Women Enabled International is a left-of-center advocacy organization that promotes left-of-center ideology and policy regarding gender issues. The group states that it works at an intersection of disability and gender advocacy and coordinates with a variety of women’s rights organizations and disability advocacy groups.

The group operates a U.S.-based advocacy program called the U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance and provides funding to women’s and disability-interest groups on most continents. The group is also involved with advocacy efforts at the United Nations and receives funding from a variety of UN institutions. The group’s funders include George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Foundation for a Just Society, and the Disability Inclusion Fund. ^{1 2 3}

Background

Women Enabled International was founded in 2012 by Stephanie Ortoleva, a human rights attorney who worked in the State Department from 2004 to 2009 as a Human Rights Officer and as the Disability Coordinator, where she represented the US government at the negotiations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). ^{4 5}

The group was founded to bridge a perceived gap in coordination between disability rights groups and gender rights groups, particularly in advocacy within various United Nations programs and conventions. The group began with Ortoleva working as a one-person organization engaging in UN advocacy and has since hired attorneys, organizers, and policy specialists. By 2021 the organization had a full-time staff of approximately 18 and annual revenues of approximately $2 million. ^{6 7}

Activities

Women Enabled International conducts a variety of programs promoting left-of-center policies regarding gender and disabilities globally. The group supports access to abortion and has stated that “Women, girls, and gender non-conforming persons with disabilities are just as likely to be sexually active as non-disabled peers and have the same sexual and reproductive health needs.” ⁸

Much of the organization’s work includes participating in a variety of United Nations committees, programs, and conventions regarding disabilities and gender, often to specifically promote issues among disabled women to ensure standards developed by United Nations programs and conventions include language concerning “lived experiences of women, girls, and other gender minorities with disabilities” as well as human rights abuses against such communities. ^{9 10}

One example the organization gives of its UN advocacy includes working with a Polish activist group to urge the U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to act against Poland which resulted in the committee directing Poland to “remove restrictions on access to abortion and on the right to found a family.” ¹¹

U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance

Women Enabled International’s U.S. advocacy arm is called the U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance. The group meets regularly, and its aim is to work to address “ableism along with other relevant intersections of discrimination and prejudice such as racism, sexism, and heteronormativity etc.” WEI calls the group a “safe, supportive, feminist, and disability justice-oriented space.” ¹²

The U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance’s agenda calls for “Sexual and reproductive health rights and justice including, parental rights, justice, the right to abortion care, and the right to gender-affirming care.” ¹³

Grantmaking

Other advocacy groups funded by Women Enabled International around the world include My Life, My Choice (United Kingdom), the Pacific Disability Forum (Fiji), Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Centre (India), DIWA – Disabled Women in Africa (Malawi), Artykul 6 (Poland), and Círculo Emancipador de Mujeres y Ninas Con Discapacidad de Chile (Chile). ¹⁴

Funding

Funders of Women Enabled International include the Channel Foundation, Disability Inclusion Fund, Disability Rights Fund, Foundation for a Just Society, Chime, Open Society Foundations, Thomson Reuters Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). ¹⁵

1. “Who We Are.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/who-we-are/#ourFundersSection
2. “How We Began.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/how-we-began/
3. “How We Work.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/how-we-work/#keyIssuesSection
4. “How We Began.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/how-we-began/
5. “Stephanie Ortoleva.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/teams/stephanie-ortoleva/
6. “Team.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/team/
7. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (IRS Form 990). Women Enabled International. 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/611685958/202203059349301440/full
8. “How We Work.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/how-we-work/#keyIssuesSection
9. “How We Work.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/how-we-work/#keyIssuesSection
10. “Our UN Work.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/publications/?_wei_report_type=un
11. “Generation Equality.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/impact/#generationEquality
12. “U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/alliance/
13. “U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/alliance/
14. “Generation Equality.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/impact/#generationEquality
15. “Who We Are.” Women Enabled International. Accessed November 12, 2023. https://womenenabled.org/who-we-are/#ourFundersSection