A feminist resurgence in 2015?

Three steps give a ballerina the momentum she needs for a grand jeté across the floor. This leap doesn’t come from nowhere; it starts with the momentum she needs to gather to make her toes push deliberately down to lift her body into the air.

We’re not leaping yet. But we are gathering that momentum as we run forward into a resurgent feminist movement.

In the Guardian’s column “Comment is Free,” writer Ellie Mae O’Hagan made a “hopeful prediction” in January that “if 2014 was the year women made their voices heard, 2015 will be the year women take to the streets.”

This forecast is already upon us. “No Better Time than Now: Transnational Resistance, Solidarity, & Love” was the theme for the 30th annual Empowering Women of Color Conference, held March 7 at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall, the weekend of International Women’s Day.

With over a thousand registered, many more participants were present than the organizers had planned for as attendees sat on floors and craned in doorways of classrooms. Women of color and allies huddled in the back of the auditorium during the opening remarks.

“No Better Time than Now” captured this momentum. Conference keynote speaker, artist Favianna Rodriguez spoke eloquently about the power of art and the importance of changing culture.

Rodriguez spoke about the intersections of the changing global climate and immigration on women’s lives, weaving together these complex global problems and reminding the audience that social change comes slowly, on the order of not months but decades, and that action and ideas evolve not in isolation but together.

“No Better Time than Now” provides a powerful example of this momentum for those who might not see it yet. A second “Comment is Free” columnist Roxane Gay expressed wariness in October over celebrities like Emma Watson and Jennifer Lawrence claiming feminism. She called it a “rebranding” and deemed it unnecessary. I disagree.

It is useful for Aziz Ansari and Patricia Arquette to be pushing equal pay for equal work and for Taylor Swift to be pointing out double standards.

But Buzzfeed interviews and celebrity gossip do not make the movement. They serve instead as a barometer for progress. How far has the ballerina stepped? How far in front of us is her push into flight?

The frequency of celebrities’ endorsements of feminism reflects blossoming community action and global discourse. Feminism’s growth is happening at the grassroots and right now it is springtime.

So let’s turn into the sunshine and leap forward.

An earlier version of this story was published in the Laney Tower, where Rebecca is Co-Editor-in-Chief.

Header image credit: “Migration is Beautiful” by John Carr and Favianna Rodriguez