Gloria Steinem, an influential leader of the feminist movement and co-founder of Ms. magazine, discussed the tensions between generations of feminists yesterday afternoon at the Law School.
Many polls show that today's women are reluctant to call themselves the "f-word": a feminist, Steinem said.
An audience of about 200 filled Caplin Auditorium yesterday to hear Steinem, Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, co-authors of the new book, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future.
The book deals with the growing disparities between the '60s and '70s "second wave" feminists and the present day "third wave" feminists.
The panel also addressed questions from the mostly female audience on feminism and other related topics.
"Females tend to be more conservative in youth and as they become older they become radicalized," she said. Older women "are likely to be radicalized by having two jobs - in home and outside."
Richards said she noticed many of the younger women are afflicted with the "Spice Girls pencil set syndrome," meaning they "will wear a 'Girls Rule' t-shirt, but girls do not rule."
The panelists all agreed "third wave" feminists are more into the culture of feminism - the music, fashion, and "zines" - rather than the politics of feminism.
Steinem said "second wave" feminists should stop calling young feminists "our daughters" and start treating them more like peers.
Older women "helped to produce the most uppity young women in history," she said.
Richards said she felt young feminists are typically reduced to introducing panels of older feminists and are only included in discussions of specifically generational matters, rather than feminist politics as a whole.
Older feminists should start introducing younger feminists to the political issues surrounding the movement, Baumgardner added.
Another issue brought forth before the panel was the lack of minority representation in the feminist movement, even though many feminists are members of minority groups, and minority women historically have agreed with feminist ideas.
Steinem said she felt disagreements "rendered invisible the many African-American feminists."
The two other panelists agreed many of their original feminist inspirations were black women.
An early poll on feminism showed black women were two times more likely to espouse feminist points of view than white women, Steinem said.
During the panel, the audience chuckled when Steinem mentioned the "second wave" feminists' rejection of the importance of marriage. Steinem recently got married.
"Who knew?" she added.
Third-year College student Emily Krause said she was not accustomed to the discussion's feminist lingo but was eager to learn about it.
"I was very honored that they came, but at the same time I didn't know quite enough of what they were talking about," Krause said. "But I want to learn more."
This panel was part of the series "Women 2000: Shapers of the World" spearheaded by the Women's Center of the University.
The series marks the 10th anniversary of the Women's Center, the 20th anniversary of the Studies of Women and Gender Department, and the 30th anniversary of full coeducation at the University.
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