On the 5th June I attended an event, entitled Here come the Women, as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival in London. Debating the legacy and future of feminism, the event was chaired by local Member of Parliament (and the sole female candidate for the Labour Party leadership) Diane Abbott. She was joined by Kat Banyard, founder of UK Feminista and writer of The Equality Illusion, and Ellie Levinson, author of The Noughtie Girls Guide to Feminism.

The large, and mainly female, audience listened to Kat and Ellie read excerpts from their books and then a debate followed. The packed out room reaffirmed points made by Kat that there appears to be a resurgence of feminist activism, with new groups being set up around the UK and a raft of recent feminist publications.

A key issue that was raised was why, despite this apparent resurgence, teenage girls today are “turning away” from feminism. Diane suggested that if you were to walk into a local school, teenage girls would not want to associate themselves with the term. Certainly in my own research with teenage girls I found that, while feminism is not an alien concept, it is something that girls do not find easy to embrace or identity with, even when they experience gender inequality in their everyday lives.

The panel and audience members suggested a number of possible reasons why feminism is a “dirty word” among teenage girls in Britain today. These included: the negative representations of feminism and feminists within the mainstream media (think bra-burning, “man-haters” etc); the perception that you can’t be both “feminine” and a feminist; a lack of attention to gender politics in the curriculum; a sexualised, “celebrity-obsessed” commercial culture which encourages girls to aspire to become WAGs (footballer’s wives) and glamour girls; and a “post-feminist” culture which penalises women and girls for daring to object to misogynistic views or gender discrimination.

However, while some of these are valid points, I think there are much more complex and thorny issues that make it difficult for some young women to identify themselves as feminists. As someone whose mother did not participate in the feminist movement or identify as a feminist, studying sociology at university was how I discovered feminism and where I found a vocabulary through which to articulate my feelings. A recent survey of over 1200 feminists by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune, authors of Reclaiming the F-Word: A New Feminist Movement, suggests that I was not alone in finding feminism in this way. When asked what sparked their interest in feminism, the most commonly cited response was “positive educational experiences”, followed closely by “reading feminist books”. Not all young women have the opportunities to go to university and participate in this kind of discourse, and not all young women have access to the spaces in which they can raise feminist concerns without risk of being ridiculed or persecuted.

Women do not only experience gender inequality differently because of their social class position. Social class also makes a difference to how women can “live out” feminism. Being middle class and moving in middle class spaces can’t protect young women from the challenges they may encounter as a result of identifying themselves as feminists – the jokes, funny looks and accusations of “taking things too seriously” – but it can give women access to resources that make it easier for them to do so.

So it strikes me that when feminists ask why teenage girls don’t engage with feminism they should also reflect on their own classed privileges that have allowed them to embrace feminism and proudly reclaim the F-word.

Kim Allen, Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University