Calling all DC interns and feminists! The Feminist Majority Foundation’s annual intern briefing is upon us, and this year it’s going to be better than ever.
This year, for the first time, our very own interns will be speaking in addition to keynote speakers from Congress and FMF. We’ve been working hard all summer becoming experts on our individual projects and the women’s issues that are relevant right now, and we want to spread the passion that we’ve been cultivating to our fellow interns around the Capital. In addition to the intern panel, speakers will include feminist leaders Eleanor Smeal, Rep. Jackie Speier, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney. We’re hoping the combination of their experience with the accessible voices of their peers will fire up any budding feminists in attendance and give them the tools to take their activism further.
The focus of the briefing will be student activism, and while panelists will be educating the audience, they also want the focus to be on constructive action. All too often, our generation feels disempowered or overwhelmed by the decisions made for them by the federal and state governments. Things like TRAP laws and the recent SCOTUS decisions frustrate college age students, but many are at a loss for how to go forward. We want our briefing to get them even more fired up, but we know many of our peers already care—they just don’t know how to get involved. If you’re wondering how you can jump in as a student or intern activist in the fight for gender equality, our intern briefing should help give you some starting points.
We’ll cover topics that include CEDAW (The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women), international family planning and the unmet need for contraception, campus sexual assault, economic issues, and the ERA. Some of these topics, like CEDAW and the ERA, have been around for a while and need a revitalized push to progress. Others are hot topics for young people: campus sexual assault is relevant to every student in attendance and is being discussed in the current Congress as well. Our panelists will cover each issue and what their fellow interns and students can do to help, while the speakers will drive home the relevance of the issues and show that there is support for our passions within the governmental sphere.
It’s so important for students to be activists in their own communities and ensure that everyone has the tools to do so. If any of this has piqued your interest, please RSVP online. We’d love to see you there!
