Womens Experiences of being involved in movements for social change.

This workshop aimed to address issues that women felt existed in the there groups/ campaigns and organisations and look at ways of dealing with these issues. The workshop then carried on into developing a workshop that can be used by groups to bring anti- patriarchy issues to our campaigns and organisations.

Facilitators Marianne and Kim

Feedback from an excersise looking at positive and negative experiences of organising

Negative

* Difficult to engage some men in the issue of gender
* Male voices being stronger than womens voices
* The theory of sexism/gender/patricarchy is understood but is not practiced
* Unconcious replication of internalised behaviours in women etc ( ie flirting)
* The space for gender discussions within groups is often seen as closed
* Women are often part of a minority and speak less
* Being part of movements for indgineous rights and knowing/ feeling that gender is not even an issue
* Women have to do double the work- work within their movements for social change and work externally for social change.
* The way some men talk
* Interrupting of women when they are talking
* Confronting sexism in a group can lead to tensions
* Being the symbolic women
* Women being aggressive and scary in meetings

Positive
* Having strong personal relationships with men in groups, being able to confront issues
* Productive working in all female groups
* Productive working in smaller groups
* Working with men that you trust
* Learning from behaviours that we don't like how not to act
* We have come a long way and we still have a long way to go but it is working and things are changing.

The particpants were then divided into groups of five and spent five minutes answering four different questions.

Why do women speak less in meetings
* Learned behaviours
* Women often have less confidence and don't value their opnions as much
* Intimidation
* No space given
* There is only one socio-linguisticaccepted method which is the mens one
* Women don;t often choose the topics
* Men have more need to assert themselves
* Men look at women differently when they start to talk
* Women get interrupted

What can we do to change that dynamic
* Strong strucutured facilitation- occasionally ask for women that have not spoken to speak
* Education
* Value invisible work often done by women
* Reduce domestic work of women so they can take part in meetings
* Tell men to shut up
* Encourage men to step back and women to step forward
* Have women only groups to empower women
* Make sure that women reguarly facilitate meetings

Are there less women involved in movements for social change- if so why

* Maybe not less in number but they are often less visible
* It depends on what the group or issues is
* On campaigns where people live on site- yes
* Women tend to be drawn to different issues
* I don't have the feeling

What can we do to change this dynamic

* Work within our groups to organise internally ( inside evaluation first)
* Have gender dynamics discussions
* React immediately to situations when they occur ( ie a women is interupted)
* Make a point of listening to women
* Show solidarity and enthusiasm with ideas they have
* Make women and womens issues visible
* Outreach to women to bring them in- make groups more accessible
* Work out practical solutions to help remove barriers
* Work out protocols to deal with communication issues
* Value many different types of 'information' and ways of recieivng information ie- creatively/ emotionally
* Have emotional rounds occasionally within groups
* Make sure everyone within the group also has emotional support as well as organising campaigns.

There was little time for discussion at the end of this debate but a number of the ideas spilled over into forming the Day School for Men workshop.