as for the racial divide…it’s a longstanding feeling of exclusion that WOC are talking to me about…they are very sensitized to tokenism vs. acknowledgement of their leadership…my position is that I’m not getting defensive. I’m listening. I’m interested in supporting WOC leadership and other marginalized groups however I can, not because it’s PC but because the women I’m speaking to have so much to say and to offer…

I understand how you would feel misunderstood after having organized a conference with a multicultural group of conveners/planners, and still be criticized, and I think that we just have to keep listening, even when we feel we’re being accused wrongly…or misunderstood…just stay open to hearing, listening, understanding, creating more and more spaces for raw dialogue, dialogue without defensiveness…very big wounds don’t get healed in a day or in one conference…healing this divide will take years of concerted collaboration and community…imo…

You make a very good point about the Obama campaign’s success coming from bottom-up power, which is, I believe, what the Fem2.0 community represents.

As for your idea about the communications infrastructure, I think it’s a good one, but I’m not convinced that a compelling argument can be made that women should be singled out. Why should investment be made to bridge the digital divide just for women and not for all Americans? Why should the Obama administration made the extra effort to bring poor women into the dialog, and not just the poor? There are of course many reasons why, and in reality, such a structure could be used by all — we certainly would not want to exclude anyone who wanted to use it — but for the President of both male and female Americans, the argument to convince seems too one-sided.

I agree with your assessment that this is not the time to sit back, relax, and assume that women’s and girls’ needs will now be taken care of by the Council. One thing I know from having worked in the field with pregnant teenagers and also with NGO’s providing services internationally, as well as in my own organizing in San Francisco, is that you cannot, let me say this again, YOU CANNOT MEET THE NEEDS OF THE NEEDY IF YOU DON’T ASK THEM WHAT THEY NEED!!!

Barack Obama got elected because he and his team ran a bottom-up campaign, and this needs to be carried through by the Council. We need the administration to help US (all activists who are on the women’s team) develop a communications infrastructure so that the neediest and the least visible among women and girls can speak directly to policymakers.

This would be a matter of ensuring that public places like schools, libraries, group homes, shelters, etc., have good computer access and that low-income women and girls can reliably get online and get heard directly. Yes, I mean directly. In fact, what I envision is an entire online/media network devoted to the education, health and welfare of women, unencumbered by the need to entertain or to bring in advertising revenues. I see such a network delivering comprehensive sex-education, classes in communication skills, job skills, etc., via online classes. I also see open online chats via webcam and/or phone that allow any woman or girl to speak directly to the network about her needs.

I’ve been trying to set this up on my own, and in a year or so I will have a tiny piece of this infrastructure set up, but I don’t have the money or the staff to fill in so many pieces of this very important infrastructure. INFRASTRUCTURE!!! Sure, we need to repair bridges and buildings and all that, but we need communication infrastructures that bridge the digital divide in very immediate, real ways. We’ve GOT to get these women and girls online and in the conversation. We’ve got to see their faces and hear their voices. They are the women and girls who know what they need.

Just as 50 women’s organizations drafted a proposal for the Council, I’m asking if women can come together to draft a proposal for such a communications structure, and present this to Valerie Jarrett and Tina Tchen in a unifed, public way which is inclusive of the vastness of the blogosphere. IOW, we need to get the name-recognition women’s groups to endorse this, but we also MUST get women of color, radical women of color, the disability community, the transgender community, the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community, as well as the progressive community, into this development process. We are all tied to one freedom: human rights, civil rights. We are all comrades in this process.

I’m asking right here, right now, if my request for an Obama administration funded communications infrastructure is a good idea, if it’s a necessary tool for the next phase of women’s movement. If you think so, please pass on this post. Leave your comments here, or contact me on Facebook or Twitter or leave me a comment on the Feminist Advisory Board for Obama blog.

in sisterhood
Madama

Wow is right! This is fantastic!

Jeanne