Feminist Funding Groups Ignore Women in Prison
Insufficient funding from mainstream feminist organizations threatens the futures of many organizations working with incarcerated women.
Landwebs
A recent survey from Women Beyond Walls (WBW) has found that more than 70 percent of organizations working with incarcerated women said they did not receive funding from women’s rights or feminist foundations, reports Reuters. More than 60 percent of organizations working with incarcerated women said they were in a precarious financial situation, and more than a quarter said they may be unable to operate next year due to a lack of funds.
The global feminist movement is failing to support organizations working with women in prison, as donors shy away from funding projects aimed at people with “complicated” narratives, says lawyer and activist Sabrina Mahtani. “I think it’s overlooked because we like to support women if they fit into the stereotype of what is ‘marketable’,” said Mahtani, suggesting that groups were often working with women who did not fit into a neat profile of victimhood. At the Generation Equality Forum in June 2021, more than $40bn (£30bn) was pledged to support efforts to tackle gender inequality, but the WBW survey noted, “any attention to incarcerated women was notably absent.” It has called for some of that funding to be used to support work with and for women and girls affected by the criminal justice system.
