The Young Feminist Party is the political home for young feminists in the United States. We are building a powerful movement of young people, from communities and campuses across the country, to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and advance gender justice for all.

We started out in 2019 as a handful of teenagers in Virginia working to secure the 38th and final state ratification needed to publish the ERA. Since Virginia’s ratification in 2020, we have grown into a nationwide movement of over 14,000 young people organizing for gender justice in our communities and Constitution. Through direct actions, legislative advocacy, electoral organizing, and judicial advocacy, The Young Feminist Party recruits, trains, and mobilizes young people to advance feminist policies–whether that’s strengthening our school’s Title IX policies or amending our nation’s most foundational document.

We are a membership-based organization. Although our events and actions are open to all, members receive access to movement-wide communication channels, resources and supports, and opportunities to organize. As a democratic organization, members directly vote on our leadership, campaigns, and priorities.

WHO WE ARE

THE YOUNG FEMINIST PARTY

GOODBYE, GENERATION RATIFY. HELLO, YOUNG FEMINIST PARTY.

What’s in a name?

After more than four years with Generation Ratify, we knew our movement was ready for more. It was time that our name reflected the evolution of our organization and the true status of the Equal Rights Amendment. After our movement worked tirelessly in Virginia to make it the final and 38th state necessary to pass the ERA in its state legislature, the ERA became ratified. Yet, our opponents refuse to acknowledge this fact and unjustly delay the ERA’s publication into the Constitution. As we continue to organize for the finalization of the ERA, we want to be clear that our movement is for ALL feminist organizers and seeks to advance ALL feminist issues. And so, the Young Feminist Party was born. We’re more than an organization, we’re more than a movement. We are a political force reshaping discourse, action, and institutions of the policies determining our futures, our bodies, and our rights. We demand a feminist revolution, and nothing less. 

our movement’s mission:

  1. Finalize the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States Constitution.

  2. Advance gender justice policies on the school, local, state, and federal level.

  3. Provide comprehensive feminist and political education.

  4. Connect and resource student feminist organizations across high school, college, and graduate school campuses.

  5. Foster an empowering community of young feminist women and LGBTQ+ folks.

  6. Engage in feminist mutual aid efforts to support our communities.

MOVEMENT VISION

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MOVEMENT VISION •

Our collective understanding of gender justice that shapes our advocacy and interpretation of the Equal Rights Amendment. 

  • Tenet #1: Our vision of gender justice is anti-racist, and dismantles white supremacist patriarchy.

    The impacts of gender injustice are disproportionately felt by women of color and LGBTQ+ people of color, especially as it relates to economic equity, healthcare access, and gender-based violence. A single-axis framework of equality that accounts for just race or sex does not encompass the unique and intersectional experiences of women, queer, and transgender people of color. We affirm that the ERA is a racial justice tool necessary to build legal frameworks that fight against discrimination at the intersection of race and sex. We recognize our work to ensure multi-marginalized communities benefit from the protections of the ERA to the fullest extent.

  • Tenet #2: Our vision of gender justice demands reproductive justice for all.

    We affirm the rights of all people to bodily autonomy, the right to have or not have children, and the right to raise children in safe communities–a vision grounded in the reproductive justice framework created by SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Abortion is a human right and should be safe, legal, stigma-free, and accessible to all regardless of race, class, gender, age, disability, economic status, or geographic location. We recognize the difference between choice and access, and reject a sole focus on “choice” that excludes the realities of poor and working class abortion-seekers. Reproductive justice encompasses menstrual equity, birth justice, protections for pregnant workers, family court, comprehensive sex-education, contraception access, and an end to our history of medical experimentation on and forced sterilization of poor women and women of color. The ERA is an abortion-forward amendment and a tool to secure reproductive justice for all.

  • Tenet #3: Our vision of gender justice is queer and centers transgender lives.

    Queer and transgender people deserve affirmation, safety, justice, freedom, and full protection under the law. We fight against cis heteropatriarchy and organize for queer liberation. We are sex-positive and affirming of all. The ERA protects queer and transgender communities and guarantees fundamental human rights to healthcare, education, economic opportunities, and more. The protections granted “on the basis of sex” encompass gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality.

  • Tenet #4: Our vision of gender justice includes disability justice and rejects gendered ableism.

    We fight for the bodily, reproductive, and parental autonomy of disabled people. We demand an end to and reparations for the ableist history of eugenics and forced sterilization of disabled people. We organize for sex education and healthcare practices that fully include disabled experiences. We reject right-stripping structures like conservatorships that deny disabled people, disproportionately women, autonomy over their bodies, careers, and lives. We organize for an end to the gender-based and sexual violence that disproportionately impacts disabled people. We prioritize accessibility and the full inclusion of disabled people in our movement. The ERA is a legal tool to protect disabled people from gender-based violence and discrimination.

  • Tenet #5: Our vision of gender justice is rooted in economic justice.

    Capitalism and patriarchy work together to oppress women and LGTBQ+ folks, and poor and working class people experience the brunt of gender injustice. We organize for the economic security of women and LGBTQ+ and their full, unhindered participation in the economy. We reject sex-based barriers including workplace harassment, pay inequity, pregnancy and parental discrimination, and more. We organize for dignified work, livable wages, and the right to unionize as a means to advance gender justice. We recognize unions are sites for gender justice organizing, and understand the power of organized labor in all great social movements.

  • Tenet #6: Our vision of gender justice necessitates an end to all violence.

    Gender-based and hate-fueled violence disproportionately impact women and LGBTQ+ folks. Our movement fights for an end to all patriarchal violence–domestic, sexual, reproductive, homophobic, and transphobic. We reject state violence in the form of policing, mass incarceration, anti-immigrant attacks, and violence targeting Indigenous people. The ERA demands courts prioritize sex equality over the right to bear arms and challenges state-sanctioned violence.

  • Tenet #7: Our vision of gender justice encompasses religious freedom and pluralism.

    We emphasize the freedom to practice one's religion without government interference or bias, particularly when such interference threatens the security of individuals' rights. We are committed to safeguarding the indisputable right of all individuals to freely exercise their religious beliefs, including the right not to practice a religion. Recognizing the manipulative use of religious conviction by feminist foes to restrict and curtail individual rights, we boldly affirm interfaith feminist coalitions that courageously challenge monopolized religious norms contrary to gender justice, and endorse the ERA and its feminist gains particularly in the sphere of reproductive justice and queer rights.

  • Tenet #8: Our vision of gender justice is not limited by immigration or citizenship status. Gender justice is a human right owed to all people.

    We reject the dehumanization and detention of migrants, and the legal and procedural barriers in place that prevent migrants and undocumented people from accessing and participating in necessary healthcare, education, and economic systems. We reject the forced separation of families and children. We demand an end to racist practices of sterilization and intentional mistreatment of pregnant, postpartum, nursing people and their infants at detention centers. The ERA protects all people, regardless of documentation, from sex-based discrimination and is a legal tool to defend the dignity and rights of migrants.

  • Tenet #9: Our vision of gender justice is rooted in decolonial feminism and our movement is part of a transnational feminist struggle.

    Our domestic feminist principles remain consistent across borders. Our emphasis on uplifting and empowering marginalized Black, Indigenous, and other women and queer folk of color, reflects our support for dismantling imperial and colonial actors and their global sponsors that destabilize regions, precipitate violence, inequality and injustice. Our work incorporates Indigenous feminisms that combat oppressive, western constructs of gender and advocate for self-determination. We reject purple- and pink-washing and the exploitation of feminist issues to legitimize colonial regimes.

MOVEMENT PRINCIPLES

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MOVEMENT PRINCIPLES •

The set of values that we hold as Feminist Movement-Builders

  • Principle #1: We are a young people’s movement and understand the importance of intergenerational coalitions.

    Young people organize today for our futures tomorrow. As the people who stand the most to gain from action and the most to lose from inaction, young people have always been at the forefront of the ERA movement. Today’s youth have adapted a 100-year-old amendment to address contemporary feminist issues that disproportionately impact young people. The struggle for gender justice evolves and persists, and intergenerational wisdom informs our work. We work in coalitions that span across age to sustain and strengthen the movement.

  • Principle #2: We are a democratic movement.

    We are building the political home for all young feminists. Every member of our movement has the ability to participate in movement decisions and meaningfully lead on all levels of the organization. Through formalized democratic processes–including movement votes and elected leadership–and decentralized, horizontal organizational structures, all organizers are empowered to shape the vision, strategy, and operations of our movement. Transparency around movement decisions, finances, and resources are essential to our democratic movement.

  • Principle #3: We are a grassroots, people-powered movement.

    We need a mass movement to change our Constitution and to reimagine gender justice. Our power lies in our people and grassroots organization. We organize our communities across race and class. We build locally to win nationwide. We bring our people power to the streets, to the halls of legislatures, to the courts, and to the ballot box. We yield our people power to influence institutions, determine elections, and empower movement members to hold positions in these institutions. We are a grassroots-funded movement who does not answer to our donors.

  • Principle #4: We center people who stand to gain the most from our movement.

    Black and brown women and queer folks, low-income individuals, and all people from marginalized and disadvantaged backgrounds have the most to benefit from the gains of an ERA won, and the most to lose from an ERA lost. Our movement centers those in this position beyond aims of representation, but as a means for a winning movement strategy. Those who stand the most to gain will be the least satisfied with minimal gains and setbacks, those who stand to lose the most will not quit in a righteous pursuit of gender justice. Our movement’s energy derives itself from the impassioned lives, experiences, and sincere convictions of this country’s youngest, most diverse generation organizing for a future that recognizes, affirms, and upholds their constitutional gender equality through the ERA. None of us are free until all of us are free, and we won’t stop organizing until lived equality is a reality for all.

  • Principle #5: We believe in disruptive nonviolence and embrace experimentation.

    With our bodies, lives, and futures on the line, business cannot go on as usual. We boldly and loudly disrupt the comfort of those who stand in the way of our liberation. We shut down streets and occupy buildings. We counter state violence by organizing our communities, not violent action. We learn from the movements that came before us but understand novel experimentation in our tactics and organization is necessary to realize gender justice.

  • Principle #6: We invest in and empower the student movement.

    Students have always been on the forefront of social movements. Our school campuses–whether that’s an elementary or graduate school–are rich, innovative sites for radical movement-building. We organize on our campuses for change at our educational institutions and beyond. We form cross-campus student feminist coalitions. We leverage our resources and platforms of our institutions to advance gender justice. The students, united, will never be defeated.

  • Principle #7: We tell our stories as an act of revolutionary defiance.

    We use our stories to drive our work and bring people into our movement. We center the personal narratives of those within our movement, and actively uplift the voices of those who are routinely and systematically side-lined and marginalized. We recognize that our opposition seeks to drown out our voices and weaken community bonds. We reject this–and commit ourselves to building a people-first movement that platforms and represents those who stand to gain the most from the ERA.

  • Principle #8: We infuse joy, spirit, and creativity into our movement.

    We are enthusiastic, passionate, and relentless in our pursuit of gender justice. We take pride in our diverse identities and stories. We celebrate our movement,we fight to win, and we keep our spirits high to realize our constitutional equality. We center creativity and use art as a means of movement-building.

  • Principle #9: We stand in solidarity with movements for liberation and social justice.

    We recognize that all social movements are intrinsically tied to one another as the systems of oppression we battle are powerful, multi-faceted, and unified. Namely, we join our co-strugglers against the forces of capitalism, patriarchy, and white-supremacy that exploit our bodies, labor, and resources. We are committed to showing up for other movements and highlighting the intersectionality of the issues that we prioritize. Every movement is a feminist movement. We must all work together to win.

  • Principle #10: We support and uplift one another.

    Our grassroots, people-powered movement sustains our organizing with finite resources. Whether it’s one’s time, money, knowledge, skill, or any other resources, we give and fuel the movement how we can. We pool our movement resources and redistribute them according to the needs of movement members–including redistributing the wealth to support poor and working-class communities.