Young Feminist Activism
Organizing creatively, facing an increasing threat
Young feminist activists play a critical role in women’s rights organizations and movements worldwide by bringing up new issues that feminists face today. Their strength, creativity and adaptability are vital to the sustainability of feminist organizing.
At the same time, they face specific impediments to their activism such as limited access to funding and support, lack of capacity-building opportunities, and a significant increase of attacks on young women human rights defenders. This creates a lack of visibility that makes more difficult their inclusion and effective participation within women’s rights movements.
A multigenerational approach
AWID’s young feminist activism program was created to make sure the voices of young women are heard and reflected in feminist discourse. We want to ensure that young feminists have better access to funding, capacity-building opportunities and international processes. In addition to supporting young feminists directly, we are also working with women’s rights activists of all ages on practical models and strategies for effective multigenerational organizing.
Our Actions
We want young feminist activists to play a role in decision-making affecting their rights by:
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Fostering community and sharing information through the Young Feminist Wire. Recognizing the importance of online media for the work of young feminists, our team launched the Young Feminist Wire in May 2010 to share information, build capacity through online webinars and e-discussions, and encourage community building.
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Researching and building knowledge on young feminist activism, to increase the visibility and impact of young feminist activism within and across women’s rights movements and other key actors such as donors.
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Promoting more effective multigenerational organizing, exploring better ways to work together.
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Supporting young feminists to engage in global development processes such as those within the United Nations
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Collaboration across all of AWID’s priority areas, including the Forum, to ensure young feminists’ key contributions, perspectives, needs and activism are reflected in debates, policies and programs affecting them.
Related Content
Our group, organization and/or movement is not registered, should we take the survey anyway?
Absolutely, we want to hear about your experience with resourcing.
Mujeres indígenas por la defensa de los derechos
Estas defensoras lucharon por los derechos sobre la tierra, de las mujeres y de los pueblos indígenas; haciendo frente a las industrias extractivas, escribiendo poesía y promoviendo el amor. Una de ellas desapareció hace ya 19 años. Únete a nosotras para recordar y honrar a estas defensoras de derechos humanos, su trabajo y su legado, compartiendo los memes aquí incluidos; y tuiteando las etiquetas #WHRDTribute y #16Días.
Por favor, haz click en cada imagen de abajo para ver una versión más grande y para descargar como un archivo.





Leticia Eulalia Mary Mukasa- Kikonyogo
Leticia fue una abogada y jueza de Uganda.
Antes de retirarse, ocupó muchas posiciones de alto perfil, como por ejemplo miembrx de la Corte de Apelaciones de Uganda y Presidenta Adjunta de la Corte Suprema de Uganda. Fue la primera mujer ugandesa en ocupar el cargo de Primera Magistrada entre 1973 y 1986, y la primera mujer en ser nombrada jueza de la Corte Suprema en 1986.
Fue una de las primeras mujeres investidas como “Caballero Papal” de la historia de la Iglesia Católica en África. Murió de un paro cardíaco.
Snippet FEA EoS The Howl (FR)

Le hurlement
Participation et activisme
Agnes Torres
¿Qué entienden por financiamiento externo?
El financiamiento externo incluye donaciones y otras formas de financiamiento provenientes de fundaciones filantrópicas, gobiernos, donantes bilaterales, multilaterales y corporativos y de donantes individuales, ya sea que estos se encuentren radicados en tu país o en el exterior. Excluye aquellos recursos que las agrupaciones, organizaciones o movimientos generan de manera autónoma como, por ejemplo, cuotas de membresía, contribuciones voluntarias del personal, afiliadxs o adherentes, colectas comunitarias, alquiler de espacios propios o venta de servicios. Para consultar más referencias, en la propia encuesta se encuentran incluidas las definiciones de los distintos tipos de financiamiento y descripciones breves de distintos tipos de donantes.
Trans* rights require stronger protection
These transgender women were murdered because of their activism and their gender identity. There are insufficient laws recognizing trans* rights, and even where these laws exist, very little is being done to safeguard the rights of trans* people. Please join AWID in honoring these defenders, their activism and legacy by sharing the memes below with your colleagues, networks and friends and by using the hashtags #WHRDTribute and #16Days.
Please click on each image below to see a larger version and download as a file




Mona Chemali Khalaf
Mona était économiste et consultante indépendante sur les questions de genre et de développement.
Elle a été professeure d'économie et directrice de l'Institut d'études féminines du monde arabe à l'Université libanaise américaine. Elle est décédée subitement le 6 janvier 2018.
Des amis et d'anciens collègues disent de Mona: « Pour lui rendre hommage, la meilleure chose à faire est de continuer à faire ce qu'elle a commencé: l'égalité de genre, à tout prix.
Snippet FEA What if we perceived land (EN)
What if we perceived land and Nature not as private property to exploit, but as a whole to live in, learn from, and harmoniously coexist with? What if we repaired our relationships with the land and embraced more sustainable alternatives that nurture both the planet and its communities?
Nous Sommes la Solution (We Are the Solution, NSS) is one of many women-led movements striving to do this. This is their story.
Clotilde Marquez Cruz
Ma langue ne fait pas partie des langues officielles de l’enquête, et j’ai du mal à y répondre - que puis-je faire?
L’AWID est engagée en faveur de la justice linguistique, et nous regrettons que l’enquête WITM ne puisse, à l’heure actuelle, être accessible dans d’autres langues. Cependant, si vous avez besoin d’une aide à la traduction ou que vous souhaitez participer à l’enquête dans une autre langue, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter à l’adresse witm@awid.org.
1. Gather your resources
This section highlights key resources recommended by AWID so you can conduct your own WITM research.
In this section
People needed
- 1 or more person(s) to lead overall implementation of research methodology and ensure all key pieces are on track (Sections 2-11)
- 1 or more person(s) to conceptualize the key research objectives and guiding questions
- 1 or more person(s) to refine and conduct the research methodology, including collecting data
- 1 or more person(s) to conduct relevant qualitative and quantitative analysis of collected data
- 1 or more person(s) to document and package research findings for desired audience(s)
- 1 or more person(s) to serve as an editor to your final products
- 1 or more person(s) to conduct outreach to spread the word about your survey and advocacy using your research results
Potential expenses
- Staff and/or consultant salaries
- Data analysis software if conducting analysis of large dataset in-house. Options:
- SPSS
- Stata
- R (this is free) - Cost of producing publications and research products
- If desired, incentive prize that survey participants can win if they complete the survey
- If desired, incentives to offer your advisors
Estimated time
- For research process: 6 to 18 months, depending on size of dataset(s) and staff capacity
- For advocacy: 1-2 years, as determined by your organizational goals
Resources needed
- List of advisor organizations, donors and activists
- List of online spaces and events/networks to distribute your survey and present your survey results
- List of donors, activists, and women’s rights organizations to interview
- Prepared interview questions
- List of publication sources to use for desk research
Resources available
- Sample 1 of Research Framing
- Sample 2 of Research Framing
- Example: 2011 WITM Global Survey
- Sample WITM Global Survey
- Sample letter to grantmakers requesting access to databases
- AWID Sample Interview Questions: Donors
- AWID Sample Interview Questions: Activists & Women’s Rights Organizations
- Sample Advocacy Plan
Online tools
- Survey Monkey: Free
- Survey Gizmo: Converts to SPSS for analysis very easily
- Tutorial: Gentle Introduction to Cleaning Data
- Visualization Tools
- “Ready to Go?” Worksheet
Once you gather these resources, you can estimate the costs for your research using our “Ready to Go? Worksheet”
Previous step
Next step

Previous step
Next step
The Ready to Go? Worksheet helps you estimate resources, staff and budget needed for your research
Olivia Arévalo Lomas
Olivia was the spiritual leader of the Shipibo Konibo indigenous peoples.
A wise Indigenous woman and grandmother, she was known for cultivating traditional medicine and the sacred songs of her people (Íkaros). Olivia Arevalo was an active defender of the cultural and environmental rights of her people. Olivia’s murder occurred in a context of territorial conflict between the Shipibo community and companies that desire to take over their land to cultivate palm oil.
Members of her community have said: “Her death is an aggression against the entire Shipibo community. She was the living memory of her people”.