Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Feminists--United States; Feminist theory; Feminists; United States;
Abstract
The purpose of my research was to identify how young women activists interpret the purpose of their work on a clinic defense project, defending abortion clinics during protests. Each young woman had expectations of her work as a feminist activist. When her experiences were similar to what she envisioned as the purpose of feminist activism, she felt a sense of empowerment because she felt she was contributing to the "cause." Examples of contributing experiences included clinic defense trainings, lobbying, opposition research, grassroots organizing, and the physical defense of abortion clinics. However, when her experiences did not match her definition of what feminist work should be like, she felt a sense of disempowerment because she was not contributing to the "cause." Sources of frustration for the young women were intra-organizational conflict, isolation and alienation in the field, unfulfilled expectations, and degrading behind the scenes work. My research took place during a national clinic defense project, with sites in six cities. The participants included young women between the ages of 18 and 27. They were part of the clinic defense project in the capacity of intern or local volunteer. While five structured interviews were conducted for this research, most of the findings came from participant observation in the field with approximately 20 young activists. By situating themselves in relation to feminist activism, the young women provided expert testimony regarding the operation of feminist organizations. The combination of qualitative methods used included indepth interviewing, participant observation and observational data collection. The data were analyzed and relationships emerged. The findings showed that the subjective and objective notions of what is empowering to young women in feminist organizations need to coalesce. The empowerment notion is a subjective one, with each woman defining empowerment in her own terms. However, there is an objective notion of being a contributing part of the "cause." The objective notion is usually frustrating because it is embedded in a hierarchy that already has set notions of what is contributing and what is not contributing. Within a feminist organization, the young women come in expecting to be empowered by the nonhierarchical, woman-focused, non-traditional ways of operating, when in fact many of their experiences are quite the contrary. Through the delineation of the roles that the young women played, I provided a sense of where and how young women believe their talents should be utilized in feminist organizations. I am able to provide this sense from the things I have observed and participated in, and also from my interactions with the young women themselves.
Year of Submission
1995
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
First Advisor
Phyllis L. Baker
Second Advisor
Kent Sandstrom
Third Advisor
Victoria DeFrancisco
Date Original
1995
Object Description
1 PDF file (118 leaves)
Copyright
©1995 Margaret Ann Fox
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Fox, Margaret Ann, "Contribution or Contradiction: Feminist Philosophy and Feminist Practice Through the Eyes of Young Women Activists" (1995). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2689.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2689
Comments
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