Kiran Ahuja is the Executive Director of NAPAWF and has been involved with the organization since 1999 as a national board member and co-founder of the Washington, D.C. chapter. She has practiced as a civil rights lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division where she worked on desegregation, bilingual, race and national origin discrimination issues in education-related civil rights cases.
As a young leader and woman of color in the women’s and reproductive rights movements, I find myself in meetings with seasoned and more experienced leaders. They often emphasize how many years they have been “in the movement.� As a rite of passage or precursor to an important statement or opinion, time served has become a badge of honor in the movement. Indeed, as a young leader I understand that length of time stands for depth of conviction, expertise, commitment, and hopefully, even wisdom.
At 35, I cannot claim to be a young leader. I am positive my more youthful sisters would balk at the idea of a 35-year-old being called “young,� but that is a statement alone about the progressive women’s movement: the movement and our ideas are maturing.
That I am one of the youngest leaders in the national women’s movement is telling and highlights a serious challenge for the movement – where and when do we make room for new, young and diverse leaders, and when do we see that the inclusion of them determines the success of our movement?
Developing young and diverse leadership remains one of the foremost challenges for the progressive women’s movement. A 2003 report by the Center for the Advancement of Women, Progress and Perils: A New Agenda for Women, noted that few women belong to women’s organizations and that women of color – specifically African American (63%) and Latinas (68%)—had a strong desire for a women’s movement than Caucasian women (41%). These statistics highlight the awkward juxtaposition of a sputtering women’s movement and a growing, potent constituency who crave a movement that puts them at the center.
With the rise of national women of color organizations, an interesting phenomenon is taking place. Several of the newer organizations are being led by young women, including NAPAWF, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and Refugee Women’s Network, to name a few. In NAPAWF’s case, though our founding sisters are now in their 40s and 50s, they consciously stepped back and created space that allowed for young leadership. Because APA women were simply fighting for space and voice within the women’s movement, there was little fighting among ourselves for position, power and recognition. Now NAPAWF is run by young APA women, the majority of whom are 30 and under.
But starting new organizations should not be the only way to build young and diverse leadership. We have to look within our organizations to see how and whether we are genuinely cultivating leadership. What type of training do young people receive in organizations? Are they allowed to present and speak for the organization? Are they given substantive work and meaningful mentorship? And now the more difficult question: Does an executive director or top leadership have a succession plan to allow for new and young leadership? There are mantras in the movement that ask, where are all the young people, and how do we sustain a movement without “fresh blood?� My question is, where are all the young, diverse and new leaders?
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This is a fantastic post. As as 24 year old member of a Board of Directors it is great to see someone speaking out about this.
If you're interested check out www.lilithfund.org
Yeah...this is fantastic...I'm printing out the package as we speak. Thanks for the link...and thanks for the lilithfund info Ms. Tennessee (or Texas).
Texas =) Hook 'em!
I'm not sure that I'm crazy about the way you seem to equate "young" and "diverse." I'd like to see more diversity among older leadership as well. The issues facing middle-aged women of color are not exactly the same as the ones faced by middle-aged white women, and they're also not identical to the stuff that young women of color face. Working-class elderly women have very different experiences than rich elderly women or working-class young women. We really need a range of voices within and across the age spectrum.
I guess that I feel totally alienated by these generational battles. I'm 33, which is too young to be an "old" feminist and too old to be a "young" one. But I guess that I identify more with the old ones, because I have a chronic illness, and "young feminism" seems only to care about women's health as it relates to fucking. Most young women don't have to worry about non-fucking-related women's health issues, so they don't. If I want to hear my issues addressed in any way, I have to talk to those stodgy, boring old hags. So when I hear that the hags should be stepping aside to make way for younger leadership, what I hear is that I should be further marginalized within a movement which, it's become pretty clear to me, doesn't care at all about my issues. And you know, fuck that. There are enough forces in our society saying that women should be put out to pasture once we hit middle age.
I think that this is a great post!!!!
Anyway, I see this problem in many of the feminist organizations that I have worked for (not just in the repro rights movement). I think that there are a lot more issues that surround this problem though, and I totally agree that some organizations need to realize that they need new leadership and younger leadership to help shape the vision of the agency progressing forward.
I think that age is diversity when most agencies/organizations have boards who are majorily composed of 2nd wavers who cannot let go.
Another commenter from Texas-- LOVE Lilith & the good women & men supporting repro rights in Texas.
AWESOME!!11@!@!1
Welcome, Kiran Ahuja.
Kiran Ahuja and Sally, you both have good points.
Now, the nitpicks:
"In NAPAWF’s case, though our founding sisters are now in their 40s and 50s, they consciously stepped back and created space that allowed for young leadership."
Creating space for subgroup A leadership is cool but shouldn't have to mean subgroup B leadership stepping back. Can't both lead together? :)
"I'm not sure that I'm crazy about the way you seem to equate 'young' and 'diverse.'"
I got the impression that she's equating "multiple age groups" and "diverse." Wouldn't someone who thinks young=diverse think "new, young and diverse" sounds too redundant?