leone to Lebanon – are a crucial aspect of our work on gender equality. Generally carried out by community-based NGOs with the support of Concern, these projects provide counselling and health promotion activities. They also create a safe space for couples, or single sex groups, to discuss issues related to equality, asking questions like: what does it mean to be a man or woman? Or, how do our expectations cause harm to those around us and ourselves?

Please see our gender equality page for more information.

Sign up to receive thought-provoking emails and invitations to events where you will hear from women on the ground at the forefront of creating change.