Genevieve Vaughan

Austin | Philanthropist

Ms Vaughan is an Austin-based philosopher, activist and philanthropist who has been involved in many efforts for peace, feminism, and environmental protection. Through her book, For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange (please see www.for-giving.com), she explains her views on oppression and exploitation as an essential part of the profit-oriented market economy and in relations among producers and consumers, and offers the idea of a needs-based gift economy, such as that in the love between a parent and child, as a more sustainable alternative. To put these ideas into effect, Ms Vaughan has been active in volunteering for and freely funding (personally and through the Foundation for a Compassionate Society) various health projects (surveys of health impacts near military bases), peace efforts (meetings and mobile exhibits), environmental programs (work to stop the Sierra Blanca nuclear waste disposal facility), and media outreach projects (radio and TV).