Hello everyone! I’m Heather Grantham, the current Office of Women’s Advocacy Young Adult Intern for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go to the National Organization for Women’s national conference in Albany, NY. This conference was awesome! Never before have I ever been around such an affirming group of women. I was affirmed for being a young adult, a feminist, a Christian, for being an activist, AND for being me. So much happened at this conference and I fear I cannot talk about it all in this blog post!

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is celebrating its 40th anniversary, so this conference was a definite celebration of how far women have come, but also a look at how far we have yet to go. The weekend was broken up into learning workshops, political briefings, and the business session. All day Friday was centered around Young Feminists, with special attention given to topics interesting young adults (i.e. The ABC of STDs and I’m Not a Feminist But…) The workshops I attended were: The Global Feminist Movement, Invisible Women: Stolen and Sold, Working Together for a Feminist Future: Intergenerational Perspectives, Winning the Battle One State at a Time: Reproductive Rights and the States, Immigration is a Feminist Issue, Faith and Feminism, and Feminist Media Reform.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight just a few things from the workshops. NOW is doing some wonderful things in regards to learning about feminism from different cultures. Recently a delegation went down to Venezuela and Cuba to learn from women in that context. This trip wasn’t about teaching women how to be feminist – it was about learning who these women are and how they respond to crises as women for women. For example, did you know abortion is absolutely legal in Cuba? The law only says if a woman chooses to have an abortion, it has to be done by a doctor in a hospital (so it will be safe). For more information www.now.org/nnt/summer-2006/venezuela.html

Did you know that more than 800,000 people are trafficked each year – and that number is severely under-estimated due to the lack of sources. If you are at all interested in human trafficking or the current slavery trends please visit www.humantrafficking.org/, www.anti-slavery.org/, or www.catwinternational.org

I do want to emphasize to you the importance of meeting with women who came before you. When I went to the workshop Working Together for a Feminist Future, I was able to sit down with women who knew feminist figureheads such as Betty Freidan and Alice Paul. I was amazed to hear the stories of these women who were fighting the same fight we are fighting today. I didn’t feel as isolated as I did before. Having an intergenerational dialogue (much like the NNPCW Leadership Event this year) is so important. I urge each of you to sit down with a woman who is older and ask her about her life.

That is all I have the space for now, however, I want to invite you all to go to http://now.org and read conference highlights (not up yet). I also invite you to use that website as a tool to write to your congressperson on things you are passionate about. ALSO, find a women’s group near you and GET ACTIVE!!!

feel free to ask questions!!