When Jennifer Baumgardner was growing up in the culturally and ethnically homogenous area of North Dakota she said it was very easy for her and her family to take some progressive stances on issues like civil rights and gay rights, she told a crowded Maroney Forum on Thursday, March 25 as a guest speaker brought by the St. Francis College Womens Studies Minor.

Baumgardner said because her family didnt know any African-Americans of homosexuals, their talk about equal rights was very theoretical and abstract because they couldnt link their ideas to their day to day lives. (Watch the whole lecture)

As a little kid, Baumgardner said, I wouldnt say I called myself a feminist, but my Barbies for instance were always getting abortions. The neighbors kids Barbies werent getting abortions, they werent even getting pregnant. But I was always thinking it through and thinking about the things that could happen like; she was on a date, shes in college and she wanted to keep her scholarship.

A prominent leader in the feminist field for almost twenty years, including five as the youngest editor of Ms. Magazine, Baumgardner mixed a history of the waves of the feminist movement with her own personal experiences.

She talked about her personal evolution as a college student always ready to fight to someone who knows better how to avoid confrontations and create productive conversations instead. Her personal evolution mirrors the evolution of feminism itself.

Baumgardner offered her own, new definition of feminism; that feminism is not just about equality but moreso the opportunity to make informed decisions about your life.
sfc.edu

свернуть