I'm okay with being branded, labelled, categorized, whatever, as feminist because I can choose my own definition. I'm okay with that. I can disagree with how others have defined it if I choose to, or just let it go. It depends on the situation. (Wanita Koczka, Pine Grove Correctional Centre)

Perhaps Tannis Atkinson (Toronto ALFA Centre) came closest to many women's free-floating concern about the term "feminism": "The question is: What happens when people use the same word but mean very different things by it?"

A few women said feminism is more a private belief system than a way that they would publicly acknowledge their work. It is a philosophy that women come to believe through their own experiences and their reading. Other women said that, for them, feminism is very much defined by the way in which it is public and actively political.

I think that saying something is woman-positive takes a political edge off of an activity which might otherwise be called feminist. (Kate Nonesuch, Malaspina College)

Some women talked about this as a difference between liberal reforms - working with existing structures and attitudes - and more radical responses to oppression.

Woman-positive sounds very liberal, sounds like making an existing program, which is mostly more accessible to men, accessible to women. That would be modifying our programs, accommodating different needs of women so that they can participate in our program.

Feminism on the other hand sounds like more than accommodating women. It is liberating and struggling against any and all types/forms of oppression against women. (Amele Zewge, Toronto ALFA Centre)

• If CCLOW had said "We want to find out what happens when we do a feminist activity in a literacy program," how would that have made a difference to you or to your program?

As might be expected from the discussion outlined above, many women felt they would have had some hard decisions to make if CCLOW had used the word "feminist" rather than "woman-positive" in the research question. Some women said they assumed from the beginning that, since CCLOW identifies as a feminist organization, all the women and all the activities would also be identified as feminist. They had to work with their surprise that some women and some activities were beginning from a position that didn't include a feminist interpretation of their work.

A few women said they would not have contacted CCLOW about the research if they had thought they would have to implement feminist activities in their programs. Several women, including women who identified as feminist, said they would have wondered about hidden agendas. Did the organization have preconceived ideas about what would be considered "good" and "bad," and would the women and programs involved be judged by those standards?