By Naomi Carniol
Feminism came into its own in Canada in the 1970s. So it’s not surprising that many feminist organizations were founded more than 20 years ago and that most of their members are now middle-aged. But officials at the organizations insist they don’t have a problem attracting younger members.
“We are getting a lot of calls from young women. It started to become very noticeable this last year,” says Catharine Laidlaw-Sly, president of the National Council of Women.
Young women who approach the organization are primarily concerned about violence against women and that women still face barriers to equality at work.
“All of them have come in and said, ‘Do you realize how bad this is?’ Of course, I do, but I’m glad they do,” Laidlaw-Sly says.
Rashmi Bhat, a 28-year-old post-graduate student at the University of Western Ontario, joined the council two years ago. She was impressed by the council’s political stance and the fact that it represents so many women.Bhat is now the council’s youth convenor. Since joining the council, Bhat has written letters to government officials about women’s rights. “To me, that’s definitely a result of my involvement with the council,” she says. “I don’t think I’d have the backbone to send letters to ministers without it.”
To attract younger members, the council introduced student memberships four years ago. The board wanted more young women to get involved in politics, Laidlaw-Sly says.
“We said . . . we need to give these young women an opportunity. How can we support them?”
Now, student members make presentations to government boards, ministers and ministers’ aides on behalf of the council.
While young women are joining the National Council of Women, about 80 per cent of the organization’s 650,000 members are middle-aged or older.
“These are women who have raised their families, have retired or are working at a reduced level in the workforce,” Laidlaw-Sly says. “Younger women who are in the workforce and raising families . . . don’t have the time for this sort of work.”
It’s a similar situation at the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, or LEAF, an organization involved in court cases that affect women’s rights. Most of LEAF’s 5,000 members are older than 35.
Older volunteers don’t just have more time, they also have more money, director of development Angela Ryan-Rappaport says. “These are two things that make a big difference in terms of how much time someone has to volunteer.”
“But there is also a strong younger contingent,” Ryan-Rappaport, 27, says. Many of them found out about LEAF through law school.
LEAF Ottawa, for example, is entirely student-run. “We’re all female law students at the University of Ottawa,” spokesperson Katia Dal Ben says.
Dal Ben, 34, is a mature student, but she says most of the people on the executive board are about 25 years old.
Asked what draws young women to the organization, Dal Ben says, “Well, I can speak for myself. One thing that surprised me when I came and started working as volunteer is that the equality struggle isn’t over and especially in a career like the legal profession, . . .there’s still a tremendous amount of work to do.”
Not every feminist organization has witnessed a steady flow of young volunteers. MediaWatch, a Toronto-based organization, works to eliminate sexism in the media. There has been a drop in interest among young women, spokesperson Deborah Barretto says.
“In the past when we had co-op students, we had young women who defined themselves as feminists. In the last couple of years, the women have not had any awareness of feminism.”
Barretto adds that many think feminism is old news. “It’s like, ‘Oh, we’ve done that. That’s over with.’ ”
It’s a different story at the Canadian Women’s Health Network. The networks acts as a watchdog on womens’ health issues.
“We don’t have a problem getting young women involved,” spokesperson Kathleen O’Grady says.
Three-quarters of the network’s volunteers are older than 30, but many women in their 20s also volunteer, O’Grady says.
Young women play an important role in the organization,
O’Grady says. “It’s often the young people who can see how things can be better and they have the energy and idealism to make that happen.”