A woman working with rural women across the globe, and based in Geneva, shared on Sunday her "three Cs" of what the media should highlight instead of the three Ss of sex, scandal, and more sports: courage, creativity and compassion/collaboration. I reflect on the face that these three Cs continued to weave through many of the talks today, as I heard other CSW delegates speak of their creative approaches to resolving concerns when the routes available to men were not options.
The well-crafted art of invisibility is critical to what so many of us have done and many of my sisters continue to do to effect change. Listen unnoticed. Create cooperative partnerships. Act. The ideas that bring about results may be unexpected by our urban sisters and brothers, but blossom into effective actions when unveiled by my rural sisters. And we unveil them with unknown courage--courage that perhaps was not self-evident except in retrospect as we think back and wonder how in the world we did X or Y.
I keep hearing references to common thoughts, common skills, common abilities--ones learned without our being aware and apparently without attracting attention by others. These are easily identified by my "middle aged" sisters as being the means by which we broke down our own barriers. The real question for our younger sisters and daughters is: How do we assist them in doing the same but without having to be invisible or courageous? Perhaps I will learn that as well over the remainder of my week here at the CSW sessions?!
Theresa
