Feminist writers...

[user1476296263]

I am final year university student whose dissertation project is quickly approaching...

I am creating a women's magazine that will have a feminist stance and will include important topics...not what the Kardashian's had for breakfast. It will include issues that women in modern society face. I am looking for women who would want to write an article(s) for my magazine. Thanks!

What sort of authors are you looking for? Do they have to be students? And which topics do you plan to cover?

And will you pay?

From a feminist position there are a number of problems with using women's unpaid labour and in particular around creative labour such as writing.

No they do not have to be students. I am looking for people who enjoy writing and getting their point of view across. The topics I plan to cover are:

• (freedom of) sexuality
• 'slut shaming'
• body image
• gender issues
• ... in the workplace
• relationships
• sexism
• pop culture

there are 'free reigns' as to what is written.

Unfortunately there is no funding from my university for my dissertation project and therefore is all self-funded. So I can only suggest that there can be £5 for each article that is used.

How can your dissertation by a magazine written by other women?

I have 2 final year projects:

1. my disseration- written by myself
2. a final year project that is fundamentally a 'productive/creative' dissertation. I am doing a magazine- designing the magazine, obtaining research, taking photographs etc etc. I am allowed to use other writers in my magazine... thanks

Have you subscribed to Psychologies Magazine? I highly recommend their paper monthlies, always has a feminist angle, bit wishy washy but that's what you want in a magazine. Could be good inspiration for your project.

Agree with Scallops - there is a massive problem at the centre of your project, namely using other women's free labour for a project which will benefit you and you alone.

Oh and it's free rein, btw (normally don't nitpick, but since you're trying to write a dissertation here, consider it my unpaid input into raising your academic standards a bit).

Unfortunately there is no funding from my university for this, I was simply asking for women to write in it who wanted to. And I thought women should empower other women.... (don't normally nitpick, but I have offered to use my own money to pay for the articles, who would also be credited.)

Quote of the day: "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle".

But thank-you for your free input, much appreciated.

Oh and also this is not for my dissertation, it is a magazine project.
I have outlined exactly what it is further up in this post.

...Don't normally nitpick but..

OK - no is the answer from me. And it is not really about being paid.

You are effectively wanting other women to do your work for you. That is not "empowering".

"And I thought women should empower other women" Would you be asking that of men? I suspect not.

You also said it was for your dissertation project.

In fact it is more than that. You are asking people you don't know to contribute. We do not know who you are. We do not know what editing you may do on our work. We do not know the audience. We do not know how this will be used.

Many of us have entered work into other collaboration projects - but there have been some tangible benefits working towards a common goal. This is absent from here.

Women are not labour you can use at your convenience. Our time and our creativity matters and should be valued. Money aside, there is nothing in your posts to suggest you are valuing anything we may provide.

Actually, as a more general issue, I think there maybe ought to be a public debate on the ethics of what universities now expect from their students by way of research projects. A few weeks back, a student posted saying she was doing a dissertation on women who'd become single parents by choice. I, assuming it was a psychology or med student, asked if she'd run her research methodology and questionnaire past her department's ethics committee. She PM-ed me to say ethics wasn't actually at issue in this case, as she was a journalism student. (I forwarded the PM to MNHQ who pulled the thread pdq)! Then there's the slew of industrial design students who post "I've come up with XYZ to make life easier for women with children", only to have mumsnetters say "but XYZ already exists - as a cursory google would have shown you".

But it seems as if there are a lot of university departments allowing students to come up with these half-arsed projects without any consideration as to the ethics of the research methodology - whether it's expecting complete strangers to give their creative input for free, or asking very probing questions without disclosing that you are in fact studying journalism. Or come up with design projects without even a cursory knowledge of patent law/ claims regarding prior art.

OP, you could possibly turn your project round if you turned it into a collaborative project - are there students in your university who need to write assignments part of the credit for which hinges on being published in a publicly accessible format, who might want to write for you - they get credit on their course, you get credit for organising the publication? That would at least be properly collaborative, with everyone who takes part getting a share in the credit.

I reckon if you offered £250 to one person, you could get somebody to write all eight articles for you, depending on the length of the articles.

Maybe try Tumblr. Then you can see the standard of writing from their posts.

Have you looked at the types of feminist magazines/publications already online? There are literally thousands. Most of which fall apart quite quickly as the person running it doesn't understand the work load or the need to pay women for their work. Have you priced out hosting website? Design? Editing fees? How often would you publish? What you would publish?

As scallops says, empowerment is a word to convince women to give free labour or put up with shit that men would never be expected to do.

I'm a writer who writes about feminism. Unfortunately, as pps have said, there is a fundamental problem with your model, particularly if you are addressing women on a parenting forum who are likely to be paying for childcare in order to have the time to write. It might be interesting for you to take a look at the fate of the Feminist Times to research the ways that economics and feminism collide.

If I were you I would not be trying to generate new content anyway, as most of the issues you've suggested are frequently covered in blogs and online feminist magazines. Why don't you source some articles, ask permission for them to be reproduced, and design your magazine that way? You could then approach writers directly, when you have some knowledge of their style and interests.

There is literally nothing in it for a writer to conceive, research and write an article for a magazine with no known readership or planned longevity, for free. (In this instance, £5 and free are pretty much the same thing, as £5 is far less than the cost of overheads for the time taken to write)

As an actual writer, who is also a feminist - I don't work for free. Any woman who asks me to work for free is participating in my economic oppression, not empowering me.