Topic: Beauty and the Media
Our group focused on the beauty and the media. Our group consisted of people who have three different backgrounds, white, woman of color and Asian, especially Japanese women. So each of us had own section to talk. As for Asian women, I did two questionnaires: one is for Japanese people that I asked how they think about dying their hair brown; the other is for Japanese women and American women that I asked about their fashion and the sense of beauty. And I analyzed how they are influenced by media differently. In my presentation, I could use Japanese magazines and American magazines for Asian American. I could find many difference between them such as there are more direct instructions in Japanese magazines and they think that looking-good is more important than American people. I made my article about Beauty and Media about Asian women and I posted it in the magazine called "Revolution" that we made by ourselves. It is full of collages of various women and articles about women's studies. I am sure that our group project was full of varieties.

Topic: Women and Voting
The focus of our project was studying the voting patterns of women, particularly college-aged women, on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. We wanted to know what views these young women hold regarding their right to vote and their political leanings.

Through researching government documents and conducting surveys, we hoped to spread awareness of both George Bush and John Kerry's policies and beliefs regarding gender, thus gathering support for the presidential candidate who most strongly supports women's rights.

This project contributes to the unity of feminist theory and practice in that it aims to educate and encourage young women of all classes and races to express their voices through the act of voting.

Our group had great results. We were able to register almost 40 students to vote in Massachusetts, provided absentee ballots, handouts and voting information to many others and we became more informed voters ourselves while sharing our findings with our classmates in Critical Perspectives.

Topic: Reproductive Rights
The focus of this project was to delve into the ideologies surrounding the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2004. By observing the march, it was possible to critique the level of attention paid to feminist organizing, global reproductive rights, and issues surrounding women of color. We wanted to address many issues, such as racism, women's health, reproductive rights, HIV, and feminist organization.

The main action of the project was to create a video and collage for archive within the Women's Studies Department. The intensity of the march was captured well through interviews, candid shots, speeches, and actual footage of marching. Also, the collage had quotes from people from the march as well as pictures of those who participated. Overall, it is intended to show those who did not attend the march what the experience was like, as well as remind those who went.

The main findings were that despite a successful following and organizational effort, more emphasis on the global fight for reproductive rights and women of color should occur. Some women felt alienated because their individual concerns were not addressed; however, these women displayed solidarity with all women on most other issues, namely reproductive rights.

Topic: Violence against women
My Women's Studies group project covered issues concerning violence against women. The overall theme of violence against women includes topics such as domestic abuse, rape, incest, and sexual abuse. We worked to not only understand the statistics of violence against women but analyzed the structures which victims and survivors can go to. During our research process, we found places, resources, and events where victims of violence can go to for help, resources, and counseling. These are places such as the Everywoman's Center or Planned Parenthood. These places are helpful for the victim in some ways, however there is restraint because of lack of funding and no support from the state. Therefore women are frequently victims of violence, both in and out of the home. There are laws and constructions that work against the equality of women and the resources for victims of violence to go to.

Topic: Title IX and Body Image in Sports
The focus of our group project was Title IX and the body image in women's sports. The feminist issues in which we addressed were that since Title IX is now being more strictly enforced more women are now being involved in sports and this brings women more issues of trying to stay feminine but yet they need to be more masculine in order to be competitive in their sport. We also presented the issue of equal funding in schools and how certain schools are complying with Title IX by instead of adding more women's teams to the schools they are eliminating male teams in order for things to be equal. The kind of research and action that our group undertook for the project was by interviewing several female teams coaches and female team athletes, also by web research, and our course readings. What I learned from my participation in this project was that we have come along way with Title IX and gender equity, but it does not stop there because we have just as long of a ways to go in order for things to be the way in which they should be.

Topic: Gender Inequality in the Workforce
For our group project, we focused on the topic of gender inequality in the workforce. We felt that this was an ongoing problem that needed to be brought up in our class because it is something that has almost become "accepted." This cannot be the mentality of the people behind the struggle for women's equality movement. This inequality is obviously wrong, and we wanted to make everyone aware of just how serious this situation continues to be. Issues we chose to address were the pay gap, "pink ghetto"-a place of limited advancement where women (and people of color) end up when segregated into lower paying, undervalued occupations, and "glass ceiling"- concept of women not being able to advance any higher than certain positions in the workplace.

The actions and research that we incorporated into our project were interviews, databases, women's studies textbook, and other online sources. The variety of resources that we had enabled us to come up with a plethora of information. After the interview, we compared the answers we received to information we had found in articles. Our main findings were a tremendous amount of statistics that helped us see exactly how lopsided this pay gap is. We both knew that there was an actual pay gap in our society, but we did not know that it is still so disproportionate. I learned that the pay gap has narrowed, but there is still a long way to go. People cannot settle for the fact that this gap has become part of life, and that there is nothing they can do to change it. The reason why it has narrowed that little bit is because people fought for what they believed in, and that is the only way there will be any other change in the future.