Executive Director-Women’s Link Worldwide 108 views

For twenty years, Women’s Link Worldwide (Women’s Link) has solidified its comparative advantage of using the law in creative ways to seek justice for women and girls; bringing them closer to lives that are free from violence and discrimination and where they are fully autonomous over their bodies and choices. While this is sometimes done by litigating cases, Women’s Link takes a broader approach by bringing together legal action, advocacy and communications to combat the gap between legal frameworks and the reality of structural discrimination and inequality. The organization’s work has focused on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and freedom from gender violence especially where they intersect and are perpetuated by human trafficking, migration and conflict.

These and other forms of intersecting discrimination and violence facing women and girls are exacerbated by increased political persecution and climate change risks. Efforts by anti-rights organizations to roll back women’s rights are the status quo, as are the systems of oppression like racism, xenophobia and homophobia. Rights-based institutions, and particularly those for women’s rights, are at risk through anti-rights rhetoric and efforts to erode democracy. While women’s rights movements and marches globally have been continuing to fight against these systemic forces, they remain at constant and expanding risk.

In response to the threats to the safety and freedom of women and girls and to address a vital and unmet need to use or change the law, Women’s Link was founded in 2001 by Viviana Waisman. 20 years after founding the organization, Viviana will be leaving her role and is excited to have new leadership guide the organization into the future. In preparation for this transition and to enable a feminist leadership structure, the organization has invested in developing a distributed leadership model, including a team of highly effective Managing Attorneys for the incoming Executive Director (ED) to lead, advise and support. Women’s Link is ready for new leadership to take it into its future at a moment where the mission remains so vital.

Women’s Link has become known as a leading feminist organization that opens new frontiers and develops legal theories and strategies, particularly that bring attention to women’s rights violations that are undocumented or neglected. The organization has worked tirelessly to ensure that, ultimately, any advances made on paper translate into a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Through their creative, empathetic staff with deep technical acumen in advocacy, communications and the law, the organization prioritizes flexibility, responding to emerging needs and opportunities in a complicated landscape. With staff in Central, South and North America, Europe, and East Africa, Women’s Link works in context, partnering, listening and amplifying the women and girls for and with whom they work.