Despite their numbers in labor union ranks – women are projected to be the majority of union members by 2023 – just 20 percent of the AFL-CIO Executive Council are women.
The Berger-Marks Foundation is dissolving this year and the foundation is transferring its $1.5 million in assets to WILL Empower. It’s a joint project of Rutgers University and Georgetown University.
The leadership team includes women with decades of experience in the labor movement.
Dr. Sheri Davis-Faulkner of Rutgers’s Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) is one of the leaders of WILL Empower.
Speaking on the Washington DC AFL-CIO council’s Arise radio show, Davis – Faulkner describes what WILL Empower aims to do.
[Dr. Sheri Davis-Faulkner]: “I think the thing that’s really important about WILL Empower is that we’re looking at multiple different strategies for being able to bring dynamic women more into the labor movement and to create pathways for them to be able to see various types of leadership.”
Davis-Faulkner says WILL Empower will assist and support the new generation of women labor movement leaders.
[Dr. Sheri Davis-Faulkner]: “We know there are so many young women who have been activated over the last couple of years through different movements.
We want to make sure that they’re paying close attention to the labor movement and that they’re seeing this an as opportunity for them to do concrete things to change the lives of themselves, their families, their communities.”
By Doug Cunningham
http://workersindependentnews.com/2017/07/08/will-empower-bringing-more-...