History

Through her work in North Philadelphia as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, Alison Stein met a younger woman Kate. A 30 year-old single mother with two children, Kate could not afford childcare. Yet she did not vote for a referendum that would have expanded the number of childcare grants available from her city’s government. Instead of understanding that policy changes could improve her life, Kate blamed herself for her inability to afford childcare even though she was working two jobs. During her remaining years at Penn, Alison continued to meet younger women who had internalized their hardships and were therefore, disengaged from the activism that could improve their lives. As Alison began to research a place where she could help younger women feel empowered to create change in their communities and in their lives, she discovered a critical gap. While a number of organizations targeted college-age women and other organizations attracted adult women over the age of forty, women in their 20s and 30s did not have an institution to advocate for their concerns. They did not have a mechanism through which to be active on the issues that affected their lives as younger women.

When Alison graduated from college she moved to Washington, DC to work for a national women’s organization. On her first day of work, she wore pointed-toe, high-heeled shoes. Standing in the kitchen, one of the woman leaders of the organization looked down at Alison’s feet with a disgusted grimace on her face. “We feminists fought for forty years so women like you did not have to squeeze your feet into shoes like those,” she said as she pointed towards Alison’s feet. Alison looked back at her and replied, “I thought you feminists fought for forty years so we could wear whatever we want to wear.” At that moment, Alison realized that the organized women’s movement might not be a place where younger women from across the country feel welcome and engaged. From these experiences, the idea of a Younger Women’s Task Force (YWTF) was born.

In June 2004, Alison was working as an assistant to Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO). When she discussed the idea of a Younger Women’s Task Force with Dr. Burk, Dr. Burk agreed that NCWO would be a perfect place to house YWTF. That month, Alison gathered a group of 25 other younger women leaders in Washington, DC. These women became the Founding National Coordinating Committee. They held their first brainstorming session in June 2004 to discuss how to launch YWTF. At the meeting, they decided that before they could officially “found” YWTF, they needed to hold a Meet-Up of younger women from across the country to discover the issues that today’s younger women care about. Working intensely for six months, they sent invitations to over 5,000 women from across the country, from diverse backgrounds and places. The Meet-Up, held in January 2005, brought 130 women from 42 different states to Washington, DC to draft a Younger Women’s Issues Agenda. At the Meet-Up, they also established YWTF chapters across the country, and officially commenced the work of the Task Force. To read more about the Meet-Up, click here.

Today, YWTF has grown to 2,500+ members in 30 states. Through its ten chapters across the country, YWTF is working tirelessly to advance the rights of younger women, empowering them to create change in their own communities. In less than six months, YWTF has created a network of younger women across the nation.