The One where I use the F Word…

Feminism.

I have considered myself a feminist for quite some time, even before Emma Watson made it cool. For me its simple, its equality. Yet, here we are and that word is still so hard to come back and still feels so far away. Although its not a thought that often comes into my head I recently talked to student finance where they told me that my primary sponsor (who’s financial information contributes to how much I get in a student loan) was my step-dad, when I asked why it is simply because he is a man. 

That’s why I am so empowered to see us take a stand at the minute, gender equality is gaining more and more traction and I thought I would take some time to talk about what I’m going to do to help the plight for gender equality.

1. Educate myself – I’m not one to sit and read feminist literary criticisms, there’s only so much Judith Butler I can take. But as an avid reader, I want to start reading books (for fun) that incorporate feminist values. Books like – How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, Girl Up by Laura Bates or Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay as well as books likes The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and Everything I Never Told You by Celest Ng.
2. Promote Equality in my workplace – now I am by no means a leader in my workplace, but after a conversation with my manager (the big boss) we decided to analyse our statistics, working out our gender ratio’s and looking and women in leadership roles. This started a wider conversation of what can be done to promote women to take on leadership roles and it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
3. Talk to people around me – a lot of people in my inner circle would say that they are a feminist, yet actually don’t know much about what that really means or think that just saying that they are a feminist is enough. Not everyone’s awareness is the same, so I like having conversations even if it’s just to tell people why you’re so passionate about it.
4. Use my voice – you may have noticed that I haven’t blogged in a while and I definitely haven’t spoken about anything like this before. Mainly because, I didn’t want to offend or write about anything too controversial but then I thought, are my monthly favourites really that important? It’s not like I have billions of followers to disappoint or cause an issue with. I decided when I made my blog to put my voice out there and you will hopefully see more content on here to come, but every now and again I really do want to write more about what matters to me.

Please if you have any other ideas on what I can do, or if you have any opinions – share in the comments.

On another note, I urge you to take a stand against what is happening in Chechnya, Rallies are being held this Saturday in many areas, check facebook pages and events. I will be attending Liverpool’s Rally in St George’s Hall.