Setting up book club / discussion group re. Radical Feminism

Women need to be careful because they can't say no to any males that want to join their women's group.

You can do exactly as you please in your super-sekret exclusionary wimmins group. If you are in a private space you can set the rules. Absolutely no one will stop you. Nor should they.
If you are in an inclusive community space you abide by the inclusive bye-laws. Simples.

Set up your book-group, enjoy it, learn from it; but if you want to use a public, tax-funded, inclusive space then you 're obliged to be inclusive (damn, pesky, inclusive, welcoming libraries) of all members of the community that use them.

Your exclusionary posters won't be welcome there either, but that doesn't mean you can't pay to publicise your group else-where.

I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand, and certainly, no-one is preventing you as an individual from using your public library if you wish to do so within the published bye-laws.

Local women meet up in a ibrary to discuss women's rights.
Disruptive person joins.
Group disbands but remains socially connected.
Call it speed datingmeeting if you like.

The library byelaws quoted: "can be used when necessary to deal with the more extreme cases of behaviour experienced"

Cos we all know what trouble actual women cause when they meet up in a library.

No.
I'm talking about a disruptive person.

Women need to be careful because they can't say no to any males that want to join their women's group.

You really think you can stop local women meeting up in a library?

Why would a library want to that? If the group was willing to abide by the library bye-laws and be accepting of any member of the community that wished to join the group then a feminist book-group would be very welcome.

You really think you can stop local women meeting up in a library?

If it becomes apparent that the group attracts undesirable attention then the women can say nothing, disband the group but continue to communicate and meet elsewhere, and flourish privately without disruption.

Indeed, but any group that was found to be deliberately exclusionary would not be welcome in a public library. If you want to find like-minded readers, this would not be your best option.

Our local library (for example) removes any and all exclusionary flyers stealthily put on notice boards as soon as they're spotted so as not to make other members of the public feel excluded from what should be a welcoming environment for all members of the community.

I imagine that other public libraries feel the same way.

If you are planning on asking your local library to let you host your RadFem book club, please be aware that you will have to accept all members of the community as readers and contributors.

Well yes of course, but if a group gets together they will get to know each other locally.

Local resources are important for women.

If it becomes apparent that the group attracts undesirable attention then the women can say nothing, disband the group but continue to communicate and meet elsewhere, and flourish privately without disruption.

(It pains me that I actually said that though.)

I was not suggesting anything of the sort, just that a public library is just that: a place for all members of the community. If you want to host a group in a public library, you have to accept that you will not be able to exclude anyone from joining your group.

If you want to dictate who can join, then a public library is not a suitable location. You'll need to consider using a cafe/pub/ other non-publicly funded location.

Nor can expect public libraries with limited tax- funded budgets to buy texts that will have a very limited use. Not every requested text is purchased, sadly.

Libraries are inclusive not exclusive.

So books are you suggesting that one shouldn't try to do anything feminist because it will suffer the IRL equivalent of derailing?

Aren't we lucky the suffragettes didn't worry about that.

If you are planning on asking your local library to let you host your RadFem book club, please be aware that you will have to accept all members of the community as readers and contributors.

You may choose only RadFem texts but you will not be able to dictate who joins your group or how the discussion flows if you choose a public library as your base.

Limited public funding also means that more "eclectic" texts will not be approved for branch purchase. (Although you can, of course, supply your own texts for your own group at your own cost.)

I recommend Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez and May I also recommend News from Nowhere, a feminist collective who deliver, based in Liverpool, as an alternative to Amazon.