Consciousness raising (also called
awareness raising) is a form of
activism, popularized by
United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group of people on some cause or condition. Common issues include diseases (e.g.
breast cancer,
AIDS), conflicts (e.g. the
Darfur genocide,
global warming), movements (e.g.
Greenpeace,
PETA,
Earth Hour), and
political parties or politicians. Since informing the populace of a public concern is often regarded as the first step to changing how the institutions handle it, raising awareness is often the first activity in which any
advocacy group engages.