Main Points: Gender and Age as Factors in Political Activities
The chapter is centered about the challenges of youth politics emanating from inequality as well as pressure from adults. This art explores two major dimensions of political activities: The gender and age as factors influencing political activities .The artist closely follows activism in two youth groups, Minority youths in Oakland (YP) and those in Portland, Oregon (SRU) during the summer season in 2003.The chapter begins by presenting a crumbling Youth group resulting from external pressure and the failure of adults to recognize the role played by the youth in shaping the political landscape. The art poses a challenge to the mainstream media questioning its inability to recognize the role of young activists. The writer exposes political trends. The division that almost crippled SRU activities had a gender orientation. While boys preferred public activism girls preferred teachers and parents support in airing their views.
Convincing Arguments and Credibility
Gordon’s work is convincing as a result of the truth encompassed by her arguments. The art presents a realistic approach focusing attention on the challenges facing youths due to parental opposition and gender differences. The split along gender lines of SRU, for example explains gender differences as a major opposition to successful participation of youths in politics. The art contains numerous quotations from relevant authorities such as those by Orenstein, Taylor and Weitzman. In addition it presents a real life situation in most countries of the world. Its credibility is thus unquestionable.
Assumptions against Reality
The author is emphatic about her claims regarding the split in SRU as to have been engineered by gender differences. Focusing on the society today the political world attests to the author’s assumptions. Women and men just like the boys and girls participate differently in politics. The art is therefore a construction of a real life scenario in which women are marginalized in the sense that their political participation is limited in society.
Work Cited
Rachel Gordon. “Gendering Power: Gender Politics in Youth Activist Networks (We Fight To Win chapter6)”, Rutgers University Printing Press: 2009
