Through our programs and advocacy, we’re working to ensure women have a seat at the table

Pathfinder is working to increase women’s leadership and participation at all levels of society, from increasing representation within the workforce to community-driven solutions to climate change.

• COVID-19 and the backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are diminishing the outlook for gender equality.
• Cultural, structural, and educational barriers continue to challenge women’s participation and inclusion, limiting their ability to ascend to leadership positions.
• Established gender norms perpetuate unequal power relations between men and women that can limit women’s leadership.
• Exclusionary structures, practices, and policies—such as child marriage, unequal inheritance laws, and restricted access to family planning services—preclude girls and women from accessing education, trainings, and resources that provide essential, marketable skills to become leaders

What We Do

Having women in leadership is critical for a more equal world. Pathfinder places women at the forefront, ensuring their voices, and ideas, are represented and put into action.

• Women-led climate resilience: Pathfinder elevates women and girls as changemakers in their communities, engaging them to lead resilient, local, and rights-based solutions to climate adaptation. We are working with women and girls to share their insights—accelerating adaptation, furthering climate justice, and advancing reproductive rights. 
• Building a more equitable health workforce: We support women’s leadership through the health system by training female health workers and helping them build their careers. We work with adolescents and young women, laying the health, education, economic, and social foundations that they need to thrive. Through peer education programs, we work to empower young women to become leaders in their communities. 
• Increasing work opportunities and financial inclusion: We partner with community members and the private sector, as well as engage with public social service initiatives to encourage women’s participation in the workforce; generate demand for financial services; promote tailored, market-based solutions to women’s economic empowerment; and strengthen gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response such that women become more economically and socially resilient. 
• Advocacy: We advocate to transform laws and policies that perpetuate gender inequalities; promote policies that support the agency and rights of women, girls, and marginalized groups; and ensure health and key equity measures are disaggregated by sex and age.