The Harvard Feminist Collective was started by Kate Klein, Betsey Bennett, and me to fill the gap that was left after the previous feminist organization died out in 2018, before any of us had arrived on campus. We met on our first day of college, during orientation week, and have been best friends since. Our conversations revolve around anything and everything from our affinity for furry hats to our mutual love of the late icon, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Often, our discussions stray to the topic of feminism, specifically, what it means to be a feminist and how one can live a feminist life.

These conversations were the highlight of my freshman year. Instead of doing online school my sophomore year, I took a gap year abroad in Taiwan. During this time, I wanted to connect with my friends and recreate the communal closeness of late night talks in freshman year. I started a feminist book club, where we would read books and articles and convene to discuss via Zoom. Interest in the club grew and we decided to formalize it into a student organization at Harvard post-gap year. 

We noticed that, although there are many pre-professional clubs on campus working hard to increase female representation in various fields of work, there really wasn’t a space for Harvard students to think deeply about what it means to live a feminist life. We started the Harvard Feminist Collective to fill that void. 

We launched the Harvard Feminist Collective this fall, with Professor Light, head of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department at Harvard. We want to talk about intersectional feminism. We want to talk about social media and body positivity. We want to talk about toxic masculinity and how we can reimagine masculinity in a feminist manner. We look forward to creating a space that will harbor these conversations and so many more. From book clubs on the works of feminist authors to discourse on relevant current events, we believe the Feminist Collective will have something for everyone.

We are excited for the meaningful exchanges and the friendships, the advocacy and the art we hope will come out of this club. To us, the personal is political, and we believe feminists are not born, but made. 

Mission Statement 
The Harvard Feminist Collective provides a welcoming space for all students, regardless of their previous familiarity with feminism, to explore the concept of feminism and apply it in their daily life. 

• Bi-Weekly meetings open to the general public
• Open discussion
• Internal community building events
• Speaker events
• Collaboration with the Boston community

HFC is dedicated to nurturing a reflective, joyful, accountable community through meaningful discussion, collaboration with the Boston community, concrete action items, and speaker events. 

We strive to create an inclusive community that highlights the importance of intersectional feminism for all genders and races, regardless of previous experience or education on the subject. All are welcome, always.

Through this project, I hope to shed some light on the problems that face feminist clubs around the country. The challenges that face the Harvard Feminist Collective are not unique; as I demonstrate in my deliverables, feminist clubs around the country struggle with the same problems. My deliverable in the next section aims to provide strategies created by the collective wisdom of my interviewees.