Equality Within Reach began with a school project. In a graphic design capstone course in my last undergraduate semester, I received the following assignment: "Design for good." There were no real parameters.
I chose to use design to address the issue of gender equality, which at the beginning of 2012 was still hovering at the fringes of mainstream discussion. My original project was a print campaign featuring thought-provoking questions about gender and social norms, all bound together with the slogan "Are you part of the problem?"
My advisor pointed out that the depth of my research and what I had to say was barely touched on in the ads I'd created, and encouraged me to expand my project, so sometime in March 2012 I put together a website, which I titled "Equality Within Reach." It featured articles that explained the issues, links to websites and books for further exploration, a "just for men" page, and, as an afterthought, images which could be shared via social media. For the sake of self-promotion, I shared these images on my personal Tumblr.
A few months later, I got an email from a blogger/reporter at the Huffington Post, requesting a phone interview—one image I'd thrown together, reading "Short skirts don't rape; rapists rape" had gone viral on Tumblr and Facebook and she wanted to know more about the project. The following week was a flurry of minor internet activity: an article on HuffPo, further recognition, Twitter discussion, and even a bit of internet harrassment. EWR enjoyed an unexpected spike in traffic and viewership. That image is probably the reason why you're here.
I'm happy to report that a lot has changed since I first put my project on Tumblr. Feminism—both the word itself and what it stands for—has been embraced by a great deal of people, from celebrities to Buzzfeed writers. The clamor for gender equality in society, the media, the workplace, and politics has been magnified, and while we still have a long, long way to go, we are closer than we were before.
I haven't updated or maintained EWR for three years, and while I have been tossing around plans to reinvent it, it will probably be a while before I actually do. The site itself is out-of-date; some of the resources are no longer relevant or have been taken down. The site, which was intended to be a sort of layperson's Feminism/Gender Equality 101, is currently too tired to properly fulfill that purpose. For now, I've tucked the site away; I hope you understand. Thank you to everyone for all the great feedback and support I've gotten for Equality Within Reach over the past three years.
If you are interested in receiving any updates on this project, offering constructive feedback, or assisting in any way, feel free to contact me.
Email: webmaster@equalitywithinreach.com
Twitter: @doodlyroses