Can I have an easy to grasp introduction to feminism please?

[Squtternutbaush]

Have wanted to venture over here for a while but somehow end up sticking my foot in it so starting afresh.

I'm not too clued up on the whole concept of feminism but would like to be so is there a basic introductory book that's worth reading or is it just a case of speaking and figuring out your own ideals?

The test was interesting, I came away with

Women of Color 44
Radical feminist 40
Liberal feminist 37
Socialist feminist 35
Cultural feminist 30
Conservative 10

Buffy please don't change how you post.

I found the questions that were obviously about women of colour difficult to answer. The quiz is a US quiz, hence the term, I'm not sure if that made a difference. I don't feel I can answer those questions though, not being a woman of colour. I'd rather hear from women of colour what they think about those questions so I chose neutral for those questions.

You're just on your own flow, there, Buffy. I never commented on any of that.

First time poster in this section, thank you for the thread.
I never felt the difference or any kind of oppression at school, but certainly in the workplace My colleagues were a lot of ex forces older men (telecoms) and I felt belittled, objectified and really 'put in my place' for the first time.

The thing I struggle to understand about how there can be equality is in reference to the above that woman have barriers in getting to be - for example a famous scientist- is that the barriers are babies and children, having them and wanting to make sure they are cared for. That is a massive barrier to achieving in a career, but what can be done to change that?

i felt that too flora

I agree that we can change the way we work so that both women and men have responsibility to raise children. Workplaces could cope with making space for men and women to have outside commitment. Our attitude to work is quite unhealthy.

Also, many workplaces do not accommodate career breaks when it comes to career progression. A lot of companies have a "time served" mentality (which may be unspoken) regardless of a person's ability to do the job required.

The thing I struggle to understand about how there can be equality is in reference to the above that woman have barriers in getting to be - for example a famous scientist- is that the barriers are babies and children, having them and wanting to make sure they are cared for. That is a massive barrier to achieving in a career, but what can be done to change that?

I think there needs to be a sea change in workplace attitudes to parenting, to acknowledge that women are not actually amoeba who just go off and reproduce themselves, and that men are not heartless beasts who can father a child and then have little to do with it until it's old enough to be taken golfing at weekends.

Sure, women will always do the actual gestation and childbirth - but if parental leave were genuinely equally shared, and time off for sports day and parents evening and chickenpox etc was genuinely equally shared, then a manager looking at a man and a woman in their early 30s for promotion wouldn't see one of them as a walking uterus.

At the moment flexi time / jobshares / parental responsibilities are all lumped into a big box labelled "wimmin's issues" which are burdensome to an employer, rather than something that is useful to everyone who is a worker and a parent.

People of colour is most often found in US circles, I think because it's more inclusive. It's not as popular in the UK, possibly because of the association with the term "coloured" which isn't used any more. I would say that BME is the preferred term in the UK (Black and Minority Ethnic), but that might be because we also have a fair few white immigrant groups who are stigmatised.

Also if flexible working were more the norm, it would open up working options, not just to parents but to carers, people wanting to wind down to retirement, it opens up opportunities for people who want to volunteer, and it would make it easier for people with certain disabilities to work too (e.g. those who don't have a lot of physical strength, those who get tired easily, people who don't know until they wake up that morning how many "spoons" they have that day). My mum is in the last group and it's so hard for her to find a job. She doesn't have many qualifications or experience either so it's even harder.

I suppose, but I thought it was just descriptive. It is talking about groups which are minorities, so it makes sense to me. I don't see minority as a negative statement, just a neutral one. I am happy to be told I'm wrong, though :) I don't like it when women's issues are treated as minority issues, because women aren't a minority. Not because minority = bad.

my understanding is that the "minority" aspect applies to social power rather than actual numbers - is that the case or have i misremembered?

ah ok that makes sense thanks

Perspective Score
Liberal feminist 47
Women of Color 37
Radical feminist 30
Socialist feminist 28
Cultural feminist 26
Conservative 21

Found this quite interesting!

History has shown women can be as strong as men when need to be, boudica, elizabeth, maggie and they would not necessarily seek a peaceful way forward anymore than men would. The same could be said of gay men of which there have been some very strong characters.

Seeking appeasement with some characters in history would have been terrible e.g Hitler!

The current popular term in my field tends to be BAMER which is Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic & Refugee.

In online feminism I've seen BME, BAMER, Black (as defined here), POC and WOC. POC and WOC are popular on twitter for being very short and reflecting American influences.

I am very balanced/sitting on a fence. Surprised at the cultural feminist bit, but it may be coloured by me having had a very annoying day filled with very annoying men. I suspect it is a departmentally cultural issue than a generally cultural issue, though.

Also, it's quite likely that my results would be different tomorrow when I am in a different mood, and also if I understood more about certain questions - there were 3 or 4 where I just thought, I don't know much about this, so I'm going neutral.

Liberal feminist 48
Socialist feminist 38
Radical feminist 38
Cultural feminist 38
Women of Color 37
Conservative 13