Hi, my name is Shannon and I'm a senior at the Altoona Area High School. I'm doing a senior project on Feminists and the different kinds of feminists that there are. I have searched everywhere for good web sites on people such as Virginia Woolf. None of the ones that I've been to have been very helpful. I was wondering if you know of any good web sites that I can go to or some chat rooms that I can talk to someone. I know you are very busy trying to answer as many questions as possible, but if you can could you please e-mail me back with some possibilities. Thanks, Shannon

Thanks for your note. I actually think the best place to help with your senior project is Feminist.com itself. For instance, if you look at the range of resources listed at the site, you will get an idea of what different kinds of issues feminism takes on as well as what different kind of women are feminists. For instance, some of the women who come to Feminist.com aren't necessarily feminists before coming to the site, but then realize that feminism is the only place that has the resources that they need. These are women who want to start their own businesses, who have been abused, who have experienced pay inequity. Once they realize that feminism is the place to help them tackle/confront those issues--then they are likely to become feminists.

Essentially there is only one type of feminist--that is someone who supports the full social, political, and economic equality of all people. However, there are women who emphasize their feminism in different ways and therefore add adjectives to clarify this distinction. For instance: marxist feminists, lesbian feminists, black feminists, etc... But in reality, these are all feminists--they just have emphasis added. To learn more about these different types of feminism/feminists, there are great descriptions in The Readers Companion to U.S. Women's History (edited by Mankiller, Mink, Navarro, Smith, and Steinem).

As far as an on going dialogue about feminism--or people to dialogue with I have two immediate suggestions: one, you can continue to visit Feminist.com and specifically Ask Amy, where the site itself is an every expanding conversation; two, you can go to the Ms. Magazine site--www.msmagazine.com, which posts ongoing conversations on a range of issues.

I hope that helps you with your paper--and is the beginning of many conversations you will have about feminism and with feminists.

—Amy