Please join us for the opening of our first office outside of Portland. A reception and networking opportunity for Midcoast and Maine Women's Fund community members.

43 Mechanic Street, Suite 300, Camden

Last fall, the 30 participants of our Girl's Grantmaking Initiative were paired up with a dozen members of the Maine Women's Fund community and staff who acted as facilitators. The girls reviewed seventeen grant proposals, practiced advocacy and consensus building, and created their own definitions of philanthropy. Ultimately, the girls granted $5,000 to the following projects: Youth Alternatives Ingraham, Hardy Girls Healthy Women, A Company of Girls, Safe Voices and South Sudan Nuer Community Development Organization. Check out this terrific video of the event.

Girls' Grantmaking Initiative

Gates and Bloomberg Commit $610 Million for Family Planning

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and 15 other foundations, governments, and United Nations agencies announced today they would increase their support of family-planning programs by $2.6 billion in an effort to help an additional 120 million women in the world's poorest countries gain access to contraception over the next eight years. More >>>    

 

Skoll Foundation Awards $2.5 Million to mothers2mothers 

The Skoll Foundation has announced a $2.5 million grant to mothers2mothers in Cape Town, South Africa, in support of the organization's efforts to reduce the number of babies in developing nations born with HIV/AIDS. More >>> 

 

What's Sex Got to Do with It?

An inconvenient truth is hiding behind the current excitement about educating girls. From the boardrooms of Exxon Mobil, to the World Bank, to the offices of the Nike Foundation and the overflowing halls at Davos and the Clinton Global Initiative, you can hear people talking about the importance of investing in girls. More >>>

 

Health Insurance Prices For Women Set To Drop 

Women spend $1 billion more annually on their health insurance premiums than they would if they were men because of gender rating, according to a recent report by the National Women's Law Center. More >>>

 

Hats Off to the New Hampshire Bar Association   

The NHBA Gender Equality Committee is offering a four-part series of workshops for law firms, judges, and government lawyers on employment practices and career development strategies. The Gender Equality Training Initiative series aims to provide law firm managers with insights and practical advice on how to expand opportunities for women in the profession.  More >>>

 

Legally Mom: Real Women's Stories of Balancing Motherhood and Law Practice
Every year, more and more women lawyers face a heartrending challenge: how do you balance having a child with a thriving legal career? While there have certainly been giant strides in the number of firms and companies that offer flexible hours, part-time opportunities, and other options for their working lawyer-moms, it's still difficult for women with small children to make the same amount of money and be on the same advancement track as their male colleagues. More >>>

The Case for Paid Parental Leave No Longer a "Women's Issue"  

Restructuring the conversation on paid leave so that it's not specific to women can be difficult because this is something that has historically been perceived as mainly affecting women. The National Partnership for Women & Families recently reported that only about half of all first-time moms in the United States are able to take any paid leave after childbirth and just a fifth of working women with young children receive leave with full pay. More >>>      

  

Thank you for reading,
Sarah, Lauren and Sonya

The Maine Women's Fund thanks MaineShare for its ongoing support. MaineShare makes it easy to donate to more than 30 statewide organizations working every day to make Maine a better place to live. For more information, please visit the website.