Dear Colleagues:
This Women’s History Month arrives at a moment of reflection and celebration, but also deep global uncertainty. Over the past week, we have witnessed a profound escalation in the Middle East following U.S. military action against Iran.
While we honor the strides feminists have made across generations, moments like these remind us how fragile progress can be when peace and stability are threatened.
Conflict anywhere weakens women’s livelihoods everywhere.
Alongside several members of Women’s Funding Network, I recently attended the Women in the Economy (WE) National Assembly, led by Heather McCulloch – senior fellow at the Aspen Institute and founder of WE.
Heather shared findings from WE Local Dialogues research, which revealed something powerful: women across the country are not only raising alarms about economic precarity – they are also proposing coordinated, strategic solutions.
This work affirms what we at Women’s Funding Network have long known: equitable economic policy is not a side issue; it is essential infrastructure for peace, stability, and prosperity.
Policymakers in every nation must recognize that security cannot be achieved through force alone. A singular focus on military dominance, without investment in human capital, inclusive economic development, and equitable opportunity for all genders, risks producing the very instability it seeks to prevent.
Conflict inflates insecurity, disrupts markets, and displaces families — impacts that fall disproportionately on women and those already marginalized.
What Comes Next
Women’s History Month invites us not only to honor the past, but to shape the future.
I am honored to work alongside visionary leaders like Heather McCulloch and the WE Assembly participants who are demanding alignment across technology, leadership, narrative, economic models, strategy, and solutions to reinforce human well-being and collective sustainability.
These demands are not fringe ideas. They are grounded in evidence, echoed by global institutions, and reinforced by lived experience.
If we hope to build resilient families, thriving communities, and durable peace, we must take these demands seriously — not as optional aspirations, but as foundational priorities for a more just and sustainable world.
This means ensuring that women’s voices are at the table when economic strategies are designed; that gender gaps in wages, access to capital, and leadership roles are addressed with urgency; and that long-term investments in women’s economic participation are prioritized even amid global crises.
Women’s economic future should never become collateral damage in geopolitical struggle. We must be part of the solution.
Elizabeth Barajas-Román
Women’s Funding Network
President & CEO