Feminists are also developing new ways of doing social justice work that can respond to how power and
politics operate in the twenty-first century. Rather than coalescing into a unified movement with a singular
goal, this new feminism is present in a diverse array of local movements, as well as in global networks
made possible by the Internet and social media—what has been described as “a million little grass-roots
movements” rather than one singular vision for social change.^60
A review of some of the various activist groups that have emerged since 1990 helps to illustrate the
diversity of contemporary feminism. Groups like Third Wave Foundation and the Young Women’s Project
focus on youth issues and provide support and training for future feminist leaders. Other groups like Men
Against Rape organize young men to end violence against women and challenge misogyny and rape
culture on college campuses. Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, formed in 2000 by radical
feminists of color, advances an intersectional approach to ending violence that addresses race, class,
immigration status, and gender and that seeks alternatives to the criminal justice system. Numerous groups
concerned with LGBT issues—including those focused on queer youth of color, like the Audre Lorde
Project—seek to broaden the focus of the historically white and middle-class gay and lesbian movement.
Transgender and genderqueer activists protest campus policies that continue to segregate students along
gender lines in housing and athletics. Groups like About-Face target the media and its perpetuation of
unrealistic and sexist body image ideals. The Radical Cheerleaders can be found on college campuses
using humor and cheerleader chants to advance feminist, queer, and anti-racist politics. Numerous groups
are working together to ensure that the Equal Rights Amendment finally gets put into law almost a century
after it was first introduced into Congress in 1923. CodePink: Women for Peace has led intergenerational
protests against U.S. military policies and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, often by picketing the White
House and disrupting congressional hearings. Hollaback! uses social media and new technology, like cell
phone cameras, to document and fight back against sexist and homophobic street harassment. Feminists
have also been active members of other contemporary activist movements not explicitly focused on
gender, such as the environmental movement, the Occupy movement for economic equality that emerged
after the global economic crisis of 2008, and the Dreamers, the immigration rights movement led by
Latino young people who were brought to the United States as children and who are fighting for the right
to live and work in this country legally.
Rachel Lloyd and Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, or GEMS, provide an illustrative
example of feminist activism after 1990. GEMS was founded by the twenty-third year old Lloyd in 1998
to serve girls and young women who had experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic
trafficking. “As a survivor of the commercial sex industry myself,” said Lloyd, “I felt deeply connected to
the girls I was meeting and felt compelled to do something. I had no idea what starting a non-profit would
entail—which was probably a good thing! So I founded GEMS on my kitchen table in 1998.”^61 In the
decade and a half that it has been in operation, GEMS has helped hundreds of young women and girls,
ages twelve to twenty-four, to get out of the commercial sex industry; GEMS is now the largest service
provider to sexually exploited young women and girls in the United States, assisting survivors of the sex
industry with getting housing, education, and therapy. It is notable that when Lloyd “felt compelled to do
something,” she decided to start a nonprofit organization, which is run by a small group of paid staff and
unpaid volunteers. The feminist activists discussed in chapter 1 often did their political work through
large, national social reform organizations and unions; the activists profiled in chapter 2 often worked in
small, local consciousness-raising and direct action groups. For post-1990 activists, however, midsize,
national and sometimes international nonprofit organizations—including nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) and grant-giving foundations, like Third Wave—have been a primary vehicle for social change