A quick question about campaigning in the South West

[PollyEstherCardigan]

Hi everyone, I hope this is in the right place.

I'd really like to get involved with some kind of women's rights/feminist campaigning but I'm not sure where to start. I've been following this MN board for a while and consider myself to think like a feminist, even if I'm not an active one, in the campaigning sense.

I'm only 17 - so not very experienced - and sadly none of my friends seem to feel very strongly about the issue. I've heard great things about the recent London conference, so I'd love to go up to that next year

I wonder if any MNers could point me in the direction of a feminist group or campaign that I could get involved with (I'm in Plymouth)?

Any advice or help would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time :)

[sethstarkaddersmum]

have a look on the UKFeminista local groups page. If you can't find anything you can join the discussion forum and post there about starting a group.

alternatively there is lots of stuff online - again, UKFeminista has some good listings for campaigns. One great thing about the internet is that there are lots of opportunities for activism without it having to be local.

[JessinAvalon]

I have someone I can put you in contact with. She's a member of Unison and a member of Object (I'd recommend checking out their website and perhaps joining their yahoo forum if you want to become more active. There was a call out last week for SW feminists.).

I'll send you a pm later.

Plymouth is my hometown!

[PollyEstherCardigan]

Brilliant, thank you both for your help, that's just the sort of thing I was after :)

[tabouleh]

Hey - that's lovely to hear that such a young [grr!]feminist is lurking here. Do join in if you want to - btw how did you find us?

[JessinAvalon]

Hi Polly
I have e-mailed my contact in Plymouth. She's a mumsnetter too so I have asked if she can check out this thread and get in touch.

Jess

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

What a shame - I used to live there too and would have loved some feminist activism. God knows Union St is a no go area at night for a start. Hope you manage to find some like-minded people - I'm sure there are some out there. Or you could go and hang out with the hippies locals in Totnes :o

[ipodtherforipoor]

Hey! I'm here! Thanks jess!

Union street is a no go area for anybody now!

I'm off to the first unison womens group mtg - hopefully we can expand - it's hard to get people going though!

If you want to get in touch with me via email try jenfur @ me. com

[PollyEstherCardigan]

tabouleh T'was quite a while ago that I happened across MN, I'm afraid I can't quite remember how. I've always been interested in equal rights and the feminist board has always had very interesting (sometimes infuriating!) real-life examples.

Elephants I'm really surprised that none of my friends have ever wanted to get involved with feminist activism; hopefully in time they can be persuaded
Union Street is a HUGE no-go, only very recently was there another incident involving a young woman Would be fantastic if something could be done about it.

ipod I'd love to be part of the group, although I'll have to try and work around schoolwork etc. Will email you about it soon, if that's all right :)

Thanks for all of the help, everybody, I shall hang around and try to get involved a bit more.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Yes do! I was 22-23ish when I was living in Plym so not too many million years older than you :o

I'm afraid that surprise may go with you through life - I know barely any women who would call themselves feminist, but a LOT of them like to come to me to talk about what I would call feminist stuff :)

Awful to hear that about Union St. I lived round St Jude's/Mutley so not as scary but could still get pretty on Saturday night.

[PollyEstherCardigan]

I'm in Plympton, so usually quite quiet around here at night. Although I did have to phone my friend on the way home the other night - I had the heeby-jeebies about that awful werewolf story that was on here a while back! Scarred me for life, that has.

[JessinAvalon]

I lived near the Wrigley's factory - Earlswood. On the other side of Plymbridge Woods to Plympton. I go home fairly regularly to visit the parents still.

My gran lived in Stonehouse, just off Union Street, and I remember seeing a club called "Boobs" (classy) when I was little and asking my mum what that was all about. It might still be there. Why did the council think it was ok to let a club called "Boobs" open up??

Polly - there is lots you can get involved with that will fit around schoolwork so don't worry. Most of us here work full time and have other commitments and we do what we can. I do often think that work gets in the way of my campaigning as it could easily turn into a full time job itself! Even doing a little thing that takes 5 minutes is better than doing nothing at all so any contribution you make is helping.

Sometimes it can involve signing a petition, or sending an e-mail, or doing a bit of research. Other things, like responding to council consultations, can take up a lot more time, depending on what kind of council you have as well.

If for starters you wanted to join the Object yahoo group, you'll see lots of actions coming out on e-mail that you can choose to take part in or not.

Object membership is very varied from people your age to women much, much older. Bristol University has an active feminist society with women not much older than you and they are a very impressive bunch of women. I was nowhere near as articulate and as well informed as them when I was at uni in the late 90s. So don't feel that you're on your own.

Great to have you on board!