Rebecca Walker

America's Leading Young Feminist, Founder of Third Wave Feminism, and Expert on Race and Gender

The End of Feminism: Why Feminism as We Know it Must Transform

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THE LATEST: Read Walker's post-Election essay, "The New Us."

Named one of the most influential future leaders by Time magazine, Rebecca Walker is the founder of Third Wave Feminism. Walker is a wise-beyond-her-years speaker -- and one of America's most important feminist voices. She speaks with authority, with insight and with compassion, on issues of gender, race, multiculturalism, social justice, and self-identity. "Be courageous. Be fearless. Be grateful."

Walker is the editor of To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, which is taught in Gender Studies programs around the world. Walker's first memoir, Black, White and Jewish, is about living through her parent's divorce, and her search for identity as a bi-racial girl -- too black for some, not black enough for others. In the follow-up, Baby Love, Walker -- who belongs to the first generation of women to view children as optional -- makes a monumental decision: to embrace motherhood in her thirties.

Rebecca Walker co-founded the non-profit Third Wave Foundation, and has consulted on diversity and gender in the workplace for Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase and others. She is a columnist for the Huffington Post, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Salon and Vibe. A guest on Oprah and Charlie Rose, Walker has spoken at over five hundred colleges and high schools worldwide, and is the recipient of the Women Who Could Be President Award from the League of Women Voters.

Select Keynote Presentations by Rebecca Walker

Hyphen-Nation: The Role of Race in a Global Society

Walker takes a panoramic look at the topic of race, at a time when the lines of race are blurring. Starting with her own life, growing up bi-racial, she talks about self-creation and the cultural masks she put on and slipped off as needed -- a familiar ritual for those in The Mulatto Nation, an influential, fast-growing group. Her story of finding her voice against expectations -- from parents, from society and from self -- leads into a broader discussion of the current generation of twenty and thirty-somethings, the most multicultural in our history. With passion and intellect, she looks at the unique insights forged from those growing up bi-racial, the inroads that have been made and the prejudices that remain to be overcome. A hopeful voice for the common good, Walker inspires us to embrace a truly open and multicultural world -- one in which all of us can feel a deep sense of belonging.

The New Masculinity: Obama, Gore, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and What Makes a Man in the 21st Century

Walker looks at how a new breed of masculinity is changing the world -- and what it means to be a man -- through unity, environmental justice, and compassion. She looks at Al Gore, who let go of the Presidency to save the planet in a more relevant way, at His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whose deep empathy for human suffering has struck a chord with millions, and at Barack Obama, perhaps the most talked-about and inspiring man in America today. All three, and many others, are exemplary public heroes whose convictions and actions are shaping our times while also renouncing the tired tropes of masculinity and redefining expectations: what a man is, what he can achieve, and, importantly, how he can accomplish it.

Buddha Goes to College: The Role of Spirituality in the Academy

After publishing her first two books, and being named by Time magazine as a leading voice of her generation, Rebecca Walker was introduced to the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This encounter set her on a fifteen-year path of intense study which profoundly altered – and opened up -- her view of politics and academia. In this hearfelt, though deeply pragmatic talk, Walker shows you how to bring Buddhist philosophy, and its spirit of sophisticated engagement, into places that may benefit from it most, including academia and corporate culture. This philosophy, which has touched millions, is surprisingly relevant to contemporary discussions on individual identity, international politics, and global sustainability -- the issues defining our times.

The End of (F)eminism: Why Feminism As We Know It Must Transform

Like other key social movements of the past century, feminism is in crisis. On one side, feminists are attacked by conservatives crying femi-nazi; on the other, they are betrayed by their own, who declare them white, middle-class, or irrelevant. Some feminists hedge to Second Wave principles, and entrench themselves in their hard-won positions of power at the table of masculinity. Others see a need for new perspectives. Out of this stagnation and conflict, new voices -- and a powerful Third Wave of theory and activism -- have emerged: most notably, Rebecca Walker.

The daughter of Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and god daughter of Gloria Steinem, Rebecca Walker argues that Establishment Feminism is riddled with problems and inconsistencies: gender myopia, racism, the myth of incorruptible female power, and the rejection of domesticity and motherhood. Rather than hold on to an untenable position, she suggests that Feminism, as we know it, should be jettisoned -- to be replaced by ideas and individuals who include, but do not privilege, gender oppression over any other kind of human injustice. These individuals might call themselves feminists (with a small "f"), or not -- but one thing is clear: they look forward, not backward, to a future full of possibilities. Walker asks important questions about the ideas and individuals that should be at the forefront of the movement for global transformation today. With urgency and intelligence, she delivers a brave and resounding talk -- a path-clearing and illuminating call to arms that forges an exciting new direction for Feminism in the 21st Century.

BOOKS

Black, White and Jewish

Baby Love

To Be Real

What Makes a Man

One Big Happy Family

ARTICLES

"Five Questions for Sarah Palin" - The Root.com

Archive of Articles by Rebecca Walker

Rebecca Walker at The Huffington Post

All Speakers > Rebecca Walker

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