YOUTH MOVMENTS, AUTONOMY AND THE OPPOSITIONAL IDENTITY IN GLOBAL WOMEN‟S ACTIVISM: INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICS OF AGE AND POWER IN TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST NETWORKS

While literature examining the significance of age and generation in transnational social movements continues to grow, few studies focus specifically on young women and their involvement with global feminism. Making the empirical observation that “young women‟s ” transnational feminist networks have emerged and gained more visibility in the last decade, this dissertation investigates their existence, asking why young women identifying as part of a “transnational feminist class ” form youth-only networks rather than joining – or maintaining membership within – existing and established networks. Data was collected from five young women‟s transnational feminist networks using qualitative methods, including semi-structured interview, participant observation and triangulated digital writing analysis. Analysis of this data yielded several findings. First, young women are likely to form “youth-only ” feminist networks in three circumstances: 1) when they feel under- and misrepresented within the discursive and political forums of global feminism; 2) when they feel the education they need to further their goals and establish their identities as activists is inadequate; and 3) when they find generation gaps create perceived irreconcilable “differences ” of tactical and organizational preferenc