By Erica Schwanke © 2008

With the profile on Hilary Clinton, and the current developments in the primaries, the Get to Know the Candidates series has come to a conclusion. I hope that the time you spent reading it got you thinking about the social issues presented and their place in the modern political climate. You’ve been given some information about a few select issues, and I hope you’ve started to turn a few things over in your mind. At some point in your reading, you may have learned about a candidate’s stance that opposes your personal ideals and started wondering what you could do to change this. Well, the answer is, you can do a lot.

This article is the first of a seven-part series—appropriately named Action!—exploring how to become involved in activism for seven different causes based on the issues explored in the Get to Know the Candidates series. If democracy is commonly defined as “government by the people,” then it is our responsibility to make sure the people are heard. This series, starting with feminism and civil rights activism, will profile young adult activists and attempt to inspire you as a reader to become personally involved in the democratic process.

Let’s start with a brief history of feminism. Although we continue to use the same term, feminism has changed throughout the decades and is typically divided into three waves. The first wave is historically tied with women’s suffrage (right to vote) and abolitionism (elimination of slavery). The second wave developed in the 1960s, with the fight for equal rights as well as the rejection of limiting women to domestic roles, increased protection against sexual harassment, and advocacy of a fair pay scale between men and women. Finally, we reach third-wave feminism, which carries on the second wave’s push for equal rights but works to expand it. Third-wave feminism is concerned with all forms of repression and patriarchy, working to make sure no one is defined or limited by his or her race, gender, or sexuality. Both of the individuals interviewed for this article identify with this third wave of feminism.

Jill Bartell is a current student at the University of Minnesota, where she is majoring in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS). She currently lives in Minneapolis with her girlfriend and her cat, Luna. Before coming to the University of Minnesota, Bartell attended high school in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis. It was there, at the age of 16, that Bartell first became involved with feminist activism.

As the only person out as queer in her entire high school, Bartell explains that activism began, for her, as a method of coping with her feelings of alienation. Searching for a community of like-minded individuals, Jill began to volunteer for a city-run social services center called Familink as well as women’s shelters in the Twin Cities. The self-described “rebellious” teenager’s efforts did not go unnoticed, and by the time she graduated from high school, Bartell had been voted “most likely to change the world” by her classmates. Yet this doesn’t mean that Bartell’s activism met no resistance. During her senior year of high school, Bartell worked to create an American Civil Liberties Union Student Group, and the school promptly told her no.

Still dealing with alienation Bartell turned inward for inspiration, reminding herself that she was “doing what I felt I had to do.” Bartell became what she refers to as a “self-educated” activist, reading everything she could get her hands on and, as she admits somewhat defensively, listening to a lot of Ani DiFranco. Again, Bartell turned to volunteering, this time using it as a tool of “survival.” Tired of being the only out queer individual in her community and frustrated with the limits placed on her by her high school, Bartell knew she needed to find a community where her identity and personal beliefs could be formed and reflected. She found this in the activist community.

As a college student, Bartell remains active in multiple community organizations. Currently, Bartell is working to organize the annual Dyke March, which takes place during the Twin Cities GLBT Pride Festival; she is also involved in the Transmarch Collective and Communities United Against Police Brutality and has recently founded a support group for fellow activists at the University of Minnesota, where people can congregate to discuss issues in their own activist work and find inspiration as well as support. Bartell’s advice to people who feel the alienation she once felt and young activists is to “have an awareness of who you are and make your life more livable.” She believes that every individual should fight to protect her right to self-determination in any medium possible, adding, “It is your right and obligation to yourself and everyone around you to make the world safe in the face of something that can be dehumanizing.”

The activism fire in Stephanie Taylor was sparked during her freshman year of college. The South Dakota native became enraged when she learned of her home state’s decision to make abortion illegal. Taylor felt as though her rights were being taken away as well as “half the population’s rights.” For Taylor, South Dakota’s choice to make abortion illegal forced her into a state of political awareness and, as she put it, “made me understand how invested people have to be in their government and their self-interests.”

After her freshman year of college, Taylor moved home for the summer wanting to work on a pro-choice campaign. The signed abortion bill had suffered so much backlash that it was up for a vote, and Taylor became involved in the South Dakota Referred Law 6 campaign to overturn the bill. She also became involved in another campaign, working to fight the state’s move to define marriage as between a man and a woman. This campaign aimed to educate individuals that this definition, if written in law, negatively affected all marriages and partnerships, regardless of gender.

After a summer of activism, Taylor says that “something clicked,” and she became increasingly involved with politics. After returning to Minneapolis, Taylor enrolled in a university-sponsored internship program, signing on as the intern political organizer for Take Action Minnesota. Taylor worked with the St. Paul City Council Elections, organizing a local chapter of the Election Protection Campaign, a nonpartisan national campaign that protects people’s right to vote. Taylor organized a team of volunteers, including poll monitors who stood at the polls and ensured that no illegal measures were taken to stop people from voting, and a hot line where Hmong and Spanish translators and lawyers were available to assist individuals and answer legal questions regarding voting rights.

Today, at age twenty, Taylor splits her time between school and activist work with NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota, the Women’s Student Activist Collective, and Students for a Democratic Society. For budding activists, Taylor gives this piece of advice: “Start with what you know, in your own community, and work within a small circle of influence to raise consciousness and create conversation. Informing other people will help you become focused. Work with student groups or activists where you see yourself and your personal interests reflected.”