Yay for the f-word.

Colleagues started to whisper about me in corners today. They’ve been looking at me funny, meeting my gaze with a lame sort of smile.

You know the sort of stilted smile I mean – signalling sympathy rather than support. Not a grin that says, “I’m your friend,” rather a more bemused, guarded sort of lip-twitch that says , “I thought I knew you, but now I think you may possibly be mad”.

Anyone would think I’d just admitted a life-long love of say Daniel O’ Donnell or confessed that actually I think it’s okay to wee in the shower. If only the misdemeanour sparking my instant character reassessment had been quite so simple, but it was much murkier than that.

In an office staffed entirely by women, I’d announced I considered myself a feminist.

Carol nearly choked on her coffee. Sharon appeared to want to change the subject, saying she'd like to discuss the latest instalment of Corrie. Fine, except she doesn’t watch it.

All the same, I was having none of it. How could it be a surprise? I mean we’re an all-women firm, set up so we could work around our children, rescuing us from the inflexibility of our past professional lives. Carol’s won an award as the UK’s ‘Most exceptional working mum’ for goodness sake – how can she not be a feminist?

“So do you think feminism is a dirty word?” I ventured, shattering the awkward silence.

But they weren’t playing ball.

And then, suddenly rather than answering my question, everyone remembered the “urgent” phone calls they had to make and meetings they were itching to set up.

I was baffled. Where’s the shock factor in this particular f-word? I sought guidance in the shape of an online forum for journalists, confident that I’d find the answers lacking in our “backwater” office.

My metropolitan, university-educated, broadsheet reading “cyber pals” would put me right.

“I think what feminism *is* and what it's often perceived to be are two very, very different things", wrote Carrie.

“It's used as a shortcut of saying cropped-hair, dungaree-wearing, man-hating dyke who spends her time campaigning for the elimination of the word "chairman", when what it's really about is equality.”

Kim’s reply had me shouting ‘yay’ at my computer screen. "I always feel like asking whether they [those who don’t consider themselves feminists] think women should have the right to vote, the right to equal pay, the right to have a mortgage in their own name. These are all things that feminists have fought for, as well as dozens of other rights we now take for granted. I really think that the reason women don't call themselves feminists is that they think it will frighten men."

So there. Glad we got that sorted. Now all I need to do is to print these missives off and pin them up on the office wall. That and get some washing on. [Linda]