To whom it may concern,

I am a student at the University at Buffalo and am writing you this letter to ask you a few questions. I am enrolled in a "Women in Contemporary Society" class and am finding it not only inspirational but liberating. I was browsing the net today and came across your site. I enjoyed reading the articles and found much of the info helpful. I am doing a Current Events Report based on Contemporary Events within this time frame. So I was thrilled to find your web page. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me?

What made you pursue this web page? (I read that you started rather small and I looked at your past web page and I agree that you have come a long way.

As a college woman everyday I encounter many issues that face woman today. I see how so many of my peers react and also how easily some chose not to react to issues that concern us. I was just curious, what would you classify a "feminist" as? Do you feel that you need to be very involved to be a feminist or is it ok to sit on the back burner?

And finally, what is one piece of advice that you would give to college women or women in general for that matter? If you could let me know as soon as possible the answers to these questions and or any information you would like to give me that would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you for your time and for such a worthy web page.

Sincerely,
Shanna

Dear Shanna,

I'm glad that you enjoyed our site. I will attempt to answer your questions and hope these answers help with your work.

What made you pursue this web page? Feminist.com started just as the Internet was beginning to take over our lives. It was really the first feminist space for women on the Internet -- and remains one of the few feminist sites that isn't directly connected to an organization, publication, institution that exists offline. Feminist.com wanted to provide a community for feminists--a space for feminists to come together to explore each other's work or to celebrate their own, it was also intended as a place to introduce others to feminism or to help those who wanted to become more active/more involved. It really started very innocently: how can we make sure that women have a place to congregate on the Internet?

What would you classify a "Feminist" as? Do you feel that you need to be very involved to be a feminist or is it ok to sit on the back burner? A feminist is anyone--male or female--who contributes toward the full social, political, and economic equality of all people. It's not enough to say that you are a feminist -- or even to give your example of equality. As long as one woman isn't free, the rest of us are confirmed in our freedom. Feminism is about liberating everyone, not just about individual women being able to do what they want to do. However, sometimes this example opens the door for others. For instance, the woman who wants to be an astronaut or the woman who sues her employer for wage discrimination or the woman who refuses to works for free in her home--these examples pave the way for others and that is a feminist act.

What would be one piece of advise that you would give College Women or and women for that matter? I am frequently asked by college women -- "what can I do?" The best way to answer that is to look at what is unequal in your community. For instance, does the women's athletic program receive as much money as the men's? Do the female faculty get paid the same as the male faculty? So my advice is to find out what isn't just right in front of them and make a contribution toward changing that. You will improve their life and your own.

I hope that this helps,
Amy