Dear Amy,

I go to York University in Toronto, Canada. And for my research assignment I will be doing the impact of the feminist movement on the practice of democracy. So I would just like to know if you think that the feminist movement occured as a direct result of a failure in democracy, or that it succeeded because democracy was successful?

Thanks so much for your very thought provoking question.

I think that feminism emerged as a response to a failure in our democracy. A democracy is a system that gives value to the individual and to individual voice -- it's also a system that is about every person having equal representation -- none of things are true and so I guess that's a way to define the goals of feminism -- go move us toward an actual functioning democracy. I hope that helps.

-- Amy