Post Forum Blues and the ‘What now?’ Syndrome

While the Forum was all about the colour pink, post forum has been rather blue! It has been over a week since the final plenary on Monday November 17th and after a few days of slowing down and sleeping in I’m feeling a sense of ‘what now?’ Perhaps one way to get at answering that question is to write.

As a young woman attending the Forum (and any international conference of that size) for the first time, my experience of the Forum was similar to Manjeet’s. At times I was lost, confused about which session to go to and what relevance it might have to me and my work. For the most part I attended really interesting sessions, so that worked out quite well! I saw lots of pink scarves, indicating that the message was out there! I also heard plenary speakers and panel debater’s talk about what the scarves mean and endorse our message publically. I actually had a genuine sense that something was happening at the Forum that took ‘age’ on.
Our ‘political’ aim, as young feminists participating in the YFA Forum Committee at the Forum, was to create awareness of the presence and value of young women at the Forum and in the movement more generally, and to also encourage reflection and even action related to intergenerational issues in the women’s movement.

As a member of the YFA, one question that we have been asking and thinking about is who constitutes young women and what are some of the issues that young women in the movement deal with. Quite crudely perhaps, I have been able to distinguish between those issues that we might mobilize around (such as abortion rights, sexual identity and orientation, and violence against young women), and then those issues that we face on a day to day basis working in organisations, and these are elated to ageism. Here we’ve talking about access to positions of leadership and decision making for young women, and the ability of young women to attract and to access funding and other resources for the work we do. We are talking about the experiences of young women who are new to feminism and the women’s movement and their experiences of ‘cracking in’, as well as young women working in donor organisations and their ability to decide where funding goes. We’re talking the difference between young women being ‘reached out’ to and ‘pulled in’ to the movement and the movement coming to us and including itself in what we are doing as agents in our own right. We’re talking Power. The power to act. The power to determine.

As I reflect on all of the interesting and engaging conversations that were had, the ideas that were born and the intentions to carry these out that were shared and declared, I look forward to seeing and being an active part in what will come next. I look forward to the ‘what now’.