💌 Women and Children in Wartime Ukraine
FemWealth Issue #51
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
More than 2.5 million people, a majority of them women and children, have left Ukraine since Russia’s illegal, full-scale invasion has started on February 24. They found refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe. Numerous others are internally displaced.
“With each kilometre I move farther from Kyiv, I am increasingly covered by a black cloud and a feeling of homelessness and helplessness. It is really painful. It is the hardest time of my life. Only now I have started to understand refugees.” - Iryna Tsilyk, an award-winning filmmaker from Kyiv
“The inclusion of women themselves in the decision-making processes and humanitarian response is (…) essential to ensure that their rights are upheld.” - Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women
Ukrainian women are part of the resistance as professional soldiers, humanitarian coordinators and volunteers, and civilians. Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s First Lady, has rightly pointed out the “current resistance has a particularly female face.”
Yet women and girls are also among the most vulnerable. The humanitarian situation of women, children, the elderly, and the disabled in areas under military attack is particularly worrying.
Numerous civilian facilities, including maternity and oncology hospitals, kindergartens, orphanages, and humanitarian corridors, have been targeted by the Russian forces. These indiscriminate attacks constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The United Nations Population Fund has estimated that 80,000 women will give birth in the next three months in Ukraine, many of them without access to critical maternal health care. Women give birth in bomb shelters, basements, and maternity hospitals under bombardment.
You can support Ukrainian women, children, and vulnerable people by donating to the Women’s Veteran Movement, UNFPA, and UNICEF Ukraine.
Read more: Women refugees from Ukraine bear war trauma and pain of separation
Meet some of the women and girls on the front lines in Ukraine
What mothers know about war - Polish women show solidarity with 🇺🇦 mothers
FemWealth Favorites ❤
Leadership: Orbán loyalist Katalin Novák elected Hungary’s first female president - Katalin Novák took her oath on Thursday
How Do We Talk About Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s First Lady?
“I truly believe in soft power and cultural diplomacy. It is a part of that power which is important for Ukraine.” - Olena Zelenska
Kamala Harris finds herself center stage of the Ukraine crisis - US Vice President Kamala Harris steps up her role in international diplomacy.
Startups: CEO of Unicorn Stax Says She’ll Go Head to Head With Stripe - The subscription-based payments processor, co-founded and led by Suneera Madhani, has raised $245B in a Series D round at a valuation of more than $1B
Database Startup Xata Steps Forward With An All-Women Board And $30 Million In Fresh Funding - The startup founded and led by Monica Sarbu has raised $30 million in a Series A round. Sarbu is joined by Redpoint partner Erica Brescia and Index partner Erin-Price Wright on Xata’s all-women board of directors.
Slingshot Aerospace raises $25M to help satellite operators navigate space traffic - Co-founded by Melanie Stricklan (Chief Strategy Officer)
An early Facebook backer is betting on this startup sharing climate solutions - Apolitical, co-founded by Lisa Witter and Robyn Scott, has raised a £5m Series A round to help civil servants share their best climate solutions.
CancerIQ Raises a $14M Series B for Its Cancer-focused Precision Health Platform - Co-founded by Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD, and Feyi Olopade Ayodele (CEO)
“CancerIQ’s vision is to end cancer as we know it by eliminating health disparities and democratizing access to the latest advances in cancer early detection and prevention”
MDisrupt Raises $6M in Seed Funding for Its Digital Health Intelligence Platform - Co-founded and led by Ruby Gadelrab
Wildflower Health Announces $26 Million Financing Round to Support National Expansion of Value-Based Maternity Care Offerings - Founded and led by Leah Sparks
Zaya Care partners with payers to bring the European model of maternal care to the States - Founded and led by Leoni Runge
Delfina Raises $5.3M for Its AI-powered Pregnancy Platform to Address the Maternal Health Crisis in the U.S. and Beyond - Co-founded by Priyanka Vaidya (CPO)
Reproductive health startup readies for delivery - Noula Health, founded and led by Noelle Acosta, has raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding
Bladder Care Startup Jude Raises £2m in Pre-Seed Funding to Invest in R&D - founded and led by Peony Li
“Over 14 million of us experience problems with our bladders, so why do we continue to suffer in silence? I want to break the stigma around bladder care and create a community and brand that makes people feel heard, seen and supported.”
Calico attracts Serena Williams to $2.1M seed to build fashion supply chain software - Co-founded and led by Kathleen Chan
The rise of Canva, the $40 billion design juggernaut - Featuring Melanie Perkins, Co-founder and CEO of Canva
My cap table is 60% women — so why does no one care? - By Audrey Barbier-Litvak, CEO and co-founder of Offishall
“If I could find 21 women to invest in my business, I don’t understand why every tech startup in Europe doesn’t have at least one”
I Worked Through a Miscarriage to Raise Money for My Startup. Here’s How I Learned to Prioritize My Health - Featuring Erin Carpenter, Founder and CEO of Nude Barre
“I prioritize my time and energy a lot better now. I also became passionate about being honest about my journey and leading with the authenticity I want to model for my daughter.”
VC: Bengaluru entrepreneur to float $1bn venture fund - Ankita Vashishta, plans to launch a $1 billion VC fund to invest in 1,000 women-led or women-focused start-ups in India and overseas in the next five years.
Community-first operator Lolita Taub is launching her own venture capital firm - Lolita Taub’s Ganas Ventures debut fund has a target of $9.99M and the goal to invest in 75 pre-seed and seed-stage companies based in the U.S. and Latin America.
Arlan Hamilton Went From Homeless to Running $20 Million in VC Funds. Here’s How She Did It - Featuring Arlan Hamilton, Founder of HireRunner and Backstage Capital
Seven Seven Six Seeds A Cohort Of New Micro Funds - Katelin Holloway and Alexis Ohanian launched 776 Titans Fund, a cohort of micro funds led by individuals who are new to venture but bring a network, an operational background, or expertise.
Web3: Elon Musk says Web3 is a marketing buzzword… but that’s the whole point! - By Katia Yakovleva, Co-founder at Beyond.so
Women’s Health: 5 questions about women’s health and women - Featuring Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital
My Miscarriage, in Photos. When I got pregnant, my partner took out his camera. In the turbulent weeks after, he never put it down. [Graphic Images]
“I didn’t know what I was supposed to be feeling. I wasn’t pregnant for that long. I wondered, Can I mourn this? Can I be sad about this? Am I allowed to be?” - Becca Leitman
Careers & Women’s Wealth: It’s Okay to Talk About (and Make, and Spend, and Invest) Money - Featuring Sarah Kunst, founder of Cleo Capital, and Brianne Kimmel, tech entrepreneur and founder of Worklife VC
Infertility Support At Work Requires More Than Money - By Kim Elsesser, Author of SEX AND THE OFFICE
“If companies want to retain their employees they must start addressing employee needs. For infertile couples, these needs go beyond financing infertility treatments, and include emotional support, flexibility and education.”
Companies tweeted for International Women’s Day. Then this account called out their pay gaps.
“You can’t say that you’re doing really well for equality if you’ve not got the numbers behind you to support it. (…) We want you to tell us how you’ve identified your problems, what you’re doing to fix them, and if you have something to shout about, if you’re doing really well — well, show us the data.” - Francesca Lawson, co-creator of @PayGapApp
Stop asking women how we manage work-life balance. Most of us don’t - By Alyssa Jaffee, Partner at 7wireVentures
“Personally, I'm embracing the imbalance and friction. Our whole idea of balance is unrealistic, and no individual day or moment will ever truly be balanced. Some days I’ll lean too heavily into work. Other days, I will focus on my kids.”
Activism: How A Feminist Uprising Reshaped Mexico City - Activists against gender violence leave their imprint on the capital’s streets and monuments in an effort to bring justice to victims of sexual violence and change the public discourse around femicides.
“Women fight so that no one else has to go through what our sisters, daughters, and sons have suffered. We are working to build a different history for our cities, towns, and territories so that we can all walk freely and live without fear.”
Women’s History: Nicola Sturgeon issues apology for ‘historical injustice’ of witch hunts - The First Minister of Scotland has issued a posthumous apology to the thousands of people persecuted as witches in Scotland. More than 2,500 Scots, most of them women, were executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563.
“At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a courtroom, they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable or in many cases just because they were women.” - Nicola Sturgeon
Things to Ponder
Women see more adverse events with chemotherapy and newer cancer treatments - A recent study found that women were 34% more likely than men to experience severe adverse effects in response to their cancer treatments, a figure that increased to 49% for women receiving immunotherapies.
When Women Leaders Leave, the Losses Multiply
“Since women leaders have more engaged teams and drive better job performance, the collateral damage includes loss of engagement and productivity from every employee who now won’t be working for a woman.”
“Messages about women’s self-esteem are now so ubiquitous that their value has been placed beyond debate.”
Thank you for reading FemWealth! Wish you a lovely Sunday!
Anamaria
Founder and Writer of FemWealth