God I never worried about this when I was 21

[rubberglove]

Did you? Were you really aware of feminist theory when you were a young un?

I was not aware of "feminist theory" (whatever that is, I'm still not sure now!), but I became a feminist when I was about 5 and noticed that Janet always had to stay home and help her mum clean the house while John went out fishing with his dad. (Or was it Jane and Peter...?)

Anyway, having a brother and a great sense of fairness I wasn't having that!

I didn't really get feminism til I became a mother. Oh how my eyes were opened when I entered that phase of my life.

I was instinctively a feminist. I used to look at my mum and dad and think, "god, this is NOT what I want my life to be like when I'm older!"

So I didn't learn feminist theory from my mum, but really a glimpse of what life could be like!

And yes getting pregnant really opened my eyes. I had never realised that sexism was still such an issue, as up until then I had always been able to have/achieve/do anything I wanted.

Brought up by feminists (I include my step-dad). My mum is a general rabble-rouser as well. She was at school when the act repealing the ban on homosexuality was passed and so gave a lecture on it in front of the entire school in assembly. I think they might have threatened to suspend her for that. Right on!

Yep, definitely 'got' feminism from an early age - encouraged by my DM and with plenty of examples in action at my primary school ('girls can't play chess' et al). Used to read Germaine Greer et al in sixth form with my friends, went on Reclaim the Night marches etc and took a Women's studies option at uni though to be honest I've never got on that well with the theory & am happier with practical stuff.

My degree specialised in women writers, sexuality, black history and gay writers. But I had read a lot about feminism even before I was a student.

I have a lot of feminist writing on my shelves and mainly read books by women or gay writers. I've been reading more thrillers since I've had DC and I'm getting very tired of the male POV adopted by some writers.

I was much more earnest about f/ wr 25 years ago and have already seen enormous changes in the workplace, with women taking more senior positions now etc. Now that I am a SAHM, I am heartened to see so many fathers taking an active part in their children's schooling and doing the shopping, school run etc. When I was a child in the 70's men were embarrassed to be affectionate in public with their children, now they are much more likely to divide household tasks with their partners and want the best for all their children, not just for their sons to do well. Or at least the ones I meet do.

Society has changed for the better, but there are still many things that are so insidiously part of our culture that need to be looked out for: such as saying that your DH should 'help' you out, or is 'babysitting' his own children. This is why feminist theory is still relevant, we need to think about why we say certain things, why there is still a double standard applied to how men or women do certain jobs eg a cleaner is a woman, a caretaker is a man etc.

Also we still need to find a way to allow women to accept that they don't have to be beautiful, young or rich to be successful; that being a WAG is not an attainment, and that nurturing an inner life is much more important than having beautiful nails, fake tan and an expensive handbag. But if you want those things and are holding down a good job or bringing up your children, that is ok too.

I was 24, 25 when I started getting into feminism.

26 when the 'orrible MN feminists captured me and gave me the dreaded red pill

I scrawled 'women need men like fish need bicycles' across my English folder when I was 16 (in 1982). Does that count?

Oh Frothy I will join you in your grief over Scrubs! DP loves it and I missed it first time round (when all my friends were watching it) cos we were stuck in a stupid low signal area and couldn't get freeview, had been one of those things I always meant to get around to watching and then I ended up watching the first episode after my "feminist awakening" () - DP and I sat down all excitedly and I watched the entire thing feeling more and more depressed as the episode went on and then at the end I burst into tears!

It's just.... aaaaargh, I so wanted to enjoy it but it's just shit, so full of shit shitty misogynistic crap to the extent that every scene and every joke is based on it. :( And I didn't like the "obviously sexist" senior doctor guy who is supposed to be a joke because it's JUST SO DEPRESSING that he's not a caricature at all and there are loads of men who are like that and think it's fine to treat women like that to the point that watching it isn't fun it just reminds me of all the women-hating twats out there.

(Sorry for the rant )

Yup. Did various feminism bits as part of my politics degree + used to do a lot of "women's rights are humans rights" things with the student amnesty soc.

I was lucky though, in that I was encouraged to be politically aware from a young age both by my parents and my (Catholic!!) school.

I was very aware of misogyny because unbeknownst to be I was also a misogynist and I preferred to keep the company of boys as a teenager (though I did have a few close female friends). The hideous misogynist words for female genitalia, the disregard for anything females contributed apart from being 'good looking', the jokes about child sex abuse, rape and other means to treat a female like dirt....I heard it all and it gave me a very visceral response.

I toyed with the word feminism in a semi-ironic way and was vocal and challenging when men said things that were way off. But I also absorbed a lot, said a lot of horrible things about women, had doubts.

When I got to my twenties I had a relationship with a bloke who had no ethical stance- he was all arty, bisexual and 'live for the moment'- the affect he had on my psyche was like stepping in an unexpected stinking, stagnant drain of cess and not being able to shake my foot off quickly or effectively enough to leave the stench behind. In being with him my principles were really eroded in every aspect, including feminism.

I sort of knew I was a feminist all along deep down though, but as I had little support in it along the way, it wasn't until my late twenties that I started to unashamedly declare myself as feminist.

Yes. My mum used to buy me Spare Rib in my teens. I had a difficult childhood, teenage years were even worse, and - I know it sounds melodramatic, but honestly - feminism saved me. I suppose my feminism became more impassioned and conscious when I was about 17. At 19 I came out as lesbian, and since then it has just been ingrained into how I make sense of my life.

I'm not much of an activist these days, and lord knows I've tangled with some mad-as-frogs feminists in my time (especially in the dark days of the 80s) but I can't conceive of how life would be without feminism.

I wasn't aware of feminist theory at all. And from the threads I read on here I'm still pretty unsure about some of it. In 1990 I went from a safe, progressive girl's school to an engineering degree full of Neanderthal 'blokes' and I got a bit of a shock.

But activism remained shouting at course mates in the pub. Only after becoming a Mum did I really understand how far we still have to go. I've now read a couple of books, try to follow arguments on here, and speak up as necessary around friends and colleagues.

My girls will be constantly nudged to challenge sexism when it appears, blatant or subtle. I envy those of you who had feminist Mums.

I was an early starter. I challenged my primary school headteacher when he announced that boys would be going camping. I told him that he either offered to everyone or to none. I won.

Three years later at secondary school I complained to the chair of governors when girls were sent to the cookery labs and the boys were sent to woodwork. Got that stopped too.

Another early starter here, also driven by the times and circumstance. I sure as hell didn't want to be a woman when I grew up, if my mother's life was the reward. Luckily I was saved by a decent girls' grammar school (for better role models) and Cosmopolitan's 1972 arrival in the UK (for naming my thoughts 'feminist'). That same year, at 16yo, I went on my first equal rights marches and by 19 was organising factory walk-outs.

This was only 40 years ago, Mumsnetters. Equality in law is younger than most of your mothers. Don't take it for granted. It can be - is being - overturned with a few rubber stamps.

Yes, very young but then I was a teenager in the 1970s so it's not surprising. That is when a lot of the classic books were being produced.

I suspect we had a period when girls did not think about it but now they are coming back to doing so which is a good thing.

Equality in law is younger than most of your mothers.

That's a damn fine slogan to remember when needing to remind young people how crucial feminism still is. Thank you, garlicnutty.

Agree with LMIP.

The 1970 Equal Pay Act was in my time (just). Girls were certainly told in the 1970s never to learn how to type otherwise you'd get lumbered with secretarial stuff at work even if you had a degree. In my mother's day you had to give up teaching on marriage and only 150 years ago in the UK you could not take a university degree which precluded you from joining various professions.

The problem will be if Sharia law comes in in so many countries (sadly fall of Saddam and a whole lot of other supposed improvements mostly seem to be damaging women's rights as they give power to the Mullahs) whether by law or in practice that women's rights erode even further. However China and India and most of Africa are probably safe so we just have to ensure it does not come in by the back door through voluntary submission to religious law within Western nations by particular citizens.