The first questionnaire was used for the school sample and, without the life story, for the university students and parents. Question 3.1a ‘What does “feminism” mean to you?’ was added in 2005, as I became increasingly aware of a widespread lack of knowledge concerning feminism, either negatively or positively imagined. In those schools where students asked me what feminism was, I answered that there were many definitions but a popular one was ‘people who believe that men and women should have the same opportunities or be treated the same/equally’. Although minor problems had emerged with other questions (for example, many parents in particular noted ‘books’ as a major source of feminist ideas), I decided not to revise the standard questionnaire, thus retaining consistency across the samples.

The second questionnaire was adapted from the original version in consultation with Karen Walters of Inner City Youth Services, specifically for the early school leavers who are clients of youth services. This questionnaire was used for all the South Australian youth services samples, which included questionnaires distributed to sexuality youth services and by word of mouth. Where the standard questionnaire had a four point scale, from agree strongly to disagree strongly (with a ‘no opinion/don't know’ option), the youth services questionnaire only has ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘don't know’. As the alternative version reduced comparability across samples and I received criticisms from some respondents who felt the questions were too colloquial, I reverted to the original questionnaire for subsequent youth service samples (in Victoria), without apparent problems with comprehension.