Gather the Women
an article by Sandy Gaser

In March of last year, Women of Vision & Action (WOVA) launched a project - “Gather The Women,” by activating regional meetings in the U.S. and worldwide, in 67 nations, and supporting these connections on their website, "gatherthewomen" The purpose is to connect women worldwide, to listen to each other, to learn from our multiple perspectives, and to share our wisdom for the challenge of stepping into feminine leadership roles around the world. An obvious choice exists in our world today - to see our planetary story as a hopeless crisis, or an opportunity to create a new story.

In October 2003, representatives from twenty U.S. NGO's, as well as delegates from the U.S. and abroad, were invited to attend an international Gather The women conference in San Francisco, Our intent is to become a "Hub of Collaboration" for NGO's, negating the duplication of effort and limited resources. The combined membership of the twenty organizations represented is 50,000. And, we are growing exponentially as this "hub" concept is revealed to media. I believe it is the real possibility for positive social/political change and eventual political clout that is driving the engine.

A workshop offered at the conference addressed the issue of paying attention to what is dying in our culture, i.e. the multitude of imaginary boundaries that separate us as a species, our sense of innocence and invulnerability in the U.S., and the pretense that war will "fix things." The other side of this coin is to look at what is emerging, albeit the new story for this era - a growing sense of connection with people of other cultures, recharging society for participatory democracy, the growth of spirituality, the emergence of communication enhancers, i.e. conversation cafes and cross cultural connection facilitated by the internet.

Our world is changing at a pace that can steal our breath at times. If we continue to live in the old paradigms that are failing, and look to systems that held us up in the past, our prospects are indeed grim. But, there are people, millions of them, who can see where we should be headed as societies, and we should be "talking" to each other.

Imagine a critical mass that no longer accepts the old paradigms. Imagine that we have created a new story for our time. It has begun.

DISCUSSION

Question(s) related to this article:

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?


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WOMEN MAKING PEACE

Latest reader comment:

Have you read anything about women for peace in Iraq? A few years ago women visited the US on a tour sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, but I haven't heard any good news lately, rather moves setting women's equality back.

This report was posted on January 8, 2004. The moderator is Tony.

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