Women Engaged

The group was created by activists Malika Redmond and Margaret Kargbo in the fall of 2014 with its “WE Vote. WE Rise!” program. It has partnered with many left-of-center organizations to promote left-of-center abortion and LGBT policies. Funders of the group include the Groundswell Fund, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, and NEO Philanthropy. ^{2 1 3}

Background

Women Engaged was founded in the fall of 2014 by Malika Redmond, a researcher and liberal activist on women’s issues, and Margaret Kargbo, an “art activist” and public relations consultant. The group’s first project was “WE Vote. WE Rise!,” a voter outreach campaign which trained “women and young people of color on voter engagement by providing them with opportunities to learn how to run effective 501
C3 [sic] ‘Get Out to Vote’ campaigns and participate in the political process.” Kargbo died in a car crash in 2015, and Malika Redmond has directed the group as CEO since. ¹

Another early activity of the group was a 2015 event partnering with NEO Philanthropy’s U.S. Department of Arts and Culture and the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s Atlanta Chapter, reportedly inspired by then-President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address. ¹

While the group was founded in 2014, it was not granted tax-exempt status until 2021. Tax documents from funders of the organization indicate that Women Engaged was previously a project of Alternative Roots, Inc, a left-wing advocacy organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, that “calls for social justice and the dismantling of racial oppression” and operates programs throughout the south. ⁴

Activity and Stances

Women Engaged has supported a variety of pro-abortion efforts and decried the overturning of Roe v. Wade, stating that “The fall of Roe has amplified the challenges faced by marginalized individuals who have been living in a post-Roe reality for years. It has emboldened anti-abortion activists to restrict access to abortion further, disproportionately affecting Black women and femmes, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups.” ³

The group opposed legislation in the Georgia state legislature that limited the ability of minors to receive sex-reassignment operations, stating that “bans most forms of gender-affirming healthcare for young people under 18, demonstrates a callous disregard for the lives, dignity, and well-being of some of our most vulnerable community members.” ⁵

The group’s Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equity Program creates trainings on pro-abortion advocacy and includes research, workshops, op-eds, and “public health policy recommendations that are guided by feminism and the human rights framework.” ⁶

Partnerships

Partners of the group include 9to5 Working Women Georgia; New Voices for Reproductive Justice; We Dream in Black-National Domestic Workers Alliance; Spelman College Women’s Research and Resource Center; SafeSpace, a Morehouse College queer organization; and Ujmaa, a Clark Atlanta University political science organization. ⁷