On February 19, the topic of the monthly Internet Advocacy Center Roundtable at the Center for American Progress was Feminism2.0. Organizers Shireen Mitchell, Heather Holdridge, Liza Sabater and Gloria Pan, and key participants Latifa Lyles of the National Organization for Women and Jessica Arons of the Center for American Profress Fund, were invited to share insights and lessons from the conference. With Dr. Alan Rosenblatt moderating, a good time was had by all.
Check out the video, here.
I watched the video late at night and I dozed off about 45 minutes in, so I’ll have to go back and catch the end, but I think the issue of how the various feminist/womanist/progressive groups work together effectively is an important one to keep discussing in these kinds of venues. In fact, I would like to see much more of this kind of transparency between and among women’s movement. See my comment on the wiki in discussion of White House Council.
In the comment, I suggest the concept of “specialization” for women’s movement, and Gloria replies that she likes the idea but that egos and competition prevent that from working. Ok, I understand that! I understand egos and competitiveness! So, that’s where we leave it?
We feminists, womanists and activists have enough obstacles to surmount without adding our own narcissistic self-sabotaging. Our ego trips need to get left at the door! As I’ve been saying here and everywhere, we have an unprecedented opportunity with the Obama administration to really change the world. If egos are all that’s preventing the vast numbers of women’s groups, feminist bloggers, womanist bloggers, progressive activists, LGBT activists and other agents for change to work together to achieve our most powerful incarnation yet, then I say Let’s Confront Ourselves.