If you've been following the news around Millennials and
Roe v. Wade, like the
Time magazine cover story about the alleged rift between the older women and younger women in the pro-choice movement, or the
recent study that most women under 30 don’t know what
Roe v. Wade was about, you might have the idea that young women don’t care about choice, or even about women’s rights. In fact, I’ve found the opposite to be true. Young women are very active in the fight for equality and women’s rights. They’re just doing it their own way. For this reason alone, I love events like the Young Women of Achievement awards.
Each year, for the last twenty years, the Women’s Information Network (WIN) has hosted the Young Women of Achievement awards (YWA) to recognize young women who are achieving great things in their careers. WIN is a pro-choice, Democratic organization that does just what the Time article suggests isn’t happening. It was formed by women as a way to foster mentorship among older, more accomplished women and the younger women who were eager to start their careers, but facing roadblocks erected by the Boys Club. That was 1989, and WIN is stronger than ever today. We offer professional development training, networking, mentoring and opportunities for discussion and intellectual enrichment. And we recognize that there are lot of young women who are doing more than their fair share to further the rights of all women.
This year’s YWA nominees - there are 48! - worked on political campaigns, have started their own organizations, work on Capitol Hill and in the private sector, and power the nonpofit world. They are doing things like running abortion funds (local groups that raise money to provide grants to women who cannot afford the full cost of an abortion, often all-volunteer), proving that this young generation is indeed familiar with abortion rights. In a number of ways, these women are leading the charge to ensure that more women, from all walks of life, will not only have access to a safe and legal abortion, but will be able to access the birth control they need to plan their pregnancies, receive equal pay for equal work, and not be victims of domestic violence. They are not rejecting the older generation’s feminism so much as they are learning from it and making it their own, and applying it to today’s world.
These women are making strides for pro-choice, Democratic values in a numbers of arenas. All that data integration you heard about that won President Obama re-election? Women were there. They’re organizing for the campaign trail, Capitol Hill and beyond. They’re running organizations to stop street harassment, working in the labor movement and fighting all kinds of policies that afflict women and families. It’s not that young women today don’t care about Roe. It’s that they care about Roe and so much more.