Increasing Equitability in this Forum

[Neela]

I'd like to make a suggestion. It is quite sad reading in the current discussions how many women have issues with access to the first book of the month. It is my thought that women should not be barred from participation on financial grounds or geographical location, nor should they have to resort to illegal activity. Even Kindle editions can be out of reach for many women, and these are the women who probably need a discussion group like this most in their lives.

With this in mind, it would be nice if the books for the whole year could be decided and posted now itself. This would allow women time to save for the books they wished to purchase, source books/translations that may not be readily accessible, or borrow them from their local library at a time when there isn't a huge rush on the book because it is 'book of the month'.

Equitability is an issue dear to my heart, and it would be great if this forum could be made more equitable.

[Julia]

I totally love the idea. Furthermore, if not every can afford a book and, maybe, someone did the reading early, we might be able to borrow each other books - shipping them via post or sharing ebooks, if possible...

[Katelyn, Our Shared Shelf Moderator]

Yes, I think that would be very helpful!

My only concern would be that by choosing books for the entire year, it we might be missing out on new releases that are topical and immediately relevant. Then again, newer books tend to be more expensive and nearly impossible to get secondhand. This just crossed my mind because the first book was quite new, so I thought that might have been intentional on Emma's part, to choose newer books that would be new to most people, rather than classics or older releases that would be repetitive for many. I also wonder if Emma plans to curate the list of books or if choosing will happen by another method. I guess we will see!

[Be]

Neela wrote: "I'd like to make a suggestion. It is quite sad reading in the current discussions how many women have issues with access to the first book of the month. It is my thought that women should not be ba..."

Good idea, but talking of "feminists" or "group members" would be better than "women" :D There are men in here, too :D HeyHo! ;)

[Mellyflue]

I'm really agree with your idea !!

About the "newest" of book, we acn maybe choose a "classic" one month (easy to find in secondhand), and a "newest" an other month ? This system could help some group members to acquier books, and, van help to learn the fondement of feminism ?

[Terena]

Thanks for bringing this up. I agree it would be great to read some "classics" which can be bought second hand or are easier to find at the library.

[[deleted user]]

Older books might be easier to find in other languages, hence allowing more people to participate.

[xenu01]

Something that another book club I'm a part of does is that they have a main book and an alternate pick every month.

That's more work for mods and people who are in charge of organizational things, for sure, but maybe it would be a good idea anyway since there's several thousand members in this group?

Maybe the main book could be more topical and the alt could be more in the classical vein?

[Robin]

While I agree that it would be nice that everyone participate, this doesn't necessarily mean they need to participate now!

There are already several people offering to send their read books on to those who need it. Someone made a good point earlier that the great thing about these forums is that you can come back to them later as well. There isn't an essay due and everyone can take as much time as they need to read the books.

I feel like part of the problem here is the idea that there is pressure to get it read by the end of the month. This is simply not the case. Even if you read this six months from now, thats more than anyone can ask. The fact that you took the time to read it is amazing!

It wouldn't hurt to know the next book by last week of January, but honestly, this is supposed to be fun as well as educational. Can we just ease off the gas a little?