Minutes
December 16, 2008
Sub-committee on Priority Theme
Bahá’í International Offices 12:00-2:00pm
Present: Madeleine Brecher, Deanna Chitayat, Keiko Chevray, Winifred Doherty, Carolyn Donovan, Victoria Edmonds, Catherine Ferguson; chair, Anele Heiges, Mariam Nigosian, Krissy Moore, Lillian Oats, Susan O’Malley, Mary Ann Strain, Linda Stillman, Mary V. Tounayan, Eva Richter, Caroline Themm, Fulya Vekiloglu, Joan Woods.
At the fifth meeting of the sub-committee on the priority theme for the 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Co-Chair Catherine Ferguson began by asking all groups present to meet individually. After a full hour of discussion, the groups came back together and presented their points to the entire subcommittee for feedback and suggestions.
Three other subcommittees – SCOW (Subcommittee on Older Women), Subcommittee on Violence against Women, and the Subcommittee on Women and Climate Change will also be chairing breakout sessions.
Education and Training:
o Currently working on an agenda for the breakout session to be distributed to those present.
o Want to break up into approximately 4 or 5 sub-breakout groups.
o Goal: To come up with a few advocacy points.
o The Chair will make a statement about the problems of equal sharing of responsibility between men and women and what obstacles and benefits these represent for women. The Chair will then explain what the subgroups should aim to accomplish as they meet.
o Their three main tasks are to discuss:
-What is needed, what are the obstacles, and what are some strong points to use for advocacy?
Question: Would it be possible to put up each group’s focus online before people sign up, so that participants who don’t know enough may make an informed decision about which group to join?
Comments and Suggestions:
o This description could go on the NGOCSW53 blog.
o Perhaps write a line about each group on the registration form.
o Or direct people to the site with the group’s information on the registration form.
Equal sharing decision-making by women and men at all levels:
o All members arrived to a consensus about the direction they wanted to give their group.
o Approach: What are the obstacle and strategies?
o Categorize these obstacles and strategies under:
-Subordination, Finance, and Governance. Each of these will then break up into other categories.
o They will then give a presentation to the group and ask those present to give their concrete ideas on the matter.
o Provide a page of bullet points to those present.
o In the end, create and executive summary of the breakout session to be used for advocacy.
Question and Comment: There are a lot of overlaps between restrictive education and women in power. Would it be possible to use the education group’s important points about this matter? (agreed). Since both groups have different foci this would be ok.
Women and Poverty:
o Main points will be:
-How does poverty relate to unequal sharing?
-How does unequal sharing relate to poverty?
o Questions for conclusion:
o What will bring about change?
o Come up with a grid for those attending that present common points that others have already written about in relation to the issue of women and poverty.
o Use this grid to come up with innovative ideas that will eventually lead to 3 clear and direct points for advocacy.
o Each group would present the points they come up with in a power point presentation to keep all focused and engaged.
o Bring those all the points together at the end, and leave them open for discussion.
o There will be no summary at the end.
o This is an extremely effective way to keep everyone focused.
Women in Health:
The group was not present, but Catherine Ferguson explained that they would be meeting later to discuss their work and would use some of the ideas presented by the groups today.
Other points and suggestions:
o Please be mindful of time constraints since each breakout group will be of a different size and some may be quite large.
o Have a set of draft points that they can work with as they go into their sub-breakout groups.
o The idea of presenting just points and then opening it up for discussion might be a good way to replace lengthy summaries. It was suggested that each breakout group have someone with a computer that would put the two-three talking points agreed on by the group on a power point slide to be projected to the group in the summary session. Following the initial listing and projecting of the two to three points from each group, the floor would then be open for discussion of these points. A paper with all of the points typed out would be distributed the next day during CSW.
o Distribute all the points from the different sessions, on paper
-Challenge: To come up with meaningful points that are actually important and not just a list of what everyone said.
o Please send the summary of your individual meetings to Diana Medina, DianaUnanima@gmail.com to be included in the meeting’s minutes.
Next Priority Theme meeting will be January 6, 2009 from 12-1 pm. Planning Committee will also meet on January 6th from 1-2 pm – Both meetings will be at Bahá’í International Community Offices.
