NCSU-WGS Student Delegation at National Young Feminist Leadership Conference

In March 2024, six NC State students, led by women’s, gender and sexuality studies minors Katie Kaake and Indigo Weaver, attended the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference (NYFLC) in Washington D.C. NYFLC convened for the first time since the COVID pandemic and had invited high school and college students across the nation to join. 250 young feminists and student activists from 21 states followed the call, among them the student delegation from NC State. In panels, skill workshops and discussion groups students engaged with topics ranging from comprehensive sex education, voting and equal rights initiatives, abortion legislation and clinical defense to feminist group organizing. During a congressional visit day, the students were invited to Capitol Hill and had the opportunity to talk with political representatives from North Carolina and other states about local initiatives.

“It was a life-changing event,” explains Indigo Weaver (food science major). “I felt there was no return and no coming back the same. It gave me a voice and an outlet that I did not have before.” Listening to leading feminist leaders, like legal scholar Michele Goodwin or ERA coalition president Zakiya Thomas, empowered the students to use their own words and communication channels to speak out on issues that matter to them. Weaver joined a panel on clinical defense and abortion access. The speakers provided students not only with the latest data and possible scenarios of abortion legislation and voting trends but also with options of advocating and information sharing in their local communities. Another delegation member noted how important it was to learn about the deliverable abortion pill they did not know about before. All of the students turned to their own social media sites right away to share the information they had learned with family, friends and followers.

Katie Kaake (WGS major) and Delaney Urchuk (WGS minor) attended a panel on comprehensive sexual education that focused on birth control options and their benefits and limitations depending on age, health status, BMI and other factors. “It was powerful to be in a room where we could speak about a taboo topic so openly and get the knowledge to protect ourselves,” observed Urchuk. Pandia Health founder Sophia Yan and a team of physicians provided students with information about birth control access, shared experiences of patients and equipped students with new knowledge to help protect themselves and others who are sexually active. “I learned a lot about my own medical options I didn’t know I had,” added Kaake. “I felt like I gained autonomy for my own body and the ability to share these new resources with others.”

Zareena Hussaini (physics major) shared how meaningful a panel on gender apartheid in Afghanistan was for her personally. Her own family has roots in Afghanistan. After learning from Afghan women’s rights activist Sima Samar at NYFLC, Hussaini found new ways of talking with her parents and grandparents about the difficulties they experienced around gender restrictions, migration, and the importance of health education for women in Afghanistan and Afghan diaspora communities. “As STEM majors,” Maahi Naik (physics major) explained, “the majority of our exposure to these topics comes through social media not through classes. Learning firsthand from experts and getting reliable fact checked information was an entirely different experience. Now I will read more, look for classes in CHASS, and connect with organizations to learn and share in depth contents with my friends.”

Katie Kaake and Tyra Frye (WGS major) particularly appreciated the panels on election and the power of women voters at the polls. They felt inspired to engage with their local student communities to promote how important voting, legal campaigns, and state level policy work is. “You need to know the history of women’s rights to understand why we are where we are now,” says Kaake. Walking into Capitol Hill and learning about the different avenues and professional opportunities to work within the system for change felt eye-opening to them. Frye and her fellow students had a chance to speak with staff members from North Carolina representative offices of Jeff Jackson, Deborah Ross and Chuck Edwards on issues like gender and poverty and the impact of the Triangle housing crisis on women in particular. Frye appreciated that “they took notes and listened carefully. We agreed to stay in contact through follow-up emails and we really felt heard and taken seriously.”

After the students had posted on their social media pages about their experiences in Washington D.C., they were overwhelmed by the positive reactions back on campus. Many of their instructors encouraged them to share their experience in the classroom as classmates were eager to hear more. “All my friends knew it was happening and everybody said, ‘you have to tell us all about it and debrief with us!’ In my political science class people were so excited that I had this opportunity, and they were grateful that I shared my learning with them,” Delaney Urchuk remembers. “I was able to talk in my predominantly male nuclear science class about the conference and it initiated such good conversations,” added Katie Kaake, “many had not heard about any of this, but they were fascinated and wanted to learn more.” The NC State delegation returned with zines, pamphlets, and books in their bags and new knowledge and ideas for campus initiatives in their minds. They connected with student activists and feminist leaders from across the nation and are excited to implement NC State’s “think and do” perspective to their feminist work on campus.

The students would like to express their sincere gratitude for the travel support by the Office of Undergraduate Research and the NYFLC organizer team who made this trip possible.