Convention will be vital for all women

Press, 18 December 1976, Page 12

Convention will be vital for all women

By

LEONE STEWART

| From a cleaning [woman to the deputy chairman of the Commerce Commission . . . full-time homemakers and career women . . . all shades of opinion, aged from 20 to 70. The United Women’s Convention aims to encompass the interests and concerns vital to all New Zealand women. When the 2660 participants arrive in Christchurch at Queen’s Birthday week-end it is expected they will reflect the diverse group that has organised the convention. Work began almost inn mediately after the 1975 convention in Wellington last June. It is a major undertaking. Some of the women have amply demonstrated their considerable capabilities in many spheres. For others it is a first try, a chance to see if they can meet an exacting test. Fifty Christchurch women form the general committee. From there come five convenors, three syndicate leaders, and 14 sub-committees. Then there are the representatives and convenors of the 45 convention workshops.

Mrs Nedra Johnson, who serves on the Canterbury Education Board, the Teachers’ College Council, and the Hillmorton and Cashmere High School boards, is one of the five convenors. She is taking the second year of a university certificate in liberal studies, and is also active in the Women’s Electoral Lobby, the Abortion Law Reform Association, and the National Organisation for Women.

As deputy chairman of the Commerce Commission, Mrs Ann Hercus commutes between hearings in Wellington and her home in Christchurch. She graduated in law last year, and has maintained an active role in theSociety for Research on Women. Both women have teen-age children. Speaking for the whole convention organisation, they are anxious to assure women that no one element is dominating the planning of the convention. It is definitely not, they say, being run by radical feminists. They are represented, as are the more conservative groups. Mrs Hercus quotes Sister

Pauline d’Regan, who is convening the solo parents’ workshop: “We need the radical feminists to run so that the rest of us cap walk.” The convention has offered its best wishes to the group of Pentecostal women who have decided to hold a Save Our

Homes conference in Christchurch a fortnight before the U.W.C. And there is no discriminatory intention in the decision not to admit men. All the 2660 spaces are needed for women. The Wellington convention had a waiting list of 800. The convention also aims to give woman a chance to run things on their own. The organisers believe the presence of men prevents some women from speaking at all, and it is these women they especially want to help.

"The convention does not aim to attack men, marriage, home and family, but to help women, and to support and raise their status in their many fields of interest,” they say. While most of the organising women would probably put themselves in Sister Pauline's walking category, the pace is by no means slow.

The secretary and treasurer are perhaps typical of the diversity of experience among the 50. Both are fulltime homemakers. Helen Chambers has three of her five children still at home. She has no previous experience in organising conferences, let alone for more than 2660, but is “proving tremendously effective.”

Adele van Soest is a qualified accountant. In spite of the very recent birth of

her second child, she is always on the job and on call, keeping the books straight. An organisation of these dimensions is producing women of a calibre many outside the women’s movement would find surprising. Some women are even surprised themselves. “Many women who have no similar previous experience are learning they do have the necessary organisational abilities,” says Ann Hercus. Their solution to lack of confidence is typical of the U.W.C.’s positive approach. A number of women keen to take part found it difficult to get up and speak at the big, monthly general meet ing. So the convention got the Workers’ Educational Association to devise two, 10-week speaking courses tailor-made for their needs. Woman who would otherwise have had little contact are working together and socialising - radicals and conservatives, Maoris, Pacific Islanders, pakehas. All the major political parties are represented and all the major churches — Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist. Every policy decision is made at the general meetings, except in a rare emergency. The convention’s newsletter goes out to about 500 women’s organisations and interested individuals who have joined up.

Nedra Johnson is one of the co-ordinators, the ! ‘big five,” as they jokingly call thesmelves. She recalls warnings of dissent from the Wellington women who organised the 1975 convention.

“We were told to expect lots of arguments,” she says, "but we’ve had none. Perhaps women really are uniting now.” Four of the five convenors are married, and four have children. Christchurch City Councillor, Mrs Mollie Clark, is a member of. a number of associations, including the Business and Professional Women’s Association, and the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. Sandi Hall is an out-

spoken advocate on women’s issues, and an aspiring novelist. A Canadian, she is well-known to readers of “Broadsheet,” “Thursday,” and the “Listener.” One of the founders of the Christchurch branch of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, she also belongs to A.L.R.A.N.Z. and N.O.W. Elizabeth Sewell is a fulltime jewellery manufacturer. An active feminist, she was a founder of A.L.R.A.N.Z. in Christchurch and also works with W.E.L. and the Christchurch Women’s Centre. She is now completing her B.A. degree. English-born Judy Waters moved to New Zealand in 1960. A full-time laboratory supervisor, she is also vicepresident of the Christs church branch of N.0.W., and is active in the Labour Party. Committee work is co-or-dinated by the syndicate leaders: Ann Hercus, joined by Marie Washington, a widow with two small children, who is a teacher ay profession, and a feminist; and Mrs Lancely Walshaw, a leader in the Anglican Women’s Association who also does voluntary partitime work at the Sheltered Workshop. The 45 workshops have just been finalised. They are being run by women from throughout the country. The convenors are as varied as the subject matter. The New Zealand Parents’ Centre and the La Leche League are running a workshop on

s breastfeeding. At the Auck- > land Rape Crisis Centre’s > workshop the personal exf perience of victims, and the ’ political implications of rape f will be considered. Topics cover six broad : areas — health, education, , employment, public life, > home and family, religion and culture. Each workshop will be repeated three times. Some j choices: make every child a ’ wanted child—Family Plan- . ning Association; violence in ! the home: wife and child ’ battering — Christchurch ' Women’s Refuge Centre and ’ Auckland’s Halfway House; . Personal Development — ’ Anglican Association of 1 Women; Women as volun- ' teers — Christchurch ’ Y.W.C.A.; immigration: a ’ challenge to the host, or to > the migrant?—Christchurch r Society for Research on Women, and Pacific Island "Women’s Association; ; Women and peace — Christl church National Council of i Women; Rural women — ■ Women’s Division of Federt ated Farmers. ; Changes, Chances, Choices , is the theme of this coni vention. One of the Christ- > church innovations is to di- • vide the workshops volunI tarily into learning and action phases. Many activist ■ women felt they wasted time • at the Wellington convention i going over old ground neces- . sary to inform those seeking i new directions or a broader r OUtlook. [ The organisers are also . making every effort not to ' unnecessarily duplicate past conferences and conventions. It also wants the participants, who will be sent background papers, to come well briefed. The library and research sub-committee has been hard at work compiling all resolutions and remits passed at women’s and other meetings in recent years. Again departing from the Auckland and Wellington conventions, resolutions from the workshops will not be read to the gathering. On the final day they will be distributed to each participant- The summing up of the convention’s findings and direction will be given by four New Zealand speakers.

Elsie Locke, a Christchurch writer of children s books and long-time observer of the women’s scene; Sharon Cederman, an Auckland feminist writer; Fanaura Kingston, of Wellington, who is active in the Presbyterian Church and is especially concerned with Polynesian education; and Toni Church, an Auckland feminist who initiated the first convention in 1973 and is now working for the Australian Government, will sum up progress and prospects for the future. Miss Jean Herbison, deputy director of the Christchurch Technical Institute, will chair the convention. The opening and closing sessions will be held in the Town Hall. Workshops will take place at the University of Canterbury at Ham. Registration opens in February, P.O. Box 913, Christchurch. Only two strands in the massive organisation seem to remain untied. Lengthy negotiations are still underway for an overseas guest speaker, and — would you believe? — there seems some reluctance to volunteer for the clean-up committee.