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IMPLICATIONS FOR CCLOW
How can this "re-visit" to
principles of consciousness raising help inform our work as a feminist
organization and as individual practitioners? One principle that seems central
& creating, within our organizations and places of work, safe spaces for
women to tell their stories. In our advocacy work, as we challenge policies and
work to improve women's learning opportunities, we must ground ourselves in the
reality of women's lives and avoid speaking as if women are a homogeneous
group. Often when we are presenting our concerns to government and policy
makers, we find ourselves speaking in de-contextualized abstractions and
generalizations. We must work to include the particularities of women's
experiences in all their richness and complexity.
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We must work
to include the
particularities
of women's
experiences in
all their
richness
and complexity. |
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We must recognize our limitations as an organization made
up of mainly white, heterosexual, English speaking middle class women. How can
we reach out to other women? It begins with a sensitivity to how organizations,
even feminist ones, are structured so that some women are excluded from
participating. We must continue to work on our own consciousness raising about
the way society is divided and dominated according to gender, class, race,
ethnicity and sexual orientation. |
As a national organization, along with many other women's
groups, we are now facing some major challenges to our economic survival which
requires careful analysis of the issues and our strategies. So often we feel
pushed to respond quickly because of the urgency of our situation. We must seek
to maintain some balance between immediate action, which is obviously required
in some circumstances, and delayed action, in which more careful analysis must
be carried out. Building coalitions with other feminist organizations can help
make this process an empowering one, where we can collectively share and
analyze our situations in a "safe space" where we can collectively organize so
that we are writing the agenda and not simply reacting to the changing
political climate.
Consciousness raising groups emerged from the activities of
radical women who wanted to initiate and support a mass movement. They
understood that for such a movement to arise, women would have to see the fight
against oppression as their own struggle as well as that of others. Women would
have to see the truth in their own lives before acting in a radical way for
anyone at all. They also recognized that consciousness raising was not simply a
stage that would be replaced by a future action phase, nor simply a
methodology, but rather an essential part of the overall feminist strategy.
Consciousness raising must be both our goal and the means to
achieving our goal. We must work to reveal the radical truths about women's
situation so that action can be taken.
Shauna Butterwick is currently the director of CCLOW's
B.C. network. She is a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia,
researching feminist practice and government policy affecting women's job
training opportunities.
- Butterwick, S. Learning Liberation: A Comparative
Analysis of Feminist Consciousness Raising and Freire's Concretization
Method. Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of British Columbia,
1987.
- Sarachild, K. "Consciousness-raising: A radical weapon." In
Redstockings of the Women's Liberation Movement, eds. Feminist
Revolution. New York: Random House, 1968, p.144-151; and Sarachild, K. " A
program of feminist consciousness- raising." Feminist Revolution. 1973,
p. 202- 203.
- Allen, P. Free space: A perspective on the small
group. New York: Times Change Press, 1970.
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