Upstream in the Mainstream

BY MEREDITH RALSTON

Eliminer la pauvrete' et ka violence rightfully, fraught with conflict. It is also not likely that There is au 21e sikcle implique un bnorme many of us in the women's movement, or any political so et ng efort de coalition, un travail au- movement for that matter, will have relationships with m hi vev deki desfinti2res et des d@rences, colleagues or political allies based on the level of trust and sed UC~ive a bout un travail de li.ntbrieur comme L intimacy of real sisters. And is that a desirable basis for the old feminist l'extbrieur. L'auteure penre que coalition-building anyway? Perhaps it sets us up with quoique le terme "sororitk," rejete' unrealistic expectations for our interactions with groups slogan, par les thLoriciennes~ministesqui and allows us to feel betrayed when things get conflictual. "sister h0 0 d iS ont kritsur lespoLitiques idntitaires, 1'11 argue that we need a different model of women's reste toujours uiuantddm [esgroupes organizing, not based on sisterhood and intimacy, but on powerfu ,I' -rhe l actueh Lfemmes, elle les enjoint L "engagement" not transcendence, as argued by third word sisterhood repenser /a ciororitinpour leurs world feminist Chandra Mohanty (Philips 258-59), and suggests oiganismes et de &cider si c'est k by examining carefully the effects of internalized oppres- terme qui convientpour appekr les sion on groups as argued by Lakey et al. To do this, I will commonalties f.mmesdlatribunedelapolitique. examine a women's group formed in 1994 to prepare for between women. the ' Fourth World Conference on Women. Eradicating poverty and violence I will look at the history, context and activities of the in the 2Ist century will require an group, the problems within the group, and finally at- enormous amount of coalition-building, working to- tempt, using Dean, Mohanty, Lakey and others, to analyze gether across boundaries and differences, and working what was going on behind the sometimes hostile dynamics from within the system as well as from the outside. of the group. Feminist political strategies will have to be updated and we will have to work with very diverse groups of people in History and context of the group order to achieve our goal- of a just and equal society for all. In the past, women's organizations based themselves The name of our organization was the Nova Scotia- loosely on the concept ofsisterhood and this strategy made Beijing Women's Action Group and it was formed in sense years ago when we were trying to form bonds and 1994, prior to the Beijing Conference. The nine women change society on the basis ofour perceived similarities. It organizers, myself among them, were made up of four doesn't work so well today. I will argue in this paper that white, two black, two aboriginal and a Latin American although sisterhood has been rejected theoretically by immigrant. We wanted to talk to the women of Nova most feminists writing about identity politics, the concept Scotia from as broad a cross-section as possible about what lives on in actual women's groups- - and we need to rethink they thought about the proposed "Platform for Action" the concept of sisterhood for women's organizing. Is it and the ten critical areas of concern. We accomplished powerful? Is it global? Is it the appropriate term to use to what we set out to do: we organized 27 discussion groups call women to the political table? all across the province; we wrote a 196 page report that There is something very seductive about the old femi- outlined a summary of the group's discussions on vio- nist slogan, "." The word sisterhood lence, health, education, economic self-reliance, poverty, suggests a deep, intimate bond and commonalties be- human rights, and decision-making; and we produced tween women. Sisters have fun together, enjoy spending two videos about the process. Two of us went to Beijing a lot of time with each other. They have differences of and contributed our findings to the discussions. This was opinion but hopefully nothing that will drive a wedge not done easily, happily or without struggle and the between them. There is little, if any, conflict. This ideal process profoundly affected everyone in the group. We does not reflect my experiences in any women's group I could not "transcend our differences, though at timeswe have been involved in-nor perhaps should it. Sisters certainly tried that as a strategy. We struggled at every don't usually work together, go to meetings together or meeting with different ideologies, different personalities, interact in any political groups, which are notoriously and different agendas, different race, class, and sexual identi-

176 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME ties, and a lot of suspicion between groups. That we Scotian woman and one white managed to accomplish anything was a victory. In hind- woman), and we set about trying to We struggled at sight, my basic question is: how could it have been any reach out to women who had never every meeting other way, at that point in time, given geography and been asked to participate in these historical context, and the fact that we weren't then and kindsofdiscussions before. Wewere with diff erenf aren't now sisters? originally looking for fifteen discus- id ogies, Nova Scotia has a sorry history of racism towards sion leaders: ten to hold regional indigenous blacks and natives. The Marshall Inquiry meetings covering the province geo- different - A confirmed what most people know: the judicial and police graphLally and five "equityn personalities, systems in Nova Scotia are racially biased. We are a "have- facilitators to hold discussion groups different not" province in a wealthy country and we have a large with~- First- Nations- ~ women. African- number of people on some sort ofgovernment assistance. Nova Scotian women, immigrant agendas, We have managed to maintain a rural population with women, lesbians, and disabled different race, only one main urban centre (though there have been calls women. We quickly discovered that this would not be adeauate. Because class, and sexual to make Cape Breton Island anational park). Our economy 1 is historically based on natural resources, such as fish, of the diversity of the province, we identities. lumber, and coal, and these industries are rapidly dying. needed more specific and targeted Our political system is patronage-driven and debt-ridden, groups: rural black women didn't and people distrust politicians. We tend to be conserva- want urban black women running- the meetings or speak- tive, and strongly community-oriented, and the commu- ing for them; off-reserve and non-status native women felt nities themselves tend to be isolated and insular. they had different interests and were being discriminated It was in this context that a diverse group of community against by status, on-reserve native women; rural Cape activists and academics based in Halifax got together in Breton women identified themselves as a special group;- - the summer of 1994 to plan for the Beijing conference. different immigrant women's groups didn't want to meet From the beginning, doubt was expressed about the together; and we realized we had neglected to think about meaning and significance of a world conference at all and francophone, Acadian women at all. what it would mean for women on the ground- in Nova We tried very hard to ensure diversity amongst both the Scotia. There was much discussion about the value of an management group and the facilitators and I think we international conference organized by an elite interna- were feeling quite self-satisfied that we had accomplished tional organization and held halfway around the world in this when we had our first facilitators meeting in February . These discussions never ended and were never 1995. At the meeting, we found out that we had not resolvedentirely. In the end, thecore group ofwomen that satisfied anyone and there was a lot of overt conflict and was still meeting believed that even on asymbolic level, the hostility expressed. As one ofour coordinators said, "there conferences were important and that our contribution as were many different agendas and different ideas as to Nova Scotian women was particularly important. The where this bus was going!" (Rubin 3) suspicions about the motivations of the leaders of the group and the usefulness of the conference itself would Problems continue to affect the group later on. The group was in conflict as to whether we should be emphasizing "the The first inkling the organizers- had about problemswas social transformation" (alternative feminist) concepts or the overt suspicions that several members of the larger to concentrate on particulars: day care, pay equity, and the group had about the organizers themselves, even though United Nations.. . . We decided to try both, more or less" the management committee was as diverse as the groups (Rubin 3). we wanted to reach. Some community activists were We applied for money through the Women's Program suspicious ofthe involvement of academics; some women and received a grant to organize meetings around the didn't feel the project was explained in enough detail; province. We hired two coordinators (one African-Nova some didn't understand why they should get involved at

VOLUME 20, NUMBER 3 177 all because they couldn't see what was in it for them and ing motivations for conversation: women's being for their communities; and there were suspicions about the affiliation and connection; men's for competition and money and who was going to Beijing. Some women had competence. She is not critical of either, but says it is a a problem working with the state in any capacity. The response to gendered socialization patterns. Though the problem of co-optation would arise again and again in male way is more valued in this society, she argues that the discussions. We would come to see this as a consequence different styles should be recognized and equally re- of different ideologies and different comfort levels with spected. Sommers is more dismissive of the feminist working within the system versus working as outsiders. notion that women are "lateral," relational, more con- One ofthe most telling complaints, however, had to do nected thinkers, and men are "vertical," analytical, and (on the surface anyway), with dif- logical. Is this why, she asks, some feminists dismiss as ferent styles ofconducting- a meet- male, traits such as efficiency, excellence, ambition and ing. A few women commented achievement? As she quite rightly points out, isn't this 0U r "pro blems" that more time needed to be taken buying right into stereotypical, conservative ideology that On process As One Woman Corn- women can't think? Doesn't this miss the point of much were- - in fact mented, "At first, it seemed to be of and activism? the too structured, uncarin, ... It ,t In our case, we took it as a learning experience and the process of true better and then becamerelevant. next time we met together as a group, we held a talking I engagement, Things got better when our con- circle in the morning to air grievances and hear women's . - cerns were voiced. Our voice was experiences of the project, and in the afternoon we had a and of eventually heard. We should dis- strategic workshop designed to brainstorm about the different cuss process until a consensus is issues and about what each of us could do to continue the reached and this should be done at energy of the group. This seemed to be an acceptable responseS to the beginning." compromise between the "process people" and the "pro- 0 0 intrnalized TO this person, structure meant ductivity people." In fact, the whole process was about being uncaring. This was stunning learning about each other and adapting our disparate oppression. to the organizers because, ofcourse, behaviours to suit the situation. Eventually, wrote one of in our minds we had done our coordinators: everything we could think of to make the meeting accessible and welcoming. To some of we went through a process of getting to know one the participants, however, the organizers had chosen an another, teaching and learning from each other and alienating (read: male) method ofintroducing themselves breaking down some ofthe barriers. At the most basic and the project, and had not allowed enough time for level, we could say that we made some progress getting to know one another. Said one participant: "To toward really listening to others, and to respecting facilitate greater participation and cooperation for women what they had to say. It was often challenging to stay

coming- together- for the first time, allow .plenty . of time open to one another when difficult issues popped up, initially for women to meet and get to know each other." but we all tried. (Rubin 5) And to another woman, "socialization time should be built into the program throughout the schedule." Analysis So, we regrouped and spent a lot of time on process and getting to know one another. No one on the management What does this example say about the concept of committee had anticipated this response. It was self- sisterhood as a tool for organizing? In the end, we accom- evident to us, but not to our facilitators, why this was a plished what we set out to do. And many of us became good project. We did not feel exploited by the government friends in the process. It is tempting for me, as a privileged nor did we feel "male" in our approach to the groups. As white woman with a secure job, to say in hindsight that we another woman stated, "Leadership should be strong and could have accomplished the same things, much more gentle. Those putting on the workshop should be quickly and less painfully without all the interruptions for responsible for facilitating the agenda, but should also be process and healing along the way. As tempting as it is, I kind, listen and then listen some more." It just never would be wrong. It is also tempting to suggest that the occurred to us that we might be seen as being unkind and problems were just manifestations of differences in per- uncaring for having a structured meeting. We tried to be sonality: between those who are "thinkers" and those who much more sensitive in future meetings and activities to are "feelers"; between those who think "laterally" and these differences. those who think "vertically." I would argue that our Afterwards, I was reminded of the debates about men "problems" were in fact the necessary process of true and women's conversation styles made popular by Deborah engagement, and of different responses to internalized Tannen and . Tannen argues oppression. Therefore, until these two "problems" are that men and women have different (but equal) underly- recognized and dealt with, sisterhood is a problematic

178 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME concept for organizing any group of people who have difference within and among groups ofwomen, especially disparate interests, power and privilege. between First and Third world women" (263). The organizers of the group went into the project with In terms of the necessity for engagement, this example the well-intentioned belief in "sisterhood." We wanted to bears her out. The white and more privileged women examine the status ofwomen in Nova Scotia by talking to needed to hear the black and poorer women's voices, and women in the communities. We assumed a sisterhood struggle with the accusations of racism and classism di- that did not exist or we felt that our commonalties as rected at them. They needed to take responsibility for any women would enable us to transcend our differences at perception of racism, inadvertent or not, that was being least for this project. Without a notion of sisterhood and reported. The black and poor women needed to be heard solidarity, we might have been able to predict that we and needed a supportive environ- would have to overcome suspicion, different agendas, ment in order to do this. This re- different ideas about process versus results, and consensus quired them to educate us again and versus majority rule. We could have predicted hostility again and for us to listen again and A Natbe Woman about allocation of money, and of our uncaring male again. Both groups end up feeling =lai rned that styles. Instead, we felt betrayed and rather hurt when our frustrated. As one black woman facilitators weren't grateful- for all the work we'd done and stated, "I'm tired of educating white Native peoples when they questioned our integrity. It was hard work and women. Why don't they educate have to see a struggle from beginning to end. And perhaps this is the themselves?"White women felt they point. At this historical moment, it should be hard work. were educating themselves, both by white people S Chandra Mohanty suggests that women cannot tran- reading- black women's history and ha ri ng- the scend racism by sheer will or rationality. They must by participating in these meetings, power and this engage with others and struggle through it. She criticizes but that their efforts were not being

Robin Morgan's "" concept as ahistorical recognized.V A Native woman might take years and actually harmful to non-white, non-privileged women. claimed that Native peoples have to - ~ - - of effort bv1 Morgan argues that women have commonalties that tran- see white people sharing the power scend their differences:women's opposition to male power, and this might take years ofeffort by an individual. the experience of rape, battery, labour and childbirth. an individual: "you [awhite person] Mohanty claims these commonalties are myths because have to prove yourself to us over and the contexts are different and therefore the possibilities of over again." This was problematic for everyone: it illus- struggles against power are different: trated white people's power to choose or not choose to do this; and bred resentment about the non-recognition of universal sisterhood is predicated on the erasure of the work white women were doing. The above statement the history and effects of contemporary imperialism. makes the dilemma or double bind obvious. The white seems to situate all women (including women wanted to be allies and help black women with herselfl outside contemporary world history, leading racism, but they could easily walk away. Some of the black to what I see as her ultimate suggestions that tran- women wanted allies but resented what they saw as the scendence rather than engagement is the model for optional nature of white women's involvement. future social change. (Mohanty qtd. in Philips 258- What to do?I agreewithMohanty's critique ofMorganls 59) essentialist argument and the need for engagement, with- out agreeing entirely with Mohanty. Mohanty suggests Mohanty argues that this has dangerous implications for that accepting the "sisterhood is global" premise means women who are not white, middle-class, or with some assuming that the other privilege. She states, sameness of the experience is what ties woman Morgan implicitly erases from her account the (individual) to women (group), regardless of class, possibility that women might have acted, that they race, nation and sexualities ... [this] notion of were anything but pure victims. For Morgan, history experience is anchored firmly in the notion of the is a male construction; what women need is , individual self, a determined and specifiable separate and outside of hislstory. (261) constituent of European modernity. However, this notion of the individual needs to be self-consciously Because Morgan's strategy is transcendence, the result is historicized if as feminists we wish td go beyond the that "all conflicts among and within women are flattened" limited bourgeois ideology ofindividualism, especially (262). According to Mohant~,universal sisterhood, de- as we attempt to understand what cross-cultural fined by Morgan as the transcendence of the male world, sisterhood might be made to mean. (262-263) "ends up being a middle-class, psychologized notion which effectively erases material and ideological power It is the later point that needs further debate since she

VOLUME 20, NUMBER 3 is still assuming some model of sisterhood for what is reading her entire speech, about the hard work involved essentially political organizing. Though the unity of building coalitions: women can't be assumed and we must work towards it in struggle, and in historical context, there are issues and Some people . . . rate the success of the coalition on systemic level problems that women share: less access to whether or not they feel good when they get there. resources, problematic access to healthcare and educa- They're not looking for a coalition; they're looking tion; limited funding and scarce resources for women's for a home! They're looking for a bottle with some groups; ; and, violence againstwomen. milk in it and a nipple which does not happen in a Coalitions are a necessary part of any political struggle, coalition ... It's not safe. It's not nurturing. It's a and differences and struggle should mean work, not coalition. (Reagan qtd. in Philips 245) retreating into our separate corners with an us against them mentality. If we had a less intimate, personalized Meredith Rahton is Associate Professor in the Department of model for organizing perhaps we could do this with fewer Women? Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in expectations of each other and without the feelings of Halz$i.x, Nova Scotia. She is the author ofa book on homeless betrayal common to many women's groups. women and the welfare state; the writer/director of a docu- Marginalized groups also suffer from internalized op- mentary on women andpolitics, and the CO-directorand CO- pression and though I don't have the space to develop the producer of "Wendy Lill: Playwright in Parliament." arguments here, Lakey et al. make a convincing case that this is one of the most self-destructive problems a group References can have. Social change requires flexibility and the ability to experiment. Internalized oppression results in self- Adamson, Nancy, et al. Feminist Organizingfor Change. righteousness: Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1988. Alexander, M. Jacqui and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, self-righteousness destroys that [needed] flexibility eds. Feminist Genealogies, ColonialLegacies,Democratic and justifies failed strategies. Ifthe government is not Futures. New York: Routledge, 1997. responding to our demands, it just shows how Brodribb, Somer, ed. the Future: Women j oppressive and unjust it is (and how right we are). If Strategiesfor the 2Ist Century. Charlottetown: Gynergy allies don't come to our side to fight with us, it just Books, 1999. shows what wimps and elitists they are (and how Carty, Linda. ed. And Still We Rise: Feminist Political right we are). If our membership is not growing Mobilizing in Contemporary . Toronto: Wom- among the desired constituency, if just shows how en's Press, 1993. misled and ignorant they are (and how right we are). Dobrowolsky, Alexandra. The, Politics of Pragmatism: (148-49) Women,Representation and Constitutionalism in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2000. Internalized oppression is a real problem for many Jakobsen, Janet R. Working Alliances and the Politics of social action groups and it must be acknowledged and Dzfference. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1998. addressed. Conflict is an inevitable part of any goup, but Kaplan, Temma. Crazyfor Democracy: Women in Grass- it can be alleviated when problems are recognized and not roots Movements. New York: Routledge, 1997. allowed to fester. According to Lakey et al., we can affirm Lakey, Berit et al. Grassroots and Nonpro$t Leadership: A the achievements of the group, acknowledge how far Guide for Organizations in Changing Times. Gabriola we've come, define attainable goals, build trust, establish Island, British Columbia: Newsociety Publishers, 1995. ground rules, listen well, challenge gossip and triangula- Miles, Angela. IntegrativeFeminisms.NewYork: Routledge, tion, work hard and play hard and make feedback a 1996. regular practice (172). This is necessarily hard work and Mohanty, Chandra, A. Russo, and L. Torres, eds. Third though it is easier dealing with people you like and with World Women andthePoliticsofFeminism. Bloomington: whom you have a personal relationship, it is not always Indiana University Press, 1991. possible or desirable to treat everyone in political groups, Philips, Anne, ed. and Politics. New York: as if you do. Sisterhood is an undesirable model for Oxford University Press, 1998. political organizing because it sets up unrealistic expecta- Ramazanoglu, Caroline. Feminism and the Contradictions tions about the relations between people in the group, of Oppression. London: Routledge, 1989. masks important differences between people, feeds re- Rubin, Pamela. "The Nova Scotia Women's Action sentment about those differences, and contributes to the Network: Building Our Equality for the Fourth World hierarchy of oppression created by an unequal society. Conference." Women's Program, 1995. 1'11 end with words from Bernice Johnson Reagan, an Sommers, Christina Hoff. Who Stole Feminism? New African-American activist. IfI'm ever involved in another York: Bantam, 1994. group, I'll recommend that our first activity together be Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don't Understand: Women andMen in Conversation. New York: Ballantine, 1990.

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME