On Thursday november 29th we interviewed Andrea Flynn, a chair member
of the Third Wave foundation. The Third Wave Foundation was founded by
Dawn Martin, Rebecca Walker, Amy Richards and Katharine Gun. The Third
Wave Foundation earned its name form the three waves of feminism. The
first wave was in the early 1900’s when women first succeeded in
retaliating against gender inequality and earned their right to vote.
The second wave was the hippie era otherwise known as the ‘Burning Bra
Era’. This was when protests and riots were held to fight for women
rights. The third wave is this generation. We are in the third wave
and it is up to our generation to continue to make the change and to
fight for women’s rights. We interviewed Miss Flynn on her experience
with feminism, fighting for gender equality and equal pay both in her
personal and work lives. Miss Flynn first formed a interest in
feminism when she did a research paper about Margaret Singer, a
historical female role model, for high school. She then continued her
interest in women’s rights in her first year of college, when she
majored in women’s studies and journalism. She has since then worked
in many places fighting for equal pay and education for women. She
lived and taught in Massachusetts at Harvard for a women’s
organization and rights and education for women. She then moved to NYC
and discovered and joined the The Third Wave Foundation, where she has
ben for six years. She is now working with the foundation to fight for
women’s rights. One reason why women often get payed less is because
when they take a leave from work to take care of newborn children the
government dose not require them to be payed, so many do not get payed
any money when they are on a leave or break.
The Third Wave Foundation’s goal is to found more gender inequality
awareness foundations and to help focus on gender justice. Third Wave
Foundation helps donate and found other foundation companies and
programs on this topic. Miss Flynn has been working on fighting gender
inequality from the “Bottom Up” by teaching everyday women about their
abilities and rights to make a change. And then trying to send the
message to more powerful men and women and eventually politics. One
way which she gets this message across is by opening clinics to
educate men and women on the topics. She is currently focusing on
funding these clinics in the middle states of the U.S which have the
biggest struggle with minorities and gender justice. She also believes
they gender equality is for all minorities such as LGBTQ and
transgender’s and not just women.