Feminism and activism

So in I'm chairing the next feminist discussion meeting and the title is "feminist activism" Partly because there is a real issue in the group that while people turn up to the discussion meetings very few are actually involved in the activism we do and we think its a real issue.

I personally think that as society has become more consumerist and more individual people pick labels for themselves and don't work out what that actually means or what that actually entails. To me "feminist" is not an identity label, it is a principled political position that entails working for change, that entails working with others and actually doing stuff. Talking about it is not the end point its the beginning point. The discussion groups are good and important but if that is all people do I'm not sure they can call themselves feminists.

I'm not really sure how to structure it but I'm going to put forward these questions as discussion points and see what that kick starts

What is feminist activism?
What is the relationship between feminist friendships and activism?
What can we learn about activism from older feminists?
Difference between group activism and individual activism?
How do we radicalise ourselves and others into activism?
What is the place of activism within feminism?

I know that feminist activism isn't just what happens in feminist spaces, I know that. I consider the fact that I'm setting up a women only depression support group as feminist activism and raising strong female children and non sexist/misogynistic male children is feminist activism. And empowering female students. And supporting women, emotionally, practically, financially, politically all this is activism I think, so I think that all feminists do do some sort of activism but I think what we are more concerned about is practical activism that the group can do together.

I also think that if you do activism together, if you know you have a group of women supporting you with the big things then it makes the piecemeal individual activism easier to do I think. I know certainly I am more focused on feminism in my personal life if I have a group of women I can talk about feminism with and who I know are actively trying to change things.


I'm going to use
The womans timeline to illustrate that things change when activism happens.

and

this

and

this,
to start discussions

if anyone can suggest some more links on the relationship between feminism and activism that would be cool.