The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation has set out to achieve this vision for the women we serve in our region. With nearly two decades of leadership in the community, the Women’s Fund seeks to ensure the economic self-sufficiency of women through systemic change that positively affects women and their families. We accomplish this through our community partnerships, groundbreaking research, strategic advocacy and deliberate investment in projects that impacts a woman’s self-sufficiency. Most recently, we saw this in action through our work with the City of Cincinnati to pass a salary history ordinance.

On March 13th, Cincinnati became the first city in the Midwest to pass a Salary History Ban Ordinance. Once this ordinance goes into effect, Cincinnati employers may ask job candidates about their salary expectations but not their salary or wage history. As a result, this law will prevent historic gender and racial disparities from following an employee from one job to the next. By collaborating with Councilmember Dennard’s office, the Women’s Fund advocated for this law and provided critical research that helped the legislation pass.

Another example of our work is our Appointed program, which is a non-partisan initiative that offers tools to help women overcome barriers to serving on civic boards and commissions. We know that diverse boards improve government practices and make better decisions for the community, but women are less likely to raise their hand, feel qualified or even be asked. So, Appointed provides support and training opportunities to interested women and works with government officials to appoint them. The result? Civic boards and commissions are more effective, inclusive, and reflect the populations they serve.

The Women’s Fund also partners with the business community to improve the lives of lower wage employees as well as promote ideas that are good for business. Through our research, we created the Employer Toolkit, a first-of-its-kind resource that provides policies and practices that will help attract, retain and engage employees.

There is still more to be done for women in Greater Cincinnati. So, the Women’s Fund will continue to speed the pace of change, illuminate the most pressing community issues through research, catalyze the community to act and drive systemic change.

WE ARE YOUR WOMEN’S FUND!