Categories: feminism
Date: 27 February 2013 11:46:58
Feminism is a subject which appears to be on the agenda again in a way in which it hasn't been for years. There is something vibrant and important happening both in the academic sphere and the general public arena.
Academically posts like this one on Expanding the Feminist Classroom from the Gender and Education Association blog provide part of the story. Moving into the hinterland between academia and the "real world" are blogs like the F Word blog and website and the Christian Feminist Network as well as blogs by academics dealing with the painful personal experience of discrimination in the wake of the women bishops vote, Miranda Thredfall-Holmes being one example. Many of the TED Talks about Women also come into this category.
The media has taken us into a revived "everyday discussion" through stories such as the Saville affair. This, together with other high profile abuse and harrassment scandals, has involved "feminist" debates as have the stories about how the cuts in public spending seem to be disproportionately impacting women.
The global campaign against domestic violence Million Women Rising is a powerful example of contemporary feminst activism. 9th March sees a national march against male violence.
All this can be seen as part of a new significant wave of feminism(s) but there are some less overtly feminist activities which aren't new and continue but which remain in their own way significant "feminist" events. A key one of these is the Women's World Day of Prayer - a global day of prayer which has been happening for over a century as the history page on the website shows.
This years WWDP is on Friday (1st March) and events are happening, as always, globally and in the UK nationwide. At Cornerstone we are having two services, the main one at 12:30 in the main church and then one in the evening at 6:30 in the chapel. I am facilitating the evening one, mainly to ensure that women who are working during the day have an opportunity to attend if they wish. I'm a little short of volunteers though. So in the unlikely event anybody MK based is about and willing to take part can they either leave a comment (your email address will not be publicly visible but it will be visible to me) or get in touch direct via FB or email, etc if they know me personally. If you don't want to take part but wish to attend you'd be most welcome and where ever you are I would encourage you to attend these services which have been planned by the women of France and are put on by women but are for men to attend too.