Womankind Worldwide is an international women’s rights organisation and funder, working in solidarity with women’s rights groups and feminist movements across the world to end gender inequality. For over 30 years, Womankind has been supporting women’s rights organisations in advancing gender equality across the globe and currently in their focus countries of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, Zimbabwe.
Their latest campaign this international women’s day ‘Reboot the online system, make it safer’, sees them launch a new publication: A feminist playbook for responding to technology-facilitated gender-based violence which can be downloaded here Unsafe by Design- An Analysis of the TFGBV continuum. It shows that women and gender-diverse people with intersecting identities – including Indigenous, Black, disabled, LBTQI+, migrant, religious, and rural women – experience more frequent and more severe online abuse. This is groundbreaking research that calls for a global push for accountable online platforms and feminist advocacy approaches that centre the voices of activists in designing a feminist digital future.
Oxford HR’s relationship with Womankind began in 2023, when their board made a bold and deliberate decision to appoint Co-CEOs, one based in the UK, and one predominantly based in Kenya. Womankind had recently adopted a co-leadership model at their board chair level and were eager to transition to a similar model at the CEO level. The Co-CEOs would lead on the organisation’s ambitious plans of transitioning from UK based charity to a more Global South led organisation.
Finding two exceptional leaders is one thing. Finding two people who could build a relationship of genuine trust and mutual accountability across continents while embodying intersectional feminist values required a different kind of process altogether. Oxford HR worked extensively with the board and wider stakeholders to shape the roles, define the job descriptions, and determine that Kenya and the UK would be the focus geographies for the search.
After an extensive search, Oxford HR presented two longlists spanning both geographies, but the real work lay in understanding not just who the strongest individual candidates were, but who might thrive together as a pair. To support this, we used Hogan psychometric assessments alongside structured psychometric interviews, gathering a rich picture of each candidate’s strengths, development areas, and working style. Shortlisted pairs then met informally for chemistry conversations. The goal was not simply to find two excellent leaders, but to find two people who could build trust across geographical distance, challenge and support each other, and together embody intersectional feminist leadership.
The outcome was the successful appointment of Disha Sughand and Diana Njuguna as Co-CEOs, a strong example of what feminist co-leadership can look like in practice.
One year on, Disha and Diana reflected: “We’re both humbled by the progress we’ve made and energized by the work ahead. Our very positive experience with co-leadership shows that co-
leadership can be a powerful tool for realising feminist futures and creating more equitable organisations. We work hard on our relationship every day: building trust and support whilst disagreeing and challenging each other — and of course we laugh and have a lot of fun together.”
In 2025, Oxford HR partnered with Womankind again to find a new Co-Chair to join Lusungu Kalanga in leading the board. The right candidate needed governance expertise and an understanding of the UK charity landscape, but equally important was a genuine, lived commitment to women’s rights and feminist leadership. Katie Ghose was appointed to the role. Katie is a proud feminist with nearly three decades of leadership experience across organisations supporting women refugees, survivors of domestic abuse, and disabled women. She brings both the technical knowledge and the values that Womankind’s board requires as the organisation continues to achieve its strategic goals.
Most recently, Womankind sought to strengthen their Senior Management Team with a Director of Grantmaking and Feminist Partnerships, based in Kenya, a deliberate choice to ensure focus country voices are represented at the highest levels of the organisation. Oxford HR conducted targeted headhunting across feminist networks and movements globally, with a particular focus in Kenya, and presented a longlist of thoroughly vetted candidates. Womankind appointed Blandina Bobson to the role, an African feminist leader with a long career in shaping and leading gender justice initiatives across Africa.
Across these engagements, what has struck us at Oxford HR is how Womankind doesn’t simply speak about feminist principles but build their organisation around them. From co-leadership at board and executive level, to deliberately placing senior leaders in focus countries, every structural decision reflects a commitment to the world they are working to create.
