What started as a classroom literature debate has lead to a group of high school students forming a feminist collective, and crowdfunding the creation of a feminism teaching resource for the national curriculum.

The Fitzroy High School Feminist Collective has raised more than $12,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of the resource.

Their mission began after a heated debate, studying the character 'Curly’s wife', in John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’.

The students were disturbed by Steinbeck’s portrayal of the woman, who the author said was “not a person, she's a symbol. She has no function, except to be a foil."

As the students debated whether Curly’s wife had provoked her own murder, a deeper passion to defend the rights of women arose.

“We sort of stumbled upon the fact there were quite a few of us interested in feminism,” Stella Bridie, 15, said.

The group – from Years 8, 9 and 10 - started making posters with messages condemning ‘slut shaming’, and soon realised they had bigger dreams.

They sought the Australian Education Union’s support and began working on their teaching resource.

“It’s all about educating people our own age what feminism is – we’re trying to get in young because if you learn bad habits when you’re young then it sort of carries through into adulthood,” Nia Stanford, 16, said.

“We thought if we got it into schools then it would be a really good way to educate everybody.”

Going against the grain

The group’s mission runs counter to a recent social media campaign, where young women have posted images of themselves with messages beginning with “I don’t need feminism because...”.

It’s an attitude the Fitzroy students are familiar with, and one they say has become more aggressive since they have ‘come out’ as feminists.

“I started really coming out with feminist ideals and discussing them with my friends and getting really negative backlash – sometimes online or in person and generally getting a lot of bad reactions to being a feminist,” Stella said.

“That’s when I realised people my age don't think feminism is relevant any more, and they just think it’s a bunch of man-hating angry women.”

Feminism 'missing' from school curriculum

Teacher Briony O’Keeffe is leading the group and working out the fine print for the educational resource.

She believes it is something that has been missing from the Australian curriculum for a long time.

“There’s certainly reference in the Australian curriculum standards to looking at women in history, but there’s not really a strong focus on it, and it could be left out depending on the knowledge and passion of the teachers leading the class,” she said.

She says the resource will break down negative stereotypes and make feminism accessible to young women and men.

“You certainly don't need ten years in feminist theory to identify as a feminist and that’s something I think these young women have discovered - you don’t need any qualifications other than wanting respect and equal rights.”

For Zsuzsa Gaynor Mihaly, 15, the collective has been a source of empowerment, and one she wants to take ‘global’.

“The idea started off as ‘let’s change our school’, then the schools in our area, and now it’s like we may as well try for the entire world – go big or go home,” she said.

“I guess it’s just trying to make something that’s good enough to be accepted into the curriculum, and then get it into as many curriculums as we can.”