Opinion: Madoff Scandal Hurts Women’s Groups

An overlooked factor in news-media coverage of investor Bernard Madoff’s alleged multi-billion-dollar pyramid scheme is the impact the investment losses will have on the nonprofit groups that advocate for women’s rights, according to Nancy Goldstein, writing for the online publication Salon.

Few U.S. grant makers support such causes, Ms. Goldstein writes, and “with the recent shuttering of two of Madoff’s clients, the Picower Foundation and the JEHT Foundation, that pool has shrunk to a puddle.” Picower, she says, was notable for its support of reproductive-rights organizations, while JEHT gave money to efforts aimed at criminal-justice-system reform, including programs specifically for women.