The Impact of Sexism on Our Mothers
At the Contemporary Women’s Issues Workshop in November 2022, Diane Balser [International Liberation Reference Person for Women] talked about sexism and our mothers.
I met with my women leaders’ group a few days after the workshop. We worked on how we had been affected by the sexism experienced by our mothers. We told stories of accommodation and male dominance. We shared about confusing situations of not having the right to our own bodies. For example, many of us had seen our mothers being touched in a dominant and respectless way by our fathers. Hearing about our mothers’ lives brought us together.
I started my women’s group over twenty-five years ago, when Diane led an earlier women’s workshop in Sweden. The women have met with Diane at workshops throughout the years. They each have their own relationship with her. That means a lot. It reminds us again and again that we are in this together with Diane and that we can persist in standing up for ourselves as females.
Stockholm, Sweden
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of women
(Present Time 211, April 2023)