The Women and Girls Foundation (WGF) is an independent, community-based non-profit organization serving 11 counties in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania. It was founded in 2002. The stated goal of the foundation is to achieve equality for women and girls in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It works toward this goal through a combined use of advocacy, coalition building, and grantmaking that specifically engages women in their own political representation and empowerment.[1] In WGF's understanding of women's empowerment, economic upliftment is just as imperative as political empowerment. Through ensuring women have access to better working conditions and wages, it hopes to enable women to care for themselves as well as their families. Additionally, WGF does not only campaign for women-conscious policies, it facilitates the training of women and girls into leaders through initiatives and programming, such as GirlGov and Crossroads.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WGF was established as an independent 501(c)(3) in 2002 by women for women. In the late 1990s, a group of women invited women leaders to discuss and encourage them in philanthropy directed at issues that affected them. From there the idea of WGF was planted and grew. By 2002, this group of women and others came together to create the Women and Girls Foundation, an organization aimed at impacting change through public policy.[2] The founders were Catherine Raphael, Hilda Fu, Patricia Ulbrich, Cecile Springer, Judith A. Ruszkowski, and Susan Chersky. In 2004, it elected its first Chief Executive Officer, Heather Arnet.
WGF offers a series of programs for women and girls at different points in their lives. The Crossroads Conference and the GirlGov program are its most robust programs. WGF has made headlines for bringing girls to shadow their state legislators with their GirlGov program.[3] GirlGov was created by a group of youth in WGF's Regional Change Agents. This program allows girls to travel to the state capitol and shadow and/or lobby with their state representatives. The girls have the opportunity to learn how to advocate for themselves first hand.[4] A GirlGov participant, Sarah Pesi, created a bill to modify and fortify anti-stalker laws through the support of WGF and GirlGov.[5] The bill would allow restraining orders to protect minors from harassment from those who did not fall under relative or partner relationships. The Crossroads Conference meets women where they are, offering support for women facing various crossroads in their lives. Women at the conference discuss difficulties such as losing a job to having another child. It is described: "Speakers will tell their personal stories and how they have navigated their life’s crossroads in high-energy, fast-paced sessions followed by more intimate salon conversations with topic experts and other attendees who may be facing the same 'crossroads.'"[6]
Past and ongoing WGF campaigns include:
The Women and Girls Foundation and Heather Arnet collaborated with ELAS, the Women's Social Investment Fund of Brazil in this project.[17] The film explores the societal and historical factors that have led to the election of the first female president in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, through a series interviews and dialogue with people of different socioeconomic backgrounds from Brazil. It asks why the United States has yet to elect a woman as its president.[18] The near one-hour documentary premiered at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2014.[19]
