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
Snippet - Intro CSW69_ES
#CongelarFascismos
#FreezeFascisms
A 30 años de la adopción de la Declaración y Plataforma de Acción de Beijing, existe una ola creciente de fascismos que ejercen gran poder e influencia en los espacios multilaterales, todo un retroceso para las conquistas de igualdad de género y la protección de los derechos humanos en el mundo entero.
En torno a la CSW69, estamos organizando, en conjunto y de forma horizontal, una serie de valientes espacios sobre el terreno y en línea a fin de compartir estrategias y forjar un poder feminista más allá de Beijing +30. Nuestra presencia colectiva trastorna las prácticas institucionales de exclusión en dichos espacios y, a la vez, apoya los procesos de organización de los movimientos en torno a las alternativas feministas a los sistemas de opresión.
Súmate a las conversaciones desde el 10 al 21 de marzo de 2025, mientras transformamos de forma colectiva la CSW69 en espacios para y sobre la resistencia y la solidaridad.
Juli Dugdale
Juli Dugdale fue una feminista australiana que practicaba un liderazgo intergeneracional arraigado en los principios del feminismo, la inclusión y la igualdad. Fue líder, colega y mentora para muchas mujeres, especialmente, para las mujeres jóvenes de todo el mundo.
Juli fue una integrante comprometida del equipo del movimiento Young Women's Christian Association [Asociación Cristiana de Mujeres Jóvenes] (YWCA, por su siglas en inglés), una voluntaria y una ferviente defensora del liderazgo de las mujeres jóvenes por más de 30 años.
Se convirtió en un vínculo fuerte entre el movimiento australiano y la Oficina de la YWCA Mundial. Su confianza en la capacidad de liderazgo de las mujeres jóvenes llevó a establecer una asociación de varios años con el Departamento de Asuntos Exteriores y Comercio de Australia y a la creación del manual Rise Up (Rebélate), una guía global para el liderazgo transformador de las mujeres jóvenes, lanzada en 2018.
Juli falleció en Ginebra el 12 de agosto de 2019.
Tributos:
"Para quienes llegaron a trabajar con Juli, fue un privilegio. Quienes no lo hicieron, pueden tener la certeza de que su legado continúa en el trabajo que hacemos cada día y en la misión del movimiento de la YWCA". - YWCA Australia
"Juli Dugdale siempre ocupará un lugar profundo en el corazón de muchas personas en el movimiento de la YWCA, especialmente aquí, en Aotearoa, y a través del Pacífico. Juli tenía una relación especial con el Pacífico y fue un apoyo increíble para las mujeres jóvenes de allí. Ella era humilde, amable, cariñosa, dedicada, apasionada y tenía un corazón generoso. Ella encarnó la visión de la YWCA de "liderazgo transformador" con una extraordinaria visión y previsión de futuro, y ayudó a empoderar a generaciones de mujeres jóvenes líderes de todo el mundo". - YWCA Nueva Zelanda
Snippet FEA Get Involved Story 4 (FR)
FRMag - United against violence (FR)
Ensemble contre la violence
par Karina Ocampo
C’est dans un recoin caché du Chiapas, au Mexique, que nous sommes arrivées, femmes et dissidentes sexuelles, pour organiser nos actions. (...)
< illustration : « La muerte sale por el Oriente » [la mort se lève à l’Est], par Sonia Madrigal
Nicole Barakat




somos infinitxs
Una exposición de Nicole Barakat que encarna su reconexión con los objetos de la diáspora de sus tierras ancestrales en la región del Sudoeste Asiático y África del Norte (SWANA, por sus siglas en inglés).
Barakat presenta una colección de obras textiles como manifestaciones de su práctica de conectarse con los objetos desplazados, y a menudo robados, que son exhibidos en colecciones de museos occidentales que incluyen el Museo del Louvre de París, el Museo Británico de Londres y el Nicholson Museum de Sydney.
Para burlar a los guardianes y fisurar las vitrinas que retienen estos objetos ancestrales, Barakat recupera formas de conocimiento precoloniales, no lineales y receptivas que son, a menudo, devaluadas y desestimadas por las instituciones coloniales y patriarcales, utilizando la adivinación con la borra del café, el trabajo con los sueños, la escucha intuitiva y las conversaciones con los objetos mismos (fuente).
Sobre Nicole Barakat

Sus trabajos incluyen dibujos en papel y en tela cortados y cosidos a mano, esculturas realizadas con su propio cabello, tela y materiales vegetales, así como obras en vivo en las que utiliza su voz como material.
La práctica creativa de Nicole está arraigada en el re-cuerdo y la re-colección de sus conocimientos ancestrales, incluyendo la adivinación con la borra del café y, más recientemente, el trabajo con esencias de plantas y flores para el cuidado y la sanación comunitaria.
Nicole’s creative practice is rooted in re-membering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing, including coffee divination and more recently working with plants and flower essences for community care and healing.
Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros
Snippet - CSW69 - Feminist Solidarity Space - FR
Espace de solidarité féministe
✉️ Sur inscription pour les grands groupes. Espace ouvert pour les petits groupes. Inscrivez-vous ici
📅 Mardi 11 mars 2025
🕒12.00h-14.00h et 16.00h-18.00h EST
🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor New York
Organisé par : AWID
Sarah Maldoror
“Je n’adhère pas au concept de ‘tiers-monde’. Je fais des films pour que les gens puissent les comprendre indépendamment de leur race ou de leur couleur. Pour moi, il n’y a que des exploiteurs et des exploités, c’est tout. Faire un film, c’est prendre position.” - Sarah Maldoror
Son film révolutionnaire Sambizanga (1972), avec son “image révolutionnaire”, retrace la lutte de libération anticoloniale des activistes angolais et retranscrit le point de vue d’une femme qui se trouve dans ce moment historique.
“Pour beaucoup de cinéastes africains, le cinéma est un outil de la révolution, une éducation politique pour transformer les consciences. Il s’inscrivait dans l’émergence d’un cinéma du Tiers-Monde cherchant à décoloniser la pensée pour favoriser des changements radicaux dans la société.” - Sarah Maldoror
Au cours de sa carrière, Sarah a fondé, aux côtés d’un certain nombre d’artistes africain·e·s et caribéen·ne·s, la première compagnie de théâtre noire en France (1956). Elle a réalisé une quarantaine de films, y compris d’importants documentaires qui mettent en valeur les vies et l’oeuvre d’artistes noir·e·s, notamment celles de son ami et poète Aimé Césaire qui lui écrivit ceci:
“À Sarah Maldoror qui, caméra au poing,
combat l’oppression, l’aliénation
et défie la connerie humaine”.
Sarah a également voulu permettre aux femmes africaines de s'approprier davantage le processus de réalisation des films. Dans une interview, elle faisait remarquer :
"La femme africaine doit être partout. Elle doit être à l'image, derrière la caméra, au montage, à toutes les étapes de la fabrication d'un film. C'est elle qui doit parler de ses problèmes…”
Sarah a laissé un héritage incroyablement puissant qui doit être transmis.
Née le 19 juillet 1929, Sarah est décédée le 13 avril 2020 des suites de complications liées au coronavirus.
Regardez Sambizanga et lisez la critique de film parue dans le New York Times en 1973 (seulement en anglais)
Snippet FEA Intro Acknowledgments (EN)
We would like to thank the Amar.ela collective of women feminists activists and creatives who made this series possible, and especially Natalia Mallo (the team’s octopus) for her support and accompaniment throughout this journey.
We also extend our deepest gratitude and admiration to all the collectives and people who participated in this project, and we thank them for sharing their time, wisdom, dreams and hopes with us. We thank you for making this world a more just, feminist and sustainable one.
We hope the rest of the world will be as inspired by their stories as we are.
FRMag - Esmeralda takes over the Internet
Esmeralda takes over the Internet : How social media has helped Romani women to reclaim visibility
by Émilie Herbert-Pontonnier
Remember Esmeralda? The exotic "Gypsy" heroine born under the pen of the French literary giant Victor Hugo and popularized by Disney studios with their Hunchback of Notre Dame. (...)
< artwork: “Si las marronas lo permiten” by Nayare Soledad Otorongx Montes Gavilan
Les tendances antidroits au sein des systèmes régionaux des droits humains
Chapter 6
À la Commission africaine et au Système interaméricain, les antidroits promeuvent les notions essentialistes de culture et de genre pour miner les avancées en matière de droits et décrédibiliser la redevabilité. Les antidroits gagnent en influence dans les systèmes de protection des droits humains régionaux et internationaux.

2019 JUIN 27 Réunion du Groupe d'examen de la mise en œuvre du Sommet en Colombie
La Commission africaine des droits de l’Homme et des peuples commence à présenter les droits des femmes et droits sexuels comme mettant en danger sa capacité à adresser les « droits réels » et contraires aux « valeurs africaines », un précédent inquiétant à l’égard des droits. Le retrait de son statut d’observatrice à la Coalition des lesbiennes africaines est un exemple de cette tendance, et traduit la répression de l’engagement féministe panafricaniste.
Au sein de l’Organisation des États américains (OEA) et du Système interaméricain de protection des droits humains, les stratégies antidroits incluent l’ONGisation de groupes religieux, l’adoption d’un langage séculier et la prise de contrôle de cadres discriminatoires. L’influence antidroits a pris plusieurs formes, et notamment l’intimidation d’activistes trans et l’entrave à l’introduction d’un langage progressif dans les résolutions.
Sommaire
- Réduire les féministes au silence au sein du Système africain de protection des droits humains
- Les groupes antidroits en Amérique latine : l’Assemblée générale de l’Organisation des États américains (OEA) et le Système interaméricain de protection des droits humains
Safia Ahmed-Jan
Snippet - Resources to rally - FR
Ressources à mobiliser en vue de la CSW69
Gloria Chicaiza
Gloria Chicaiza, an Ecuadorian social and environmental activist, was a fervent defender of land and water. She defied the status quo, fighting against a model of development based on extraction and worked tirelessly for ecological justice and the rights of communities affected by mining.
In diverse areas of Ecuador, Gloria was part of resistance actions in favour of protecting the ecosystem. With passion and dedication, Gloria supported the indigenous and environmental movement, its communities and organizations who oppose mining projects and protect their territories and collective life projects. She spoke out, in local and international foras, against the criminalization of dissent and resistance, the pressure and violence being enacted against community activists, in particular, women human rights defenders and in support of community led efforts for food sovereignty and sustainability.
She was the Mining Justice Coordinator at Acción Ecológica, member of the Latin American Network of Women Defenders of the Social and Environmental Rights and a Board member at the Observatory of Mining Conflicts of Latin America.
In October 2010, Gloria was accused by the mining company Curimining / Salazar Resources S.A. (with Headquarters in Vancouver, Canada) of sponsoring an act of terrorism, sabotage and illegal association to commit a crime. Acción Ecológica believed this to be “in retaliation for her work of denouncing the impacts of mining activities in the country.”
In 2014, Gloria supported the coordination of a delegation to the UN COP 20 Dialogue on Climate Change. The group consisted of 25 Indigenous women from Latin America.
Gloria passed away due to complications from a lung transplant on December 28, 2019. She is remembered for her resistance and tireless work.
"The fastest way to achieve sustainability is still resistance." - Gloria Chicaiza (2010 interview)
Tributes:
“Para GLORIA. GLORIA Agua. GLORIA Tierra. GLORIA Madre. GLORIA Revolución. GLORIA Hermana. GLORIA Cielo. GLORIAmiga. GLORIAstral. Thank you for weaving us together.” -Liliana Gutierrez
“Thank you Glorita, for sustaining hope, for keeping the fabric strong, for connecting the community, for the united hands, for solidarity, thank you Glorita for standing with us in the most difficult moments. Thank you for teaching us that throughout life, nobody gets tired.” (Chakana News)
“Gloria Chicaiza cherished and flourished in being one of many. And as humble as she was, she had an uncanny ability to lead and maintain a steady and thunderous beat, a life-affirming pulse that guided, mobilized, and inspired communities and networks in the protection of Mother Earth. She denounced all forms of violence against cuerpos-territorios. She endorsed el buen vivir.” - Gabriela Jiménez, Latin America Partnerships Coordinator, KAIROS
“Thank you Gloria Chicaiza from infinity we are sure that you will continue to support our struggle. You who continued to struggle with us despite your failing health. You will live on in the forests and the water that you defended with such courage. You will live on in our hearts.”- The community of Intag in Ecuador
Snippet - GII Intro (FR)
Investissement à impact de genre et émergence de fausses solutions :
une analyse pour les mouvements féministes
L'investissement à impact de genre est désormais considéré comme une solution contre les inégalités de genre. Et pourtant, comme le montre notre rapport, il fait partie du problème. Les institutions publiques et privées en font la promotion en tant que moyen pour parvenir à l'égalité de genre et pour accroître les ressources des femmes et des filles.
Mais en aucun cas, ces affirmations ne sont étayées par des preuves.
Au contraire, l’investissement à impact de genre constitue plutôt une nouvelle version de vies et de sociétés soumises à une même logique financière, qui continue de façonner les profondes inégalités de notre monde.
Avec ce rapport, l'AWID offre aux lecteurs·rices - féministes, défenseur·euse·s de la justice de genre et autres parties prenantes de l'investissement à impact de genre - une analyse critique et des preuves étayées pour comprendre l’investissement à impact de genre, ses récits et les implications économiques et politiques qu’il a pour les mouvements féministes.
FRMag - Let the invisible be visible
Hagamos que lo invisible sea visible: manifiesto de unx fisicoculturista de género fluido en Hong Kong
por Siufung Law
«¡97…! 98… ¿dónde está 98? ¡98! ¡Por favor, vuelve a la formación!... ¡99! ¡100!...» La dama detrás del escenario le pedía incesantemente a cada atleta que formara una fila en el espacio húmedo, transpirado y abarrotado detrás de escena. (...)
< arte: «When They See Us» [Cuando nos ven], Lame Dilotsotlhe
Transnational Embodiments - Editor's Note
Lost For Words |
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| Chinelo Onwualu | Ghiwa Sayegh |
When we are desperate for change, as we are both in illness and insurrection, our language drains of complexity, becomes honed to its barest essentials... As illness and revolution persist, though, the language made in them and about them deepens, lets in more nuance, absorbed in the acutely human experience of encountering one’s limits at the site of the world’s end.
Johanna Hedva
When we began scheming for such an issue with Nana Darkoa, ahead of AWID’s Crear | Résister | Transform: a festival for feminist movements!, we departed from a question that is more of an observation of the state of the world – a desire to shift ground: why do our sexualities and pleasures continue to be tamed and criminalized even as we are told, over and over again, that they bring neither value nor progress? We came to the conclusion that when they are embodied, something about our sexualities works against a world order that continues to manifest itself in border controls, vaccine apartheids, settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and rampant capitalism. Could we speak, then, of the disruptive potential of our sexualities? Could we still do that when, in order to be resourced, our movements are co-opted and institutionalized.

When our embodied labor becomes profit in the hands of the systems we seek to dismantle, it is no wonder that our sexualities and pleasures are once again relegated to the sidelines – especially when they are not profitable enough. In many instances during the production of this issue, we asked ourselves what would happen if we refused to accommodate the essential services of capitalism. But can we dare ask that question when we are exhausted by the world? Perhaps our sexualities are so easily dismissed because they are not seen as forms of care. Perhaps what we need is to reimagine pleasure as a form of radical care – one that is also anti-capitalist and anti-institutional.
As we enter our second full year of a global pandemic, our approach to transnational embodiments has had to focus on a single political realization: that taking care is a form of embodiment. And because right now so much of our work is being done without consideration for the borders between and within ourselves, we are all Transnationally Embodied – and we are all failing. We are failing to take care of ourselves and more critically, to take care of each other.
This failure is not of our own making.
Many of our parents thought of labor as transactional, something to be given in exchange for compensation and a guarantee of care. And while that exchange was not always honored, our parents did not expect that their work would provide them fulfillment. They had their leisure, their hobbies, and their communities for that. Today, we their children, who have been conditioned to think of our labor as intertwined with our passion, have no such expectations. We think of work and leisure as one and the same. For too many of us, work has come to embody our whole selves.
However, heteropatriarchal capitalism doesn’t value us, let alone our labor or our sexualities. This is a system that will only demand more and more until you die. And when you die, it will replace you with somebody else. Expectations to be online round the clock mean we simply can’t get away from work, even when we want to. This commercialization of labor, divorcing it from the person, has infiltrated every aspect of our lives and is being perpetuated even in the most feminist, the most radical and revolutionary circles.
Capitalist expectations have always been particularly pernicious to bodies who don’t fit its ideal. And those seeking to consolidate their powers have used the pandemic as an opportunity to target women, sexual minorities, and any others that they see as less than.
This special issue exists because of, and certainly in spite of this.
Almost every contributor and staff member was pushing themselves past their capacity. Every single piece was produced from a place of passion, but also incredible burnout. In a very real way, this issue is an embodiment of transnational labor – and in the digital world we live in, all labor has become transnational labor. As we have to contend with new borders that do not break an old order but reify it, we experienced firsthand, alongside our contributors, how capitalism drains our limits – how it becomes difficult to construct cohesive arguments, especially when these come with a deadline. We collectively became lost for words – because we are lost for worlds.
Feeling lost and alone in the world of heteropatriarchal capitalism is exactly why we need to re-evaluate and rethink our systems of care. In many ways, we turned this issue into a mission of finding pleasure in care. Because it has become more difficult to construct cohesive arguments, visual and creative mediums have come to the forefront. Many who used to write have turned to these mediums as ways to produce knowledge and cut through the mental fog that’s enveloped us all. We brought into the issue other voices, in addition to many whom you heard at the festival, as a way of opening up new conversations, and extending our horizons.

As we are robbed of our words, it is our political duty to continue to find ways to maintain and care for ourselves and each other. So much of our current realities are trying to erase and displace us, while still exploiting our labor. Our embodiment, therefore, becomes a form of resistance; it is the beginning of us finding our way out and into ourselves.
Rachel Bhagwan
Snippet - CSW69 - Transfeminist Alliances - EN
Transfeminist Alliances Against Fascism
✉️ By registration only. Register here
📅 Thursday, March 13, 2025
🕒 09.30-11.30am EST
🏢 Outright International Office, 17th Floor, 216 E 45th Street, New York
🎙️AWID speaker: Inna Michaeli, Co-Executive Director
Organizer: Outright International

