Katie Ghose joins Womankind Worldwide as Co-Chair, Board of Trustees 

Womankind Worldwide is delighted to announce Katie Ghose as a new Co-Chair of our board. Katie is a proud feminist and charity chief executive with nearly three decades experience of leadership of organisations supporting the rights of women refugees, survivors of domestic abuse and disabled women. She’s currently the chief executive of Kids – a UK charity that supports and empowers disabled children, young people and their families. Katie has also served as Chief Executive of the Women’s Aid Federation of England, the Electoral Reform Society and the British Institute of Human Rights.    

Katie will be joining Lusungu Kalanga as a fellow Co-Chair of Womankind’s board of trustees. We look forward to having two bold feminist leaders who will steer Womankind to greater heights in creating an equal world for women, girls and people of all genders.   

What motivates you?  

Katie Ghose: Injustice and inequality of every kind. I’m hugely motivated by my 16-year-old daughter and the new battles her generation faces in combatting everyday sexism and misogyny. I am fired up by their determination, empathy and inclusivity. I want to stand with young women and people of all genders and ages who are fighting for their rights to be safe, free and able to shape their own futures.  

What motivated you to join Womankind as our Co-Chair of the board?  

Katie Ghose: I love Womankind Worldwide’s ethos and the practical ways it brings its values to life. That includes its work in Afghanistan to support girls and women experiencing wholesale denial of their human rights and its commitment to flexible funding as a way to start to decolonise historic donor relationships. I am a huge admirer of the charity’s openness to trying different ways to share power, and excited to play my part in this as a Co-Chair working closely with the Co-CEOs and the amazing team. At a time when government cuts, rising misogyny and on-line harms are threatening girls and women’s freedoms, Womankind’s partnership and support is needed more than ever. I am eager to play my part.   

What are some of the core feminist values and convictions that you share with Womankind/align with? And how have you promoted these at a personal level?  

Katie Ghose: Feminism for me is the unrelenting pursuit of gender equality at every stage of life, from the equal value of a baby girl to dignity, agency and economic equality for older women. It means looking at everything through a gender lens, from how governments spend their money to how we observe and advance human rights.  It is the combatting of violence towards women and girls and its root causes and the fight for the right to education in Afghanistan. On a personal level it is my mentorship and encouragement of younger women to take their place in politics and public life. Inclusivity and intersectionality are key for me. My mixed heritage as an English and Indian woman and the prejudice I have faced, especially as a girl, has formed a personal conviction that feminism is about enlivening and empowering every woman in all her diversity. To be feminists together we cannot leave any woman behind.   

Any history you have in the feminist movement and key milestones that you’d like to share with us?  

Katie Ghose: I have a lifelong passion for women’s and girls’ rights. In my 20s, I was a barrister representing asylum seekers and I helped to found a specialist resource centre for refugee women. At Age Concern England, I led high profile campaigns on women’s pension right and age discrimination in the workplace.  Since then, I have led several non-profit organisations including Women’s Aid, where I mobilized a 180 strong federation of local groups to successfully campaign to safeguard life-saving services for women and girls at risk of violence and abuse. Womankind’s commitment to learn from all women connects with the ethos at Kids, the disabled children’s charity that I currently lead. I have been privileged to support disabled young women to give testimony to MPs in Parliament and to create their own peer support and advocacy networks.  

What are your ambitions and aspirations with this new leadership role?  

Katie Ghose: I want to be the best and most effective Co-Chair I can. I want to embody those principles of inclusivity and intersectionality and this incredible energy that Womankind has to keep moving forward, working with women in the most challenging situations in the Global South. I am ambitious for the charity’s next phase and I aspire to support its partnerships and collaborations so that it can continue to support women’s organisations to strengthen and grow.