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Women's Funding Alliance

Justice, health and opportunity for women and girls.

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Why Women & Girls?

Investing in Women and Girls

Since 1983, Women's Funding Alliance (WFA) has been promoting community health and vitality by investing in opportunities for women and girls. We know the well-being of women and girls often indicates a healthy society. When women and girls thrive, our entire community benefits.

In 2007, we published, A Closer Look, a landmark collaborative study providing an in-depth look at the real quality of life of women and girls in the Puget Sound region. Here are just a few of the challenges women and girls in our region face:

  • Washington ranks 42nd out of 50 in the gender-wage gap and single-female heads of households in the Puget Sound Region are seven times more likely to live in poverty in our area than married couples, and 3.5 times more likely to live in poverty than single men.
  • Women of color and refugee and immigrant women suffer significant disparities across the board. These women have lower wages, more health problems, and aren't fully represented in leadership positions in their communities.
  • Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of injury to women in Washington State. Forty-four percent of Washington women (18 and over) report experiencing some form of physical or non-physical intimate-partner violence in their lifetime.
  • Over 300,000 working-age (18 to 64) women lack health insurance in Washington state. Nearly half (142,000) of these women live in King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Whatcom Counties.

This report is a call to action. Significant challenges remain to ensure equal opportunities for all women and girls to contribute and succeed. Throughout A Closer Look, we highlight areas where policies and programs are needed so that all women and girls in the Puget Sound region can aspire to lives that are healthy, economically secure, free of violence, and full of opportunity.

By investing in programs and policies that help women and girls thrive, we are investing in the well-being of our families, communities and society as a whole.

Learn more about our landmark study.