Did you ever get that sinking feeling there was just something wrong? Wrong in the sense that what you used believe in just didn’t seem worth it anymore somehow or make sense?
That is how I was beginning to feel about women’s rights. Maybe that might be rhetorical to some, but it is simple just the fact that many women are feeling society today.
Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Democrat, Republican, Liberal, and Conservative: all words women label themselves as. Could there any more reasons why the women’s movement just felt like it falling apart to some of us? That gap is just getting bigger and bigger. Sexism just getting more and more acceptable by the media, men taking total advantage of the divide between women of different political leanings. Stalling and even setting back any progress that the women’s movement had worked so hard to towards over the years.
I just felt lost.
Then a funny thing happened. I am cooking dinner in the mad dash that many working moms conduct on a daily bases and listening to the constant coverage of the Palin/Letterman battle. A single word nearly slapped me across the face. In between the drone of the pundit’s voice, I hear the word “Non-Partisan” in a female voice. Now over the months we have all heard this word and come to expect it. But this time it is being referenced to a feminist organization. I needed to know more. So I ordered the family a pizza and proceeded to watch an interview with co-founder of The New Agenda, Amy Siskind.
She spoke with such sincerity about the issues that are driving a wedge through the women’s movement and how to unity to resolve it. In disbelief and a renewed sense of excitement for the possibilities I had to hear directly from her what The New Agenda is about and how it came to be.
Here is that conversation …
Interviewer: Tell me, how did you get into Feminist activism?
Amy: Well, I worked on Wall Street for twenty years and in 2006, I took time off to spend time to my kids and my community. At that point, I got involved with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, volunteering during her run for Senate. Hillary was actually my inspiration to get involved in anything political. It was the first time I related to a candidate.
