When the US economy nosedived into a deep recession in late 2008, women were some of the hardest hit. Now, the Occupy Wall Street movement is in its second month of demanding economic justice for the 99 percent of Americans who continue to suffer due to the financial sector’s greed.

According to Eve Ensler—playwright, activist and founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls—women’s issues are at the heart of the demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Economic inequality, Ensler points out in this video produced by The Nation‘s Francis Reynolds and Emily Douglas, puts women in a more vulnerable position in general and especially in case of sexual harassment and violence. It is important for those who work to fight sexual violence against women to ask the same question being asked down at Zuccotti Park and in occupied spaces across the country: Where is the money going? How can we more equitably and justly distribute the wealth? And how can women make their voices central to the debate that the Occupy movement has created?

—Jin Zhao