The Future is Female: How Women in Social Justice Are Reshaping Equality

Mar 12

Look around any significant social movement today, and you will find women leading the charge. They organize, speak out, and refuse to back down in the face of injustice. Whether it is fighting for gender equality, racial justice, or the rights of survivors, women have always been at the heart of change. Nevertheless, their contributions are often overlooked or downplayed.

Women like Malala Yousafzai, Tarana Burke, Michelle Alexander, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Patrisse Cullors have shaped how we understand justice. They have pushed back against oppressive systems and demanded accountability. Their work has sparked movements that have changed laws, shifted cultural norms, and inspired millions. However, their fight is not over, and if we care about creating a fairer world, we need to pay attention.

Malala Yousafzai has been a force for girls’ education for over a decade. After surviving an assassination attempt at just 15 years old, she became a global advocate for education access, particularly for young women in countries where schooling is restricted. Through the Malala Fund, she has fought for policies that ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, quality education. She has faced opposition from those who want her to be silent, and stop pushing for change. She never has.

Then there is Tarana Burke, who started the MeToo movement long before it became a viral hashtag. She gave survivors of sexual violence a way to be heard, and in doing so, she forced society to confront an issue it had ignored for too long. Because of her, powerful men who once seemed untouchable have been held accountable. Her movement is not just about taking down abusers; it is about making sure survivors have the support they need to heal and thrive. Social justice is not just about one issue. It is about understanding how different struggles, racism, sexism, and classism, overlap and create even more profound inequalities. That is where the work of women like Michelle Alexander and Kimberlé Crenshaw comes in.

Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow exposed how mass incarceration is modern-day racial oppression. She made it impossible to ignore how the criminal justice system targets Black and Brown communities, and she pushed for real reform. Kimberlé Crenshaw, meanwhile, gave us the term intersectionality to describe how different forms of discrimination stack on top of each other. A Black woman, for example, does not just face racism or sexism; she faces both, often in ways that neither the feminist nor the racial justice movements fully address. Crenshaw’s work reminds us that we cannot fight for justice halfway. We have to look at the complete picture.

Patrisse Cullors co-founded Black Lives Matter after seeing the repeated police killings of unarmed Black people. She turned pain into action, and in doing so, she built one of the most powerful racial justice movements of our time. Her activism is not just about protesting; it is about creating long-term change in policies, institutions, and public awareness. The fight for justice is not waiting for us to graduate; it is happening right now. Women like Steinem, Burke, Alexander, Crenshaw, and Cullors have laid the groundwork but cannot do it alone.

As students, we have power. We can amplify the voices of these women by learning about their work, supporting their movements, and having the difficult conversations that push progress forward. We can challenge outdated policies in our schools, demand representation, and refuse to accept the status quo.

Citations

"Malala Fund: Investing in Girls’ Education." Malala Fund. (2024, January 15). https://malala.org

"Tarana Burke and the #MeToo Movement." The New York Times. (2023, October 10). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/tarana-burke-metoo.html

"Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and the Fight Against Mass Incarceration." The Atlantic. (2024, March 5). https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/03/michelle-alexander-mass-incarceration

"Kimberlé Crenshaw and the Power of Intersectionality." Harvard Law Review. (2023, November 20). https://harvardlawreview.org/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality

"Patrisse Cullors and the Legacy of Black Lives Matter." The Guardian. (2024, February 8). https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/08/patrisse-cullors-black-lives-matter