Why are heroes being replaced by heroines in the activist scene?

During the last few decades, we have seen many young women and female teenagers become faces of movements like environmental activism, women’s and girl’s rights, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and finally gun control. We’ve witnessed several young women skyrocket to almost celebrity status for their work, for example Malala Yousefzai, Greta Thunberg, Rachel Corrie, Emma Gonzalez, and many others. Why are teenage girls and young women usually the sparks that incite the flame of larger movements organizing and fighting for progressive causes?

This uptick in activism from women as a general group is also substantiated with several surveys that have shown women moving further to the left than their opposite sex counterparts. Are male activists more passive? Why are the thought leaders among the young people of today predominantly heroines and not heroes?

The number of activists is nothing new, as we could see, back in the 1960s young women were also fighting for progressive causes like freedom of speech, racial equality, sexual liberation, etc. However, today we can see that girls are some of the most active voices in activist circles. Some groups think that it’s due to the historic disenfranchisement of women and that their male counterparts are in a more comfortable place as opposed to them. The status quo for most of the history was a patriarchal society that taught women to just submit to their oppression. Other, more fringe groups believe in the idea that these young activists are “plants” by the media to promote their own agendas through a person who’s paid off to seem famous. This theory has some weight to it, as similar things have happened in the music industry for example.

However, I think that young women are more active in progressive movements than men because of the intersection of oppression, because they are not risking losing comforts that patriarchy gives to boys, and because boys are mostly raised to naturally ignore the inherent inequality in their society.

My opinion is also that the uptick of young people, especially people who intersect in several categories of marginalization is not only important for a healthy political scene, which so often leaves us feeling weak and depressed, but it also helps us learn more about ourselves. Tackling issues while taking other people’s experiences into account assists us in fighting our own biases and misconceptions, and the women that have been mentioned here have proven that by becoming icons of the modern progressive movement.

In conclusion, women have led and been the trailblazers for progressive causes, their successes have been reported on the world over. It is a given that almost everyone in the year 2024 has heard of at least one of these women, and that is what gives them the power to change the world.