White House Gathering Tackles Issues Facing Females of Color

The Obama administration, which has taken heat for the gender-specific focus of its My Brother’s Keeper effort for minority males, is hosting a summit Friday focused on expanding opportunity for girls and women of color, Time reports.

The session, led by senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and the White House Council on Women and Girls, brings in experts on subjects such as violence, employee rights, health care, and hip hop in conjunction with the release of an update to a 2014 report on challenges facing black and Latino females.

Foundations and corporations have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to support My Brother’s Keeper, the effort Mr. Obama unveiled in February 2014 to boost economic and educational opportunities for men and boys of color. The program’s focus on males drew criticism from women’s groups, including an open letter signed by more than 1,000 activists, artists, and academics last year calling on the president to include women and girls.

Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy opinion column on the philanthropic and White House focus on minority males rather than females.