Of the 796 million illiterate people globally, women account for two-thirds of that number. By investing in local education, holding leaders accountable, and amplifying girls' voices, the Malala Fund works to ensure every girl receives a quality education.

Here's how you can help:

Every day for the month of March, we will be highlighting woman and/or girl focused organization to support. Reach out with suggestions.

March is Women’s History Month, so we’ll be sharing our history artwork through March! Here’s our most popular women’s history prints!

Happy first day of Women's History Month!

12 million girls are married before the age of 18 every year.

Girls Not Brides seeks to prevent child marriage, encourage discussion about the harm of child marriage, raise awareness of the issue, and promote equality between girls and boys so that girls may live happy, healthy lives and reach their full potential. 

Here’s how to help: 

Every day for the month of March, we will be highlighting a different woman and/or girl focused organization to support. Reach out with suggestions.

12 Things Not to Say to Muslim Women 

We’re celebrating the third annual Muslim Women’s Day with MuslimGirl.com! This year’s theme is “Muslim Women Talk Back to Immigrant Life” as we center the voices of Muslim women impacted by the wall and immigration policy, DACA, the refugee crisis, and beyond. You can take part by simply retweeting and sharing Muslim women’s stories on your social media on this day, and celebrating the Muslim women in your life to let them know you care. We stand with Muslim women against hate, discrimination, and violence.

🎨: @xavieraaltena

Remarkable Muslim Women

Sayyida al Hurra (1485-1561), was a queen of Tétouan in 1515-1542 and a pirate queen in the early 16th century. She is considered to be “one of the most important female figures of the Islamic West in the modern age”.

Pari Khan Khanum (1524-1576) was a Safavid princess. An influential figure in the Safavid state, Pari Khan Khanum was well educated and knowledgeable in traditional Islamic sciences such as jurisprudence, and was an accomplished poet.

Kösem Sultan (1589-1651) was one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history. She was one of the prominent figures during the Sultanate of Women.

Umm Kulthum (1898/1904-1975)  was an internationally renowned Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s.  She was known for her extraordinary vocal ability and style, and she was one of the greatest and most influential singers of the 20th century. Umm Kulthum is considered a national icon in her native Egypt and is dubbed as The voice of Egypt and Egypt’s fourth pyramid. Umm Kulthum remains as the most revered legendary Arab singer.

Sabiha Gökçen (1913-2001) was the first Turkish combat pilot and possibly the world’s first fighter pilot.

Meena Keshwar Kamal (1956-1987)  was an Afghan revolutionary political activist, feminist, women’s rights activist and founder of Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), who was assassinated in 1987.

Betty Shabazz (1934-1997) was an American educator and civil rights advocate.

Ibtihaj Muhammad (born December 4, 1985) is an American sabre fencer, and a member of the United States fencing team. She is best known for being the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics. She earned the bronze medal as part of Team USA in the Team Sabre, becoming the first female Muslim-American athlete to earn a medal at the Olympics.

Surya Bonaly, Black French figure skater

Women’s History Month Spotlight: Catt Small

Oh, yes! We have another Women’s History Month feature for you. Meet product designer, game developer, programmer, and artist, Catt Small (@letter-q). Catt is an original organizer for the Game Devs of Color Expo that highlights creators of color by showing off their games, creating and building conversation, and signal-boosting their reach. Oh, and—get ready—it’s in NYC this July if you want to attend in person. Want to learn more about Catt and her projects? Read on!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the gaming industry.

I consider myself to be a creative technologist—I’m an artist who loves to learn and explore through the lens of code and other technology-centric resources. I started making games around the age of 10, which is when I learned how to build online dress up dolls using a random scripting language called FKiSS. I was gaming long before then, though; my mom and were playing SEGA Genesis games together when I was about 6 years old. I also have wonderful memories of board gaming with my parents. In other words, games have always been around me. They were just another part of my life.

Many people grew up with games, but games weren’t always accessible to build. I failed many times while trying to make more complex games as a teenager, which led to me tabling the subject. I began to try again in college when I stumbled upon other creative technologists at a university in Brooklyn (which I didn’t attend at the time). I contributed my art skills, and they showed me tools like Construct and Game Maker. I started attending games events, met more wonderful people, and the ball kept rolling from there.

Along with your other jobs and projects, you also organize the Game Devs of Color Expo. Can you talk more about that?

I started helping to organize the Game Devs of Color Expo in 2015. People of color have always been in the industry, but often feel marginalized and alone in game development spaces. I wanted to create a space in which game developers of color could feel more normal and, overall, be given the support necessary to thrive.

With much help from an awesome group of game developers and marketing specialists, the Game Devs of Color Expo has grown in scale beyond my wildest dreams. The event is open to all people, but specifically highlights amazing work by people of color. We’ve never had to worry about “lowering the bar,” a common concern I hear from well-meaning people who want their events to be more diverse. In fact, several people we’ve highlighted went on to win awards at larger games events. I’m so proud of what this event has become and am looking forward to the next one this July.

Your coming-of-age narrative game, SweetXheart, was recently released. How does it address race, gender, and microaggressions?

In SweetXheart (pronounced “sweetheart”), players act as Kara, a 19-year-old girl from the Bronx who attends an art college and interns at a tech company. Over five fictional days, players control how Kara deals with situations such as getting dressed, responding to catcallers, and navigating awkward friendship and family dynamics. Kara’s stress level is the core mechanic, and each choice the player makes has an effect. SweetXheart demonstrates the ways in which tiny interactions can make or break someone’s day. Microaggressions, which seem meaningless to all but the recipient, can cause serious emotional damage. Through tiny in-game interactions, players can see the ways in which multiple identities interact to create the anxiety that I (and others like me) manage on a daily basis. I’m proud of the result and the love the game has received—after all, I spent about five years on it!

In what ways can the gaming industry support women and marginalized communities move forward?

I’ve been glad to see the outpouring of support for disadvantaged people over the past several years. However, the support is often verbal. I want to see people receiving more financial support. Whether that be in the form of direct money through hired jobs, game sales, or recommendations for work and speaking engagement, the best way to help is to sponsor people who don’t have the same opportunities.

Even better, give marginalized people as many chances to fail as anyone else. In SweetXheart, Kara gets fired if she’s late to work two times. Her manager says the policy is in place so people understand the gravity of their actions. But unfortunately, this is an example of the stringency applied to certain people yet not others. We deserve as much mercy as anyone else—and the ability to be mediocre.

What projects should we expect next? And how can we support?

I will be making a game for an NYC-based Kickstarter project called WONDERVILLE. The game will be exclusive [to donaters], so please back the project if you’d like to play it! I am donating my time to the project since the company organizing it is a non-profit, but I have a Patreon if anyone out there is in a gifting mood. Funds help me pay other creative people to help me work on projects.

Thanks for the interview, Catt!

Want to see more like this, Tumblr? Stay tuned to @gaming all month long for more interviews with women and non-binary persons in the gaming industry. It’s a whole celebration.

Yes, I Model — and Yes, My Hijab Is My Crown: Read HERE.

Music Spotlight: FLETCHER

FLETCHER (@findingxfletcher) might just be one of the hardest working musical artists we’ve seen in a while. This New Jersey native has earned every single one of her 100 million streams on Spotify, worked for every spot on stage at major festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and kept releasing new music while she was at it. The kicker? She did it all while finding the time to graduate from NYU’s Clive Davis Institue for Recorded Music. How she managed to find time for our little interview, we’ll never know.

Who influences your music the most? 

I grew up listening to pretty much just Bob Marley and Celine Dion because it’s the only music my parents had in the house; a bit of Bruce Springsteen since my mom grew up in Asbury Park, NJ. That was it honestly. But I’m really happy about this, they still remain major influences for me.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’ve received so far? 

Paul McCartney told me to “be great,” and I really want to tattoo that on my face. But in all seriousness, I think the best advice I’ve received is “if it’s not fun, don’t do it.” I’m just having a lot of fun right now traveling the world and meeting those who’ve been there since day one and the new people just now hearing my music for the first time.

When it comes to celebrating women, how do you think artists can continue to support women from all backgrounds? 

We must celebrate inclusivity, diversity, and intersectionality. I hope to empower and uplift other women in the industry through various creative partnerships and collaborations and through my music, and I hope others will do the same.

Dream collaboration and why?

 I love the honest, simple storytelling of Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, Kacey Musgraves, and Lorde. I would love to work with any of them.

Lighting round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.

Empath, Connection, Nacho.

If you were to star in a TV show, what would it be about and what kind of character would you play? 

I’d definitely want to be a superhero, maybe like Wonder Woman. I have my black belt in Karate, so I feel like I’m qualified for the job.

Want to hear more from FLETCHER? Yeah, we know you do. Follow her at @findingxfletcher , check out her official video for Undrunk here and then swing on over here to listen to her music.

(This interview has been edited for clarity.)

Despite Common Concerns, American Women Remain Deeply Divided

What Women Want Now is a program by HuffPost and her sister sites dedicated to creating content about the issues and stories that matter most to women – you can read more here.

Sharp differences of opinion on gender, sexism and harassment separate American women from each other, according to a new HuffPost/Yahoo/CARE survey. Even though women share some of the same concerns, they’re far from a unified bloc.

Nationwide, the majority of women are concerned about pay inequality and see gender bias in politics. Most are enthusiastic about seeing more women in positions of power in the United States and think American women should play a role in reducing gender-based discrimination elsewhere in the world. About half have faced inappropriate sexual advances.

But as the survey shows, women also remain sharply divided along partisan lines in their beliefs and experiences. (Read the full survey and analysis here.)

About three-quarters of women consider the pay gap between men and women to be a problem. But there’s a huge partisan divide in terms of how women weigh that problem. Where 63 percent of Democrats say it’s a serious one, just 26 percent of Republicans believe the same. Similarly, 83 percent of women, including a majority in both parties, say sexual harassment is a problem ― but 81 percent of Democrats, compared to 47 percent of Republicans, consider it serious.

There are also partisan differences in beliefs about sexism. Democratic women are slightly more than twice as likely as Republican women to believe that men today generally have things easier. They’re about three times likelier to say efforts to ensure equal rights for women in this country have yet to go far enough. Republican women, on the other hand, are less likely to want to work specifically for another woman, or to actively want more female leaders in their own workplace.

Read more from the survey here.

So important 👏

For Stella Sacco, self-care is a taxing act that requires being aware of ugliness ― both in personal habits and in society.

“It’s being cognizant of feelings or behavior that harm you in some way ― overwork, self-hate, conflict avoidance, etc.,” said Sacco, a 33-year-old American now living in Denmark. “Of course, in everyday life, some degree of harm is unavoidable. I will always be tired after a week of work, for example. Self-care is about mitigating what harm cannot be avoided. As a trans woman, I recognize that I will never be free of the psychic harm that transphobia causes. I cannot avoid it, so through self-care, I have to try to mitigate it.”

She does this by tapping into a supportive community and reframing damaging thoughts when they pop up.

“If transphobia has made my dysphoria particularly bad one day and I start zeroing in on things that are ‘masculine’ about my appearance, I recontextualize it [by reminding myself] almost anything I could hate about my body, a cis woman somewhere is feeling too,” Sacco said. “If I see the government using its power to diminish and frighten me, I recontextualize it [by thinking about how] black folks have been dealing with these kinds of monstrous laws for centuries. … History tells us there is power in solidarity, so finding it and taking it seriously is my self-care.”

Sacco said the concept of self-care “has been co-opted and marketed mostly to well-off white women” and she detests the idea that it implies avoidance ― especially when that can be more harmful in the long run.

“I hate that it tends to be portrayed as just doing whatever you feel like doing,” she said. “Part of self-care is understanding your own patterns of behavior and trying not to do things that will feed into negative patterns.”

“For example, opting not to wash the sink full of dishes today might feel like self-care when you’ve had a long week and feel like you need a break. But will those dishes sitting there contribute to you feeling bad tomorrow?” she said. “Sometimes, self-care means doing the dishes.”

Read more on self-care here.

What Women Want Now is a program by HuffPost and her sister sites dedicated to creating content about the issues and stories that matter most to women – you can read more here.

For Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting some freshmen members of the House Gun Sense Majority who are making history as part of the most diverse Congress since our country was founded.

First up is Representative Lucy McBath. Her son, Jordan, was shot and killed for playing music loudly when he was just 17 years old. Since then, she has been a Moms Demand Action volunteer, a fierce advocate for the gun safety movement, and most recently, a member of Congress, bringing the experience and stories of gun violence survivors to the table.