to men or not to men

[ASUW Womens Action Coalition]

The purpose of allowing members the opportunity to request a single-sex
meeting was that in this society most sexual assault and other violence
against women is perpetrated by men.  It was not my intent to exclude
naybody, and if anyone feels excluded I apologize.  But if survivors of
sexual assault want to discuss individual experiences it /can/ sometimes
create a safer-feeling environment if it is women-only.  

This is not true for all groups, all people or all situations. The reason
I made requesting a single-sex meeting an option was so that if that were
true for someone, we would be able to accomodate consideration of that
request.  This does not mean that a request would automatically translate
into closing the meeting to men; it means that we would consider why that
might be useful in that one instance.  

Thanks,
Meghan Eagen


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ASUW Women's Action Coalition
University of Washington
Husky Union Building Rm.201
SAO 17 Box 352238
Seattle, WA 98195			

Phone: 206.543.1817	Fax: 206.685.4310
http://depts.washington.edu/~asuwomn

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On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, 'Wonder Woman' Ariel Federow wrote:

> Sounds like these are all-gender groups, unless otherwise specified?
> 
> And -- to speak in the abstract -- do we benefit from limiting rape, etc
> groups to women-only unless it's specifically requested?  I can understand
> that if the presence of guys makes someone really uncomfortable, than we
> ought to look at limiting -- but as was pointed out, there is a lot more
> abuse than just men on women.  And if no one specifically has problems --
> wouldn't something like violence against women be one of the /most/
> important things to open up cross-gender discussion on?
> 
> later,
> --Ariel Federow: http://students.washington.edu/bean/
> "So I'll walk the plank
>  Yeah, I'll jump with a smile
>  If I'm gonna go down
>  I'm gonna do it with style"
> 	--Ani Difranco
> 
>