Systemic Change and the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality

Dear ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality Supporters and Friends:

We wanted to share the letter we sent to our entire membership yesterday--more than 100 organizations strong. Our commitment to systemic change is firm. We will keep you updated on our progress.

In Solidarity,

Carol Jenkins
Co-President and CEO
ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women's Equality

Dear Coalition and Task Force Members:

The moment we find ourselves in is both a challenge and an opportunity. The change we must make in ourselves and in our organizations must address the roots of injustice and inequality, which we work so hard to reverse. As we all collectively work to bring equality to the girls, women and gender nonconforming individuals of this country, we urge you to join us to deeply examine your organizations at all levels of leadership.

Like much of America, the women’s movement is being called on to look within and evaluate its relationship to race, privilege and power. Our streets are alive with fury over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the recorded documentation of the weaponizing of whiteness to oppress ordinary Black citizens and a pandemic that has revealed huge racial inequities.

The ERA Coalition and Fund for Women’s Equality (FFWE) are engaged in the deep work of reexamining every aspect of our two organizations, to ensure that our norms and behaviors reflect the equity we hold close, for justice in the world. We will:

• Ensure that our mission of equal rights for all regardless of sex translates into the next Amendment to our Constitution.
• Review our work practices and policies and hold them to the highest standards.
• Strengthen the diversity of our Boards and Teams, and in particular recognize the role of women of color who lead both organizations at the highest levels.
• Invite partner organizations to engage in tough conversations related to upholding our shared principles, beliefs and values.
• Actively strengthen our movement as we seek out those voices that have not been amplified.
• With you, our members, we are working relentlessly to put the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution of the United States. It will be instrumental in creating the foundation for dissolving the gender-based, often racial, inequities that haunt our lives.

We know from our research that over 95% of Black Americans and especially women of color support equal rights for all. Recent state ratifications have been led largely by Black women legislators including Pat Spearman in Nevada, Juliana Stratton in Illinois, Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan in Virginia. In the House of Representatives, several women of color have supported removal of the 1982 time limit for the ERA. We must thank them and recognize their dedication.

These brave and difficult conversations can only make our work better. We are here to support all of our members in any way we can. We have listed a few resources below that may be useful to you and your organizations. Together we can transform our lived reality into a more just world.

We look forward to talking with you. Please reach out to our CEO, Carol Jenkins at cjenkins@eracoalition.org. And meet our new Leadership Team, introduced at the end of this letter.

In Solidarity,

Carol Jenkins
CEO & Co-President,
ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality
She/Her/Hers

Jessica Neuwirth
Co-Founder and Co-President,
ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality
She/Her/Hers

Kimberly Peeler-Allen
Board Chair, ERA Coalition
She/Her/Hers

S.Mona Sinha
Board Chair, Fund for Women’s Equality
She/Her/Hers

Leslie Bhutani
Board Treasurer,
ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality
She/Her/Hers

Antuan Johnson
Board Secretary,
ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality
They/Them/Theirs

For some ideas of doing the work, please consider the following links (there are many others):

• The Perception Institute (https://perception.org/)
• Compass Point (https://www.compasspoint.org/)
• Racial Equity Tools (https://www.racialequitytools.org/home)

We are pleased to announce the 2020-2021 Leadership Team
of our sister organizations:

Kimberly Peeler-Allen
Board Chair, ERA Coalition

Kimberly Peeler-Allen is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization building the political power and leadership of Black women from the voting booth to elected office.In 2018, Kimberly served as the Co-Executive Director of New York Attorney General Letitia James' Transition Committee. 

A highly skilled political fundraiser and event planner, Kimberly was the principal of Peeler-Allen Consulting, LLC from 2003 to 2014, the only African American full-time fundraising consulting firm in New York State. Kimberly serves also serves as Co-Chair of Higher Heights for America PAC, and is a Board Director of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation. She is currently a Visiting Practitioner at The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

S.Mona Sinha
Board Chair, Fund for Women’s Equality

S.Mona Sinha is a globally recognized advocate for gender equality in business and society. Shehas parlayed a career in finance (Morgan Stanley), marketing (Unilever) and restructuring(Elizabeth Arden/Unilever) to work at the intersection of social justice and women’s leadership. 

She founded Raising Change to address the funding gap in mission-driven organizations for social change. She also founded the Asian Women's Leadership University, to bring liberal arts pedagogy to train future women leaders. She is the current Board Chair of Women Moving Millions, a community of women who fund big and bold ($1 million+) to create a gender equal world. She is an Executive Producer of Disclosure, a documentary film on the representation of trans people. Mona serves on several Boards and is an active investor in women entrepreneurs. In 2015 she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. She has also been recognized for her leadership in the field of gender equality and social enterprise by Gloria Steinem & Apne Aap, Breakthrough, Smith College, Women's eNews and Columbia Business School.

Leslie Sweem Bhutani
Board Treasurer, ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality 

Leslie Sweem Bhutani started her financial career in banking at Republic Bank Dallas and then at Salomon Brothers in NYC. She is an activist on a number of different issues and involved with several non-profits, including Planned Parenthood, The Brennan Center for Justice, Earth Justice, and Connecticut Against Gun Violence. She has produced several documentary films and is on the board of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Antuan Johnson
Board Secretary, ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality

Antuan M. Johnson is a legal scholar and lawyer. Antuan is also a Ph.D. student in the Philosophy Department at Yale University. They received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2016. Following graduation, they worked as a litigation associate at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York.

They co-founded The Colors Project, a student-run publication for queer people of color in the Philadelphia community, at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founded the Queer & Trans affinity group for students of color at Harvard Law School. They also co-founded the Royall Must Fall and Reclaim Harvard student movements at Harvard Law School.

Carol Jenkins
Co-President and CEO of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality

A women’s rights activist, author and Emmy Award-winning former television journalist, Carol hosts the New York Emmy-nominated interview show, “Black America,” on CUNY TV, and is also executive producer, writer and correspondent of its documentaries. Founding president of The Women’s Media Center and a pioneering African American television reporter, Carol was an anchor and correspondent for WNBC-TV in New York for nearly 25 years. 

She is a sought-after speaker and writer on issues relating to women and their participation in the political and economic structures in the US; and the health of women in developing countries, particularly on the African continent. She is the co-author of the award-winning “Black Titan: AG Gaston and the making of a Black American Millionaire”, a biography of her uncle. Carol serves on the boards of Amref Health Africa, The Feminist Press, Veteran Feminists of America, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and Certified Humane.

Jessica Neuwirth
Co-Founder and Co-President of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality

Jessica Neuwirth is Co-Founder and Co-President of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality, and author of Equal Means Equal, Why the Time for the ERA is Now. She is also the Director of Donor Direct Action and a founder of Equality Now.

Jessica has worked for Amnesty International and for the United Nations. As Special Advisor on Sexual Violence to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2010, she organized the UN high-level panel on reparations for victims of sexual violence in the DR Congo. She currently serves as the Rita E. Hauser Director of the Human Rights Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute of Hunter College. 

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