Young women in the contemporary Australian women’s movement: collective identity, discursive politics and “postsocialist” dilemmas

Abstract

[Introduction]: In the mid to late 1990s the Australian women’s movement was consumed by suggestions of inter-generational warfare that distracted movement actors from some important tasks. Questions were raised about the presence and visibility of young women in the movement. Assertions that some forms of feminist praxis were ‘good’, and some were not, undervalued the value of the important work being done in this ‘between the waves’ moment. In this paper I contend that young women are playing a key role in maintaining the political space available for Australian feminist activism in a “postsocialist” context. I argue against the generational paradigm as a model for understanding changes that occur within social movements over time. Further I argue that, despite both media rhetoric and the claims of some young feminists, there is little to suggest that the activism of contemporary young feminists constitutes a ‘third wave’ of the women’s movement. I offer an understanding of this “cross-generational moment” (Zita 1997:1) that draws a more productive and inclusive picture of the role of young women in the contemporary Australian women’s movement. Show more