THE HISTORY

Fword, a History
In Fall 2006, a group of students came together to fill a gap they saw in the Penn community. In looking to the past, these students found inspiration in the form of Pandora’s Box, a magazine founded ten years prior which published works of Penn women for a female audience. Noticing the void left behind when Pandora’s Box went out of print, these students began to discuss how to shape and revive the magazine. Hoping to involve a larger, more diverse group of both contributors and readers, they set out to create a space for students to give literary and artistic voice to their ideas on feminism, gender and sexuality. In titling the publication “The Fword: A Collection of Feminist Voices,” the magazine set out not only to be an outlet for feminists to talk, but also to serve as a catalyst to increase awareness of feminist issues in the campus community. The Fword founders chose a bee as a symbol for the magazine due to the fabled leadership role of the queen bee.

Fword today…
Having just published our eighth issue of the Fword, the editorial board continues to carry on the legacy of our founding members. Since 2006, we have consistently published our magazine on a biannual basis thanks to the gracious support of our sponsor organizations. We have continued to seek out and publish works that express a wide spectrum of opinions and experiences, always remaining faithful to our “Collection of Feminist Voices” mantra. Finally, we have increased our distribution network and we have joined PubCo- the undergraduate student publications umbrella group- to increase our influence and expand our outreach to the Penn community.

The written and artistic pieces found in our magazine and on our blog will give you just a glimpse of the status of feminist thought on Penn’s campus. We are thankful for the tremendous progress feminism has made and yet we know that there is still more to be thought and said, written and photographed, captured and articulated.