We would like to publicly address the upset that has been caused to some by the coincidence of names between The Women’s Room blog and ourselves. Prior to the launch of our website we had been aware of the existence of a number of other Women’s Rooms, set up in homage to the novel by Marilyn French, as ours is in part. Since our website is merely a database of names of women who are prepared to talk to the media, we did not anticipate there being any conflict of interest with sites that range from fashion blogs to refuge hostels to forums to radio stations. Nevertheless, we have received complaints from one organisation with whom we share the title of the novel: The Women’s Room fashion blog, who have submitted numerous complaints about our presence and stated that we are impinging on their online presence. We are not in breach of any copyright law to have set up a new website with the same name as the multiple other sites using the title – and in fact our presence is arguably driving additional traffic to these other sites. However, we do not wish to exist in conflict with any other group, so we would like to publicly re-make the offer we made in a private email to them, and suggest that we display their website prominently on our site – separate to the other great blogs we already highlight, in order that our media coverage can work to their advantage as well as ours. Our project is about female solidarity first and foremost. We want to give women a voice, not silence them. We really hope that The Women’s Room blog and we can work positively together to make the most of the hard work that all women put in to making themselves heard.

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