Ever wondered about the UK feminist community?
By Catherine Redfern | 6 April 2009, 20:08
I have.
For example: What issues concern today’s feminists? What do they think about the feminist movement today? How old are they? Who inspires them, what actions do they take part in, and how did they end up calling themselves feminists in the first place? What about their level of education, views on religion, or location in the UK?
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to find out?
Well, that’s what myself and Dr Kristin Aune are trying to do, with our survey of UK feminists - including you, dear readers of The F Word.
We’ve been promoting our survey round some of the conferences and events this year and last year, as well as approaching various groups and organisations directly. So, you may have come across us already. If you have, and taken the time to complete the survey, THANK YOU so much.
For those who haven’t come across it yet, the research is being conducted by myself, Catherine Redfern (hi!) and Dr. Kristin Aune, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Derby. We plan to report the results in a book we are co-writing (to be published by the wonderful Zed Books in 2010) as well as other popular and academic formats.
Through this research, we want to learn more about feminists today: who they are, what they think, what issues are important to them and what activities they’re involved in. We believe this is the first major survey of contemporary UK feminists and are keen for as many people to contribute as possible.
It will take a while for the results to be finished, but we hope that this will be of interest to the feminist community and we hope to be able to share the results with you as much as we can.
We have many hundreds of responses so far and I can’t thank you all strongly enough. Having seen some of the results so far, it’s absolutely fascinating reading.
So, if you’re interested in taking part, please click here to go to the survey.
Thank you!
Have your say
In order to keep this blog as a feminist and friendly space, comments will be subject to some rules. We do not seek to censor debate: the beauty of the internet is that anyone can set up their own blog or website to express their views.
- This blog is a safe and friendly space for feminists and feminist allies. Debate and critique are welcome where it is constructive and deepens analysis or understanding. Anti-feminist comments will not be approved. We get to decide what's anti-feminist.
- All comments must be approved by one of the bloggers. For this reason, there may be a delay before your comment appears.
- No sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ablist comments, comments which make personal attacks on any blogger or commenter, or comments that are otherwise deemed offensive by us will be posted.
- Trolls will be banned from commenting. We get to decide who is a troll.
- No anonymous comments - please feel free to use your real name or make one up, though.
- Be nice.
Feeds
Saranga said:
Great idea. I shall fill it out later )when not at work!) I could post a link to it on my blog if you wanted? But, knowing the internet, you might end up with answers from non UK people, even though I would clearly state it's for UK feminists only.
Posted on 07 April 2009 at 9:13 AM
Hannah said:
I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this, having filled it in a while back :)
Posted on 07 April 2009 at 11:02 AM
Catherine Redfern said:
WOW. Over 550 of you have completed the survey online, bringing our total ever closer to 1000! This is amazing, thank you everyone. Keep 'em coming!
@Hannah, thanks!
Posted on April 10, 2009 10:38 AM
Catherine Redfern said:
@Saranga, thanks for your kind comments! Yeah, I expect that a few people might get a bit confused, but I'm sure if you make it really clear then hopefully it will cut down any non-Uk answers. Thank you!
Posted on April 10, 2009 10:39 AM