Young Women Meet in D.C., Create Own Movement

When 24-year-old Alison Stein was in college at the University of Pennsylvania a few years ago, she lived with progressive women who were active on campus in groups such as College Democrats.

But when she asked them to join her in a pro-choice group or at the women's center there, they said they agreed with her in principle but that they weren't feminists.

"I said if these women aren't feminists, then who are feminists?" said Stein.

Now Stein is a program assistant at the National Council of Women's Organizations. There, as coordinator of the Younger Women's Task Force, she is at the center of a new effort by younger feminists to build their own movement with the guidance of established feminists such as Martha Burk, National Council of Women's Organizations' chair.

The task force is the most recent effort to organize younger women. The New York City-based Third Wave Foundation supports feminists ages 15 to 30. The National NOW Young Feminist Task Force includes women age 30 or under who advise the organization on issues of interest to them. The White House Project's Vote, Run, Lead initiative aims to involve young women in politics.

Feminism No Longer a 'Trendy Word'

While feminism had positive connotations in the 1970s, as women fought for equality at home and in the workplace, it's no longer seen as a "trendy word," said Stein. The term has become associated in recent years with radical left-wing politics and may sound intimidating or unattractive to men, Stein said, noting that a feminist is "not necessarily" the first thing she calls herself.

The danger now is that young women who don't want to use the feminist label won't identify with and advocate issues of concern to women, such as the need to stem rising health care costs.

"People vote for themselves and if they don't see that an issue affects them, they won't vote on it," Stein added.

Kathleen Casey, who heads the Program for Women Public Officials at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, said involving young women is a "natural evolution" of the women's movement. "There are a lot of gray-haired women" in the movement, she said. "It's time."

But she cautioned that the older generation shouldn't try to make younger feminists in their image. "You have to be really careful to meet them where they are."

Against this backdrop, the National Council of Women's Organizations started planning the Younger Women's Task Force last June to provide women 18 to 35 with a stronger role in the policy making process – such as encouraging more women to vote and run for office – and develop the next generation of the women's movement. The group is nonpartisan and its members support abortion rights and access to other reproductive health care.

In its first national summit, which ended on Sunday, the Younger Women's Task Force convened 86 women to discuss and consider the need for young women to take a more active role in society. The women – deemed leaders in their professions and communities – were chosen regardless of their financial ability but based on essay responses about the top issues facing young women and what steps they would like to take to address them.

Topics of Concern

The task force attendees were asked to develop issue statements about nine topics of concern to women ages 19 to 39. Besides feminism, these included media representations of women and women's body image; sexual and reproductive freedom; and access to education and career opportunities. Attendees say the issues differ somewhat from the agenda of feminists in the 1970s. While older feminists were concerned about discrimination in the workplace and securing abortion rights, attendees tackled issues such as the number of women featured in the media, violence against women and eating disorders.