Day 1: Coady – Feminism in Practice

DAY 1

COADY – FEMINISM IN PRACTICE

Hosts: Veronica Torres, Eileen Alma

Feminism in practice was the topic for today’s session. Participants shared reflections on what feminism looks like in each other’s work. Everyone agreed that feminism appears in different ways in each organization. While some may have been new to feminism in practice, other organizations identify as feminist organizations and have incorporated feminism into every aspect of the organization.

Eileen Alma presented on the experience of feminist practice at the Coady Institute, and shared her personal journey of the growth of her feminist consciousness and commitment. When she came to Coady, she was encouraged and supported in developing the Women’s Centre’s focus on gender equality and women’s leadership, as well as Indigenous programming. Practicing feminism in our organizations influences all aspects including governance and decision-making. There will always be challenges and we must continue to demonstrate our commitment to addressing them.

A lively discussion followed regarding feminism in organizations including policy and work/life balance, and different countries and cultures. We must consider ways of working within organizations and also modelling that behavior for the community. The final discussion was focused on what it means for Engage to be a feminist program. Participants spoke of the diversity of experiences. There was consensus that the Engage project’s focus is on dismantling oppressive structures that are limiting to women and underrepresented groups, and providing equal opportunities to all.

DEEPENING GENDER LEARNING

The “baggage” of the misrepresentations of what feminism means in different contexts continues to present a challenge to our work. Other tensions were shared of monitoring and evaluation frameworks expecting measurable results, which do not encourage the space for feminist colearning.

NEW QUESTIONS TO EXPLORE

How do we push our organizations to be more feminist? How do we partner with others in a better way so that we are not doing the same thing, but supporting each other, and doing so in ways that also provide models for our communities? Beyond our activities and projects, how do we work to dismantle oppressive structures that undermine full inclusion of women and other marginalized groups? How to we integrate a longer-term feminist agenda beyond project cycles to 10 to 15 years in the future?

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Whatever I learn here, whatever I gain in knowledge and belief is that the Engage project is an initiative of small steps to bring change at the community level for women to empower economically, gain knowledge, and power in their communities—small changes to become part of society, taking charge for participation in society. – Farida