Women in Black vigils: women standing together

Bernadette Anderson, WILPF South Australia, considers the rationale for, and implications of, women-only peace actions.

While the US Government was bombing Afghanistan, women in cities around Australia held peace vigils to protest the war. These Women in Black Vigils have a long history, and are truly international. Originating in Palestine over ten years ago, they have been resurrected in many countries since the bombing of Afganistan began on 8 October 2001. On December 28th 2001, women in more than 120 cities around the world held Women in Black Vigils at the call of women's peace groups in Israel/ Palestine. In my experience, these vigils are a very powerful action for participants and onlookers alike.

In publicising the Vigils a couple of months ago, I received a response from a man objecting to my posting the notice to a peace activists' email list to which we were both subscribed. This man objected because the notice, he said, "excluded" him. Despite one short reply from me, he continued to question the women-only nature of the Vigils and to tell me how "the notice had hurt his feelings".

Although I had a big workload at the time (organising for International Human Rights Day), I did manage to get around to responding to him and here's something of what I said:
Clearly it isn't always easy for all of us to see why there is a need for women to have separate actions or separate groups at times. In creating safe and separate environments for ourselves as women, we are actually working to eliminate sexism. It gives us a stronger sense of who we are. Through separate actions and groups, we can see sexism more clearly when we come together in joint actions and are better able to rout it out.

Despite the best intentions, sexism is always present in a mixed environment. Because of the way that we have all been brought up, it is particularly difficult for women to speak out in a mixed forum. Again and again studies show that girls educated in single-sex schools achieve better than their sisters in co-ed schools, whether these are private schools or not.
I advertised the Women in Black Vigils to both women and men hoping that more women would hear about it. I also hoped that others on the email list - including the men - would support the action - by spreading the word to women who might like to participate. Just because men aren't invited doesn't mean men cannot help to make the Vigil a success.

Men supporting women to do separate actions such as WiB is, in my view, a powerful example of women and men working together for peace.

There are men who do support women in our (Women in Black) peace actions by cooking dinners and minding children - tasks that women still overwhelmingly do in our society, even today.

My own partner, who is male, did not have a problem with me engaging in a peace action that was for women only. I shared it with him afterwards in the retelling. Because I was tired and hungry and had found it hard work standing still and silent in the blazing heat for an hour, I particularly appreciated the meal he'd cooked for us. He didn't need to be included in the action to know that it was worthwhile. And I didn't need him to be there to feel his support.

I think that men need opportunities to experience not being central to the 'action' all the time, just as women need to experience spaces free of sexism. It is only when men aren't around that this is guaranteed. In my experience, women are better able in women-only forums to put ourselves forward to speak and to lead, to chair meetings, for example. Through this experience, we can better notice when we're inclined to defer to men in mixed group organisations, and stop ourselves from continuing to do so.

It seems to me that there are still some men who are threatened on hearing of activities aimed at women. I think that it is sexism which makes men feel threatened by something that is for women only. An analogy with the oppression of racism as experienced in Australia, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians may serve to illustrate my point.

It is necessary for Aboriginal people to work in exclusively Aboriginal organisations and partake in Aboriginal-only actions sometimes - to get back a sense of the identity that the oppression of colonialism has effectively taken from them.

This doesn't mean that Aboriginal people won't accept the support of non-Aboriginal people - such as in their acceptance of the powerful support given in the reconciliation bridge walks around the country in the year 2000. But as an non-Aboriginal person who works in support of Aboriginal people I would not ask to be let in to an exclusively Aboriginal meeting or action. If I did so I would demonstrate just how strongly that colonial oppression and racism is alive in me - such that I do not realise that my presence effectively silences or reduces the value of an experience for other people. If I am behaving in this way, I impose myself and my feelings, acting out of an oppression which has it that my feelings are more important that the feelings of others wanting to be in a separate and safe place. I would probably be showing that deep down I am scared of the fact that Aboriginal people might have a chance to develop a strength in their own identity, a genuine self-esteem. I would show that I am threatened by these things and I really don't want an end to the oppression.

If all we take into account are our own feelings of 'being hurt' - by feeling excluded for example - we are not being effective activists. As an activist working for social change, being one of the white "beneficiaries" of the oppression of Indigenous Australians and one of the middle classes, I have feelings of discomfort often. I recognise these feelings for what they are 'just feelings, they will pass' and get on with the work of making a better world, for everybody. Not just a world in which I feel comfortable and unchallenged - I wouldn't achieve anything if this was the extent of how I acted in the world.

I appreciate the work of men who want to be allies to women's liberation and I write to you in this spirit.

Sincerely,
Bernadette Anderson
January 2002

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This page is copyright to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Australian Section). For purposes of genuinely furthering the cause of world peace and the emancipation of women, material from this web page may be freely copied and distributed so long as acknowledgement is made of its source. Page last updated March 2002. The current path to this website is <http://www.dragon-amazon.net/wilpfaustralia>. Please email any comments/thoughts on the website.