This September, return to class from the summer break with more than just a deep tan and a revamped fall wardrobe. The Network for Enlightened Women (NeW) is urging young, conservative, collegiate ladies to embrace an opportunity for a more intellectual makeover-by starting a NeW chapter at their respective universities.
NeW has expressed a dire need to rescue “feminism from the feminists.” and it needs mainstream conservative women to get involved. These women are needed to help them achieve this goal by participating in existing chapters or starting new ones. NeW is a cross collegiate club that aims “to cultivate a community of conservative women and expand intellectual diversity on university campuses through its focus on education.” NeW girls find that radical feminists have taken the feminism movement too far, especially in the context of institutionalized feminism on university campuses. As NeW founder Karin Agness put it, on college campuses, “rather than give women the choice, they’ve made the choice for us.” NeW aims to awaken women to the importance of fostering respect for motherhood and family, as well as the culture of romance into our everyday lives, while rejecting the woman-as-victim image that is so embraced by modern feminists.
Since Agness founded NeW at the University of Virginia in 2004, chapters have blossomed at 21 college campuses across the nation. Agness jokes that there are more chapters today than there were original NeW members in her dorm room. The involved women expand their education on women’s issues by reading and discussing texts through their book club. Some of these books include What Women Really Want by Celinda Lake and Kellyanne Conway, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism by IWF’s Carrie Lukas, and Christina H. Sommers’ Who Stole Feminism? NeW women are strongly encouraged to speak out on issues, as they have an inherent obligation “to make a difference because orthodox feminists do not represent all of us.”
College women reading this, if you ever find yourself listening to liberal women and thinking “these women don’t speak for me,” then it may be time to join NeW.