If you don’t know who Gloria Steinem and Madeline Albright are by now, you should. Both women are still active in progressing the rights of women in the United States and are seen as important global feminist leaders. Both women have come out in support of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the New Hampshire primaries.

However, their endorsements came with the assertion that young women who support Bernie Sanders in his efforts to win the democratic nomination are severely misguided and deserve “a special place in hell” for not supporting fellow women (i.e. Hillary Clinton).

Besides angering a lot of young people in their support for whomever is a suitable candidate for the nomination, their comments have exposed an issue that plagues almost every progressive social movement in the United States, the generational gap.

Young activists have a lot to give thanks for when it comes to working for progress. So much of our efforts to fight for change are enabled by the groundwork that was laid by those who came before us.

At times like these, it is more important to embrace those things that bring us together than dwell on the others that keep us divided.

A wise but fictional man named Albus Dumbledore says, “youth cannot know how age thinks and feels but old men are guilty if they forget what it means to be young.” Those words still give me a lot of inspiration as to how I think about engaging with older individuals in movements to create a more just and sustainable world.

Steinem and Albright have every right to voice their opinions and to support whomever they wish, but they are also not immune to scrutiny when it comes to speaking from a place of privilege. Steinem and Albright come from second wave feminism, which occurred between 1960 and ended around 1980.

This particular wave was notorious for only fighting for the rights of upper-class white women in the United States, thereby ignoring the desires and inclusion of queer, trans*, gay, working class, and women of color within the movement.

As the world becomes increasingly smaller with globalization, the internet, and countless other ways in which we as a collective humanity can connect, our feminism has evolved to become more welcoming. However, there is still plenty of work to be done in order to bring equity and inclusion for everyone into reality.

We should be giving credit where credit is due, but also expanding and growing the work that has been done as we progress.

Rather than disavowing the words of Steinem and Albright (presidential nominee endorsements aside), it is important that we, as young people, recognize the trailblazing history of those who have come before us, without being held back by outdated ideals when it comes to realizing social change.

In order for a movement to have momentum, you need to recognize the ways in which a movement can improve gradually to actualize change.

This is the same reason why intersectional feminism came more into the spotlight, because feminism was not inclusive or intersectional enough during the wave that was championed by Steinem and Albright.

Of course women should help fellow women as we build resilient and inclusive futures for generations to come, but that does not mean we demean one another in the process.

Feminism is meant to be inclusive and critical at the same time, advocating for equity for all genders across the spectrum.
Instead of shaming women for supporting a political candidate that they believe will bring about the leadership they want to see, put efforts into evolving past antiquated notions of how things were and see things for how they could be in the future.