A purse holds more than spare change and ChapStick; it’s a way to keep safe the things that matter. A handbag reflects our style—and represents our autonomy. 
 
Shayna Rutman believes that everyone who identifies as a woman should have access to a purse. “It’s a little thing that means a lot,” says the political science major. 
 
In 2019, the then high schooler and her father, Keith Rutman, launched Purses for a Purpose to collect gently used bags for unhoused women and nonbinary individuals in their San Diego community. The nonprofit, which has since branched out to Los Angeles, DC, and New Haven, Connecticut, has distributed about 1,500 bags, each stuffed with travel-sized toiletries like toothpaste and toothbrushes, shampoo and conditioner, period products, sunscreen, and socks. 
 
According to the 2022 Point-in-Time Count—mandated annually by the Department of Housing and Urban Development—222,970 unhoused people are female. And from 2020 to 2022, unsheltered homelessness jumped by 5 percent among women and girls, compared to 2 percent for males. 
 
Purses for a Purpose partners with local nonprofits, like DC’s Community Family Life Services, to meet those individuals where they are, whether in shelters or on the street. The organization relies on the generosity of donors and the power of social media, including a TikTok post during the pandemic that garnered 1 million likes—valuable advertising for a nonprofit that gives unhoused women something invaluable: dignity.
 
“Our work is a reminder that all people in society have value,” Rutman says.
 
And that work is contagious. The board includes two other Eagles: Maxy Gangadharan, SPA/BA’24, and Nicole Donelan, SPA/BA ’23. “Working with Purses for a Purpose was a way for me to get involved with the DC community and give back,” Donelan says.
 
Like the women they serve, Rutman and her colleagues have found big meaning in a small bag.