jennifer baumgardner
Soapbox Inc. co-owner Jennifer Baumgardner is an award-winning filmmaker, activist, writer, and professor. Her work explores abortion, sex, bisexuality, rape, single parenthood, and women's power. As one reviewer characterized it, "to the curious conservative, [her] body of work might look like a feminist freak show."
She moved to New York City from Fargo, North Dakota, in 1993. In college (Lawrence University, Appleton, WI), she helped organize her campus feminist group, a "Guerrilla Theater" collective, and an alternative newspaper called The Other, all the while alternately alienating and engaging her peers and professors about women's liberation. After a five-year stint as an editor at Ms. magazine (1993-1997), Jennifer began writing for a diverse array of publications, doing investigative pieces for Harper’s and The Nation, exploring stories such as why younger women appear to be less pro-choice and the fact that “rape kits” are routinely lost or rendered inadmissible in sexual assault cases. She has written several commentaries for NPR’s All Things Considered. She writes regularly for many of the major women’s magazines (including Harper's Bazaar, Real Simple, Glamour, Redbook, Babble, and Elle), for which she has written about restrictions on abortion, the first female deemed a sexually violent predator, and "Purity Balls."
Jennifer is the author of three books (Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (FSG, 2007), Abortion and Life (Akashic, 2008), and a collection of her essays called F 'em! Goo goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls (Seal, 20110. She has co-authored two other best-selling books about feminism with Amy Richards—Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
In 2004, Jennifer created the "I Had an Abortion" project to encourage women (and men) to "come out" about their procedures. The campaign included t-shirts that said "I had an abortion," a film documenting women's stories of abortion, a book, and a photo exhibit. In 2008, she began an awareness project called "I Was Raped" which features a documentary and a shirt.
Jennifer's work has been featured on shows from The Oprah Winfrey Show to NPR's Talk of the Nation, as well as in the New York Times, BBC News Hour, Bitch, and various other venues. She has keynoted at more than 250 universities, organizations, and conferences, including the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, Amherst College, Take Back The Night UW-Madison, and the New Jersey Women and Gender Studies Consortium. In 2003, the Commonwealth Club of California hailed her in their centennial year as one of six “Visionaries for the 21st Century,” commenting that “in her role as author and activist, [Jennifer has] permanently changed the way people think about feminism…and will shape the next 100 years of politics and culture.”
Jennifer lives in New York City with her husband and two sons. She teaches writing at the New School, nurturing talented young people and encouraging them to be part of the feminist freak show.
For more speakers on abortion, see: Amy Richards, Gloria Feldt, Loretta Ross, Katha Pollitt, Gloria Steinem, Wyndi Anderson, Third Wave Foundation
For more speakers on queer issues, see: T Cooper, Julia Serano, Catherine McKinley, Irshad Manji, Noelle Howey, Hanne Blank
