It Starts With Me: Women Mediate Power Within Feminist Activism

This article reports on a study of the lived experiences of 10 women who participated in feminist activism within a grassroots feminist organization. The study analyzed the women's narratives to determine how power shapes their subjective experiences in feminist activism. Their narratives were categorized into two broad themes: the intrapersonal locus of power and the relational locus of power. The themes refer to how women mediate power in practice and how their experiences with power are interconnected with relationships in the collective. The women in the study elaborated on the role of power in their own agency and in tensions, such as privilege and oppression.