National Young Women’ s Day of Action

Take note: October 23, 2003 is the National Young Women’s Day of Action. Watch for teach-ins and demonstrations on domestic violence, sex education, and reproductive rights planned for college campuses all over the country. “We nurture activism,” said Marlene Fried, director of the Civil Liberties and Public Policy program (CLPP) at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, which instituted the Day of Action 11 years ago, in memory of Rosie Jimenez, the first woman to die as a result of the Hyde Amendment, which cut off abortion funding by Medicaid. Every year CLPP suggests a different theme; this year’s is voting and voter registration.

Ryn Gluckman, coordinator of the Day of Action, disagrees with the now-common perception that young women today are more conservative than their mothers, and don’t support the right to choose. [But see sidebar.] “I think young people today are at the forefront of every movement for social justice,” said Gluckman, 25, a recent Hampshire graduate. “I think the conservative image is framed by the conservative media.”