active feminism -- what does it mean?

My feminism is pretty infused in other choices I make about social justice. My choices of charity and my choices of reading matter, the people I'm friends with, the small battles at work, which businesses I choose to support - this stuff is part of living a feminist life for me.

I live in the USA so a lot of my activism is involved in protecting women's right to abortion care, which is constantly threatened and eroded here. Because of being pg and tired, I haven't been on a march for quite some time (though I read about Million Women Rise with some envy/nostalgia/homesickness, and had mates who were there). Over here, I used to go to a reading group at Bluestockings,which is a great bookshop, and meetings of "Paradigm Shift" which is a feminist group in the city. But again, this is rather petered out due to being pg and tiiiired, as well as moving an hour out of NYC. So I suppose I'm an armchair activist for now!

Activism/groups I support in the UK (as in, with meagre financial support) are Object and the Fawcett Society.

At the moment, my feminist activism/consciousness is cued into educating myself about my birth options in this place, (Has anyone seen the Business of Being Born? SCARY STUFF!) and lining up support for breastfeeding, etc. I'm actually in a job which does not approve of having children - (as in, they think you're a slacker who ought to just pick another profession if you dare to have a life outside of work). So I had to time how I told my boss rather carefully, in order to ensure my application for next year's funding/work had been processed before I explained I was pg. That kind of thing opened my eyes to the achievements of the 2nd wavers, I can tell you! As it is, I get 4-6 weeks time off (unpaid! Nice!) before I'm back at work. So I think a lot of my 'armchair activism' involves telling other women that actually, in the UK, you can get 6 months' paid leave and guess what? The nation/economy/family system doesn't crumble.

HAH! Time I moved back to the UK, I swear. . .

didnt want you to go unanswered probonbon! i have to say that in my day to day life, i dont give my time to any sort of campaigning or actively advance feminism. as such. i suspect no one likes to admit they dont actually DO anything to make womens lot in life better.

(lol, and watch, i will post this up and at lest 100 others will come on and point out htat actually, they DO!)

when i was in a position to do so, i instituted a women only hire policy in a completely male dominated industry (construction). the company was up for it because of course, the women were being paid less (not a battle i could fight). it worked really well as there were so many women who were looking to do something in the arena other than admin or support roles, and it gave them an oppertunity to move over to positions that then offered them better training oppertunities etc etc.

other companies where i have had hiring responsibility but not the authority to institute an actual hiring policy, i have actively made an effort to recruit women.