Q for feminists: was your mother a Feminist? or not at all?

i think she must be. the second sex and the female eunuch are on the bookshelves. she has certainly noticed and been angry about inequality, especially during her professional training in the late seventies.

I notice though that things were pretty unequal at home. despite working almost full time she did everything or at least made sure everything was done iyswim. dad would do anything if asked but the planning and responsibility was left to her - and then to me if she was out, as the next available female (i only have brothers). mum would get cross about it from time to time and I regret not having been more vocal about it myself. I ended up doing lots to avoid mum getting upset, perpetuating the problem really

while I love my family dearly this does make me so angry, especially when I go to theirs for christmas and it's always the women clearing up while the men disappear

My mother was a feminist but thinks we all "have it easy" now compared to her day and thinks I should feel lucky to work/have kids and do all the cleaning, household management, child centred stuff as in her day she was seen as weird for wanting to work. She was also of the be like the men style, ignore the children feminist and now as an adult I sometimes woinder why she actually bothered to have us. I am still a feminist though but I believe in different things IYSWIM

My mum was slightly feminist, when she remembered, she would always point out daft stuff my nan would say as an example of what not to do ("it doesn't hurt to make yourself look weak to get the boys to help you" or "you need to wear a bit of make up or the men won't notice you") but on the whole she wasn't that involved. She did try to encourage me to be whoever I wanted and I didn't have to rely on men, but I feel most of my attitude was self taught, mainly through this website

My mother was in the band of late 60s/early 70s feminists. My father was much more traditional - we had an expat life, moving around the world, and wherever we were (including a small town in Zambia) my mother worked (she was a teacher), somewhat to my father's annoyance. Financial independence was something she felt very strongly about. She died when I was a teenager.

And me - well I worked through 3 DCs and then threw in the towel with DC4, and am now mostly a SAHM - bits and bobs of PT work sometimes. I don't think my mother would have judged me for it, but where she influenced me was the residual guilt I have now; I don't have that financial independence she strived for, and part of me feels I'm letting the side down.

My Mum is the opposite of feminist. She bounces from one disastrous relationship to the next as she can't be without a man, insists on competing for male attention with every other woman in the room and used to usher me and my sister into parties with an injunction to 'sparkle'.

When my Mum visits, she usually brings me articles on hair and make up, has bought razors for me and has asked me how I expect to 'keep' my DP if I won't shave my legs or wear make up. She is baffled when I reply that I wouldn't want him if the only reason he was with me was the lack of hair on my body. She has made 'bucket' jokes as I had my DDs vaginally. She has been on a diet since she was 19 and put me on a diet at 12. She nags me about not using anti-aging creams.

She was horrified when she found out that DP had caught both our DDs as 'how could he ever want sex again after seeing that?!?'

She has been very instrumental in me becoming a feminist, no way do I want to be passing on all of that to the DDs!

Yes. My mum was an original late 60s/70s 'women's libber'. She went on all the demos and was very active in the pro-choice movement in the 60s.

She hasn't been politically active since the mid 80s - she is now very active in the Labour party/Fabian society, rather than the women's movement - but she is still a very vocal feminist. She is the main (only?) person I can discuss these things with in any detail in RL .

I would go as far to say my mother is anti-feminism. She disagrees with nearly everything I stand for. However this had made me more determined to be a feminist.

On the other hand I have a DD and she comes to protests and marches with me, we read feminist books aim at children together and I like to think I'm teaching her about confidence and aiming high (at the moment she wants to be a surgeon, I'm sure this wil change though ). To be honest I'd be gutted if she wasn't a feminist when she grows up.