Women of Concern is a community within Concern that connects individuals with a specific interest in working towards gender equality for the most vulnerable communities around the world. Persistent inequality in all societies means that women and girls are disproportionately affected by poverty and oppression. As such, we place women’s empowerment at the heart of our humanitarian and development programmes. Women of Concern will focus more on these aspects of our programmes.

When someone joins the Women of Concern community, they will have the opportunity to hear from women on the frontlines at the forefront of creating change in some of the world’s poorest places. They will gain access to incredible stories and bear witness to real, lasting change through email and a variety of digitally-shared content, including invitations to remote and face-to-face events. More importantly, they will have the opportunity to be part of this change-making by taking action in a variety of ways.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join Women of Concern.

Yes. Women of Concern encourages everyone to become part of the community and actively participate in conversations. Our focus is on connecting individuals to bring about change for the better, empowering women and promoting gender equality.

Throughout all our programmes, we focus on both women and men, but this initiative focusses on our work specifically with women. Women are still more likely than men to live in poverty therefore it is right that we focus on this issue.

Our mission is to permanently transform the lives of people living in extreme poverty. Gender equality is globally the most common form of inequality and remains a major obstacle to the eradication of poverty. We are working towards a fairer, more equal world – and by joining Women of Concern, you will be too. By learning about the practical interventions Concern implements, participating in events and sharing networks and ideas, you will be raising awareness among peers to support women across the world.

All of our programmes are 'gender sensitive' – meaning it identifies and takes into account the different needs, abilities, and opportunities of girls, boys, women and men. Our ultimate aim, however, is to move from 'gender-sensitive' to 'gender-transformative' in all our programmes. This means working with communities to develop programmes that transform the root causes of gender inequality at many layers of society – from the individual to the institutional and national, and across all contexts of our work, from our development programmes to our work in conflict-affected areas and emergency response.

We also work to engage men. Our research, and work on the ground, has proven that equality will never be achieved if men are not engaged, consulted and trained as allies and ambassadors. Concern’s 'Engaging men' projects – implemented across nine countries from Sierra Leone to Lebanon – are a crucial aspect of our work on gender equality. Generally carried out by community-based NGOs with the support of Concern, these projects provide counselling and health promotion activities. They also create a safe space for couples, or single sex groups, to discuss issues related to equality, asking questions like: what does it mean to be a man or woman? Or, how do our expectations cause harm to those around us and ourselves?

Please see our gender equality page for more information.