Starting over.

[Thelnebriati]

I thought I'd start a thread to discuss rebuilding women's services from the ground up.

The very broad strokes are;
What services are needed?
How can they be funded?
Who will run them and how will they be trained and paid?
How can we learn from past endeavours, what worked and what didn't.
How can we collect and preserve the information, and pass it on.
How can we protect women's resources for future generations? Or do we have to accept they could be taken from us at any time, and treat it as an ongoing project?
Can we come up with new models?

On this thread, lets try to focus on the future, not worry about current losses.
Someone might like to start a thread to record services that have been lost. It might serve as a useful warning to others.

I'll start. Women need;
Rape Crisis
Domestic violence shelters for women, and for women and children.
Housing for women, and for women and children.

And to thrive in society women need an income, childcare, healthcare, education, support and community.

What have I missed?

How we can learn from past endeavours - have a look at the 'speaking out' project which was an oral history project for Scottish women's aids 40th anniversary. Interviews with workers, volunteers, those who were supported have all been recorded from those there at the beginning to those involved more recently.

Alternatives to prison for the majority of female offenders.

Alternatives to prison are an interesting idea, they work best for non violent offenses and thats the majority of female prisoners.
It would also address the issue of children spending time in care because their mother couldn't pay a fine.

Here's the speaking Out project;
womensaid.scot/project/speaking-out/

While agree violent offenders should go to prison if convicted, I do think some nonviolent offenders should also go to prison for more serious offenders such as human or drug trafficking, serious fraud, gross negligence resulting in loss of life and incitement/accessory to violence (eg getting a man to assault someone, paying an assassin to kill someone, using hate speech to start a riot in which violence occurs)

Well, given that funding is the main issue, I think it would be brilliant to set up a fund to back up services for women.

We've all seen how sacrificially women have donated to the court cases to try and keep hold of what we have already. I don't think it's beyond us to set something up as a central fund so that every time a service is defunded because it doesn't serve the needs and desires of men, the shortfall can be met by a No Woman Left Behind fund.

Can I put in a bid for real old-fashioned 'girls' work' (youth work) for our girls?

And to thrive in society women need an income, childcare, healthcare, education, support and community.

This is a good list but most of it applies to men as well as women. I think these are more universal needs for any civilised society.

@BuntingEllacott

Well, given that funding is the main issue, I think it would be brilliant to set up a fund to back up services for women.

We've all seen how sacrificially women have donated to the court cases to try and keep hold of what we have already. I don't think it's beyond us to set something up as a central fund so that every time a service is defunded because it doesn't serve the needs and desires of men, the shortfall can be met by a No Woman Left Behind fund.

It does all come back to funding, doesn't it. I've been shocked at the amount women have had to fundraise over the last couple of years. Its all gone into the judicial system, we haven't had anything material back as a result. It feels like paying rent when your name is on the deeds.

One alternative thats worked for me has been to join a local Credit Union. Theres also a barter scheme that I'm looking at, but atm its small and there isnt much to spend the credits on.

Bringing 'girls work' back would be such a good shout! Most material from 80s sadly still very relevant

Super - I think it is more relevant and urgent now. :(

What is ‘girls work’ ? I am sadly visualising the 80s when we girls were put to work sewing, babysitting, cooking, and learning basic first aid and cpr so could be good nurses/carers.

Yeah, just that Plan

And you know what? I'm not going to answer because I think you are here just to stir the pot.

If you want to know then there are quite a few youth work resources still available so I suggest you Google them.

It was amazing. There was a periodical/journal that was in the women's library so I got some history from that. I also know some women who were involved at the time.

It was challenging stereotypical activities for girls and facilitating discussion in a way that was a bit like consciousness-raising. Im probably not summarising well.
But for eg girls from urban areas were taken to the 2 women's holiday centres for weekends away in the outdoors.
Adverts for beauty products were analysed.
Expectations based on sex eg girls should be submissive were discussed and challenged.

I do still use some material with girls and young women in community groups and university society groups. I find it still resonates.

Eg maybe someone might analyse their plan for their dad to fund a nose job upon graduation in a different light.
Girls might discuss experiences of street harassment and ways to express solidarity and access support

I think your summarising is excellent Super.

All teary and nostalgic here.

I definitely think having a sustainable and reliable source of funding is an important foundation to ensure groups don't find themselves having to compromise their mission values in the longer term.

I saw a suggestion on Twitter about some sort of Women's Lottery to help fund groups and orgs that focus on services for women, specifically single-sex.

A type of credit union also sounds like a good idea. We can look at how women's groups in other countries find ways to fund their work including self-sufficiency.

I’d suggest that any new services make extremely clear from the start that they are exclusively for natal born women.
I’d run them all as private clubs where people can join by invitation only, so that men cannot claim their ‘rights’ are being removed when they are not allowed to use facilities. I’m sure there are women here who can suggest lawful ways of doing this.

Reclaim women's studies. The sociology of women faring less well in society needs re examining, away from gender studies and (is it queer theory? Critical theory?).

Similar probably needs to be done for men's studies. An examination of how men can ensure their own protection around parenting, pregnancy etc. They need to understand what risks they are taking when they have unprotected sex- whether that's life time responsibility for a child, or the fact that they get no say in abortion.

Women's studies so we can unpack the wage gap, assault, 'sex work', prison and sentencing etc. All of it. Not gender nonsense.

@picklemewalnuts
100% agree need to bring back women’s studies.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

Yeah, just that Plan

And you know what? I'm not going to answer because I think you are here just to stir the pot.

If you want to know then there are quite a few youth work resources still available so I suggest you Google them.

I wasn’t raised in the U.K., so I’m asking out of genuine curiosity what this girls work was in the U.K. in the 80s. I’ve described what I had as a girl and I am presuming, yours was different?

Thank you @SuperLoudPoppingAction for summarising what this ‘girls work’ was in UK 1980s.

100% agree need to bring back women’s studies

Yes, our knowledge is our power.

In terms of funding eg a lottery or trust ... it would be good to know how much money would be required as a starter fund.
Eg to keep 5 women's aids going, 3 rape crisis org's, 1 prevention/challenging victim blaming and so on, how much would be needed.
Would it be uk-wide?
What policies would be needed to avoid distraction from legal challenge, potential infighting etc.

I would hope any group like this (funding body) would access training on feminist governance that covers things like conflicts of interest.

A fund really could challenge current thinking. It's entirely possible lots of women's orgs are only making twaw noises to keep funding going.

Hasn't a women's studies course been set up recently? Can't remember details but am sure I saw something on here.

Originally it started at grass roots level, I think.

I have an old book called 'half the sky' with the course material from (maybe) a Bristol women's studies course.

Then they got co-opted into colleges/universities.
Then subsumed into social studies/gender studies.

Still lots of good stuff happening in sociology ime. And social policy.
But not within gender studies which is v pomo just now. (Happy to be wrong- apologies if you're fighting the good fight within gender studies).