What do young women care about? What are their hopes, worries, and ambitions? Have they heard of feminism, and do they relate to it? These are just some of the questions journalist Nona Willis Aronowitz and photographer Emma Bee Bernstein set out to answer in Girldrive. In October 2007, Aronowitz and Bernstein set out on a cross-country road trip, meeting with nearly 200 women to discuss their thoughts and feelings about the issues that mattered to them-and about feminism. The result of these interviews, Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism (Seal Pressr 2009), is a regional chronicle of the struggles, concerns, successes, and insights of young women who are grappling-just as hard as their mothers and grandmothers did-to find, define, and fight for gender equity. Aronowitz and Bernstein, both daughters of Second Wave feminists, specifically set out to speak to women who've made feminism their life's work, as well as those who hadn't given feminism much thought. The result is a smart, thoughtful, and uncensored portrayal of a cross-section of women whose opinions and feelings on feminism are as diverse as their backgrounds and areas of interest. Featuring well-known feminist activists such as Andi Zeisler (co-founder of Bitch Magazine) and activist and Chicana feminist Martha Cotera, along with stay-at-home moms, blue-collar workers, and college students, Girldrive is a truly diverse compilation of women's reflections on gender and politics and how the two intertwine with race, class, and geographical experiences. Girdrive seamlessly merges all of this with photos (mostly taken by Bernstein) and short diary entries that give context to their couch-surfing, city-hopping, and soul-searching road journey across the United States

Listen to the event...