Activists in Their Thirties

Abstract

The women presented here were all between the ages of thirty and thirty-nine at the time of the interview and come from a wide variety of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Taken together these life narratives reveal a changing landscape of feminist activism. Far more of these activists were trained in women’s studies programs, which, by the late 1990s and early 2000s had become more prevalent in educational settings. Several discuss the complexities of reproductive justice frameworks that are starting to supplant a focus on reproductive rights. Street harassment is a major topic of activism. They reflect on the impact of 9/11 and the economic crash of 2008 on their lives, on the impact of social media on older feminist organizations, and on the fractiousness of the online feminist community. Several of these women live in the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, and their interlocking stories reveal both the connections and the fractures within that vibrant feminist community. As this generation of activists seeks to make change, one theme that emerges in several of their stories is their sense that we need to change hearts and minds, and behaviors, not just laws.This conviction was forged at least in part through the horrors of police violence unfolding during the time of these interviews, and the Black Lives Matter movement that was taking shape in response.