Tripod Home | New | TriTeca | Work/Money | Politics/Community | Living/Travel | Planet T | Daily Scoop

Third Wave ... or Low Tide? The Struggles of a Young Feminist Advocacy Group by marni davis

The meeting was scheduled for 7 pm, but by 8 only half of Third Wave's executive board had shown up. Chairperson Amy Richards went through the list of M.I.A.s: this one said she'd be late, that one said she'd try to make it, another was busy visiting a friend who'd just had a baby. To give the tardier women a little more time, Richards bypassed her agenda and pulled out a short stack of résumés -- young women who'd expressed interest in being on Third Wave's executive board. More specifically, in replacing the current leadership. Most of the résumés were impressive, some extraordinary. One boasted fluency in four foreign languages, including Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese. Another's "Computer Skills" section went on for five lines. Richards picked a résumé off the floor and said, "This one used to be a stripper!" Whoops of approval all around. angela riley -- who spells her name in all lowercase, a la feminist cultural critic bell hooks, and had kept track of Third Wave's finances for the past year -- arrived just as everyone was enthusing over an applicant with substantial accounting experience. Would riley be willing to interview this woman, possibly even train her? The response was blunt: she'd make the initial call, but "I'm not going to make that kind of time commitment." She got up to leave, and everyone smiled goodbye. As soon as riley was gone, smiles became grimaces, and the discussion turned to a less cheerful but not unexpected topic: "We need a new infusion of energy." And variations on that theme: "We're in a transition period." "We need to generate some enthusiasm." That's a generous way of putting it. Another, less understated way, might be: Feminism, as an organized effort, is in a serious rut, and there's no indication that the much-needed "infusion of energy" will come anytime soon. What is Third Wave? Third Wave and Politics (Third Wave's Crisis of Relevancy) What Now for Third Wave? Marni Davis is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Her work has appeared in The New York Press, Bust and Tripod's Tools for Life magazine. © 1996 Tripod, Inc. All Rights Reserved.