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Working Together,
Women Are . . .
Turnin' The World Right Side Up
Again!
Wouldn't
it be great if ... | Our vision for the future
of Blount County | Obstacles
Opportunities | Dreams,
ideas, and possibilities | Order the
"Status of Women in Tennessee"
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by Wendy Pitts Reeves,
L.C.S.W.
Sister-to-Sister Chair, 2001
Maryville Branch President, 2002-2004 |
February 8, 2001
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The Maryville Branch of the American Association of University Women sponsored a brainstorming session at First United Methodist
Church in Maryville on Monday, January 22, 2001. Almost 30 people attended, including representatives from at least ten different
Blount County organizations. Many of you were there. Some of you wanted to be but were unable to make it. I thought all of you
would like to see the work that you did, and the directions in which we are moving.
The purpose of the evening was two fold. First, we wanted to look at what services were already available to the girls and women of
Blount County in order to spread the word about those services and identify possible gaps. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly,
we hoped to identify two to three primary concerns and develop potential goals for addressing those concerns.
That’s a tall order to accomplish in the ninety minutes we had allotted. The discussion was lively, and loud. When it came time to
pull back together it was hard to stop the work in progress. There were so many talented and amazing people in the room, each of
them leaders in their own right, each of them committed to taking action for their daughters, their mothers, their students, their
sisters, their friends. I found myself wishing we had more time, more time indeed, just to keep thinking out loud. Perhaps in the future
we’ll do just that. As we began to see Monday night, who knows what can happen when great minds work together…
By the end of the evening, I was overwhelmed with ideas and possibilities. On the way home I thought, "OK, now what? Where do we
take this next?" There’s always the danger of too much talking and too little doing (though everyone in that room was already "doing"
something in their lives!) It would have been tempting to focus on the "doing" Monday night, but I felt strongly that that would have
been premature. First, we needed to know where we wanted to go. Then, and only then, could we begin to figure out how to get
there. A path is emerging.
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"Wouldn’t It Be Great If…."
We began the evening by borrowing this phrase from Alanson Van Fleet, the new Chairman of United Way of Blount County.
Everyone present was asked to list at least 3 answers to this question, then share their first choice. As those choices were listed on
the board, most of us found our second and third choices being listed by others. In many ways, we were already on the same page
with one another, sharing a communal vision for the future of women and girls in our county. This is what we said.
Wouldn’t it be great if:
 | All girls were raised in a safe, loving and nurturing family. |
| Young girls did not depend on boys’ opinions or popularity for their own self-esteem. |
| We taught girls to love and respect themselves and taught boys to love and respect girls. |
| Girls could learn to be assertive. |
| Girls could be released from media stereotypes. |
| Girls had complete and accurate information and knowledge about their own bodies. |
| Girls learned to (and did) practice safe sex. |
| Kids were educated early on that "playing house" and being a parent is not all they think. |
| Girls saw each other as friends and helpers, rather than competitors. |
| Girls knew that there were kind people, not just judgmental people, out there for them. |
| Every girl had a safe place to go, where she could talk and receive help without criticism or
judgment. |
| Every teen and adult had someone of the "opposite" age to talk to. |
| All adults would help other kids in addition to their own. |
| There were enough adult volunteers to help the youth who need them. |
| There were enough mental health professionals and other service providers trained in domestic violence and available for help. |
| There was no need for "violence prevention" jobs because there was no violence. |
| All children saw no more violence, on TV, in movies, in music, anywhere. |
| Pornography was eradicated. |
| Women were economically empowered. |
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After discussion and review, these seemed to fall into five general areas. This then is becoming
Our Vision for the Future of Blount County:
- We want to provide women and girls with safety from violence.
- We want to find ways to pair older and younger generations for the benefit of both.
- We want to help women and girls learn to be assertive, to develop a strong self-esteem and a healthy body image.
- We want to improve education and knowledge on several fronts:
 | by raising community awareness of the problems affecting women and girls. |
| by teaching girls about themselves, their bodies, their abilities and their rights. |
| by teaching parents about issues affecting their daughters. |
| by teaching professionals (police, clergy, medical personnel, etc.) about the dynamics underlying domestic
violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment. |
We want to enable women to become economically empowered, so that they may have power and choice over
their own lives and can better provide for their children.
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After defining these five areas of focused concerns, we divided into small groups to discuss the obstacles and opportunities that
existed under each. Each group was challenged to think about these areas in detail. What were the obstacles that kept us from
achieving these goals? What opportunities are available for overcoming those obstacles? If they saw no opportunities, what would it
take? What ideas did they have? Each group was then asked to share their three priorities in each area. The following is a summary
of the issues and ideas presented.
Obstacles
| Breaking the intergenerational cycle of violence |
| Lack of understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence by religious leaders, leading to oversimplification and further shaming |
| A similar lack of understanding and lack of legislative support by the legal system |
| Blaming the victim |
| Getting girls to participate in programs offered |
| Lack of education about sexuality and their own bodies |
| Powerful impact of the media on body image and behavior |
| Getting the word out about programs offered and recruiting enough volunteers |
| Lack of public understanding about teenagers in general and kids in trouble in particular |
| Lack of adequate funding resulting in restricted access to programs already in existence |
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Opportunities
| Educate religious leaders, law enforcement officers, and other key professionals about the dynamics underlying domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. |
| Strengthen legal consequences and enforcement in domestic violence crimes. |
| Advocate for new legislation strengthening protection and rights of domestic violence victims. |
| Increase female representation among political office holders. |
| Establish mentoring programs via churches, schools, and non-traditional ways. |
| Help volunteers see that they have a positive and real impact on kids’ lives. |
| Encourage intervention and education about these issues as young as kindergarten. |
| Encourage or require parenting classes for all new parents. |
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| This, then, is where we ended on January 22, 2001. On the 4th Monday in February,
2001, at 5:30 on the 26th, we picked up where we left
off. We narrowed our focus and established an action plan for 2001-2002. We looked at how we could help each other, where programs
overlap, and what we at AAUW could do to help all of you in your current endeavors. |
| Dreams, ideas and possibilities.
Just in case some of you fear that we’re "all talk", let me
tell you about some of the more concrete ideas already being voiced.
| Strong Girls Club: An idea being explored by Claudia Brady (of
Haven House) and Lew Rudisill (of the YWCA), aimed at strengthening
girls’ ability to thrive, beginning with girls in housing
developments. |
| After School Chat Rooms: Could be a peer-led, on-going,
non-structured event (a "drop in" place for after school), or
a structured, time-limited group. One suggestion to encourage
participation has been to offer girls the opportunity to
"trade" a certain number of detentions in return for
attendance. A student attending our meeting has already offered this
idea to a local high school, and the initial response has been
favorable. |
| Access/Breakaway: This is an intervention program under the
United Way umbrella aimed at Juvenile Court first-time offenders in
Anderson County. After completing a 10-week group, kids are taken on a
4-day wilderness experience that very often changes their entire
perception of themselves and their world. There is a real possibility we
could bring this program to Blount County and adapt it in some way to
meet the needs of girls in particular. One suggestion might be to tie it
in to the "Chat Room" idea. (Yes, boys need it, too, but the
focus of this discussion in on the needs of girls…) |
| Intercession Classes: Offered to elementary, middle and high
school girls on a variety of topics fitting the goals and concerns we’ve
all recognized. We’ve already been approached by two schools about
doing this, and the sooner the better. |
| Age Group Mentoring: At Sister-to-Sister Summits across the
country, a frequent suggestion made by the girls has been to have adults
mentor young women, and older girls mentor younger girls. One suggestion
has been to have high school girls mentoring middle school girls, and to
have the latter mentoring elementary school girls. An adult would
supervise all of them. |
| Volunteer Recruitment via School Groups: One suggestion has been
to do a "reach out", to recruit student volunteers through
groups such as FCA, Young Life, Scouts, etc. |
| Stay Alert/Stay Safe Wallet Cards: The American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists has developed eye catching wallet cards
that offer tips for girls to stay safe while dating. We may want to
distribute these in schools. They’ve also developed a program for
teaching sexual assault prevention to middle school girls. Either of
these resources may be something we’d like to tie in to the groups,
the intercession classes, or other possibilities. |
| Women’s Resource Directory: The Tennessee Economic Council on
Women is developing a comprehensive printed directory of resources
across the state for women. AAUW is already working on the development
of a smaller but similar directory for our area to be updated
periodically. |
| Monitoring Body: It has been suggested that we consider creating
a database and a centralized method of monitoring and tracking
information on the status of women in Blount County, comparing the
results to other counties in such areas as average income, education
levels, types of jobs held, divorce and single parenting rates, domestic
violence reports and convictions, etc. The information gathered by this
group on a regular basis could then be used to inform policy and
political decisions by groups throughout the county. |
| Roundtable Discussions: In order to share ideas, pool resources,
offer encouragement and debate directions, we might want to consider
doing what we did Monday night again, only this time for a longer and
less structured amount of time. Something like a quarterly or biannual
roundtable among interested organizations could give each group the
opportunity to advertise staffing and program needs, announce new
services, and discuss significant events and trends in the community.
What if different organizations, all struggling to do the most with the
least money, could find ways to pool their resources? (Think Airport
Motor Mile- Notice how they advertise together?) |
| Education and Training for Professionals: We may want to
approach key groups (clergy, law enforcement, teachers, healthcare
workers, etc.) and offer to provide training on the dynamics underlying
domestic violence, sexual assault and/or sexual harassment. |
| Public Awareness Campaign: We may want to offer a Community
Forum (or series of Forums) to parents or other groups on issues
relevant to raising daughters in today’s world, on coping with
teenagers in general, or on the impact of an involved adult in the life
of a kid on the edge. Along the way, we could look for ways to encourage
adult AND teen volunteerism. |
I could go on, but that’s enough for now. No, we can’t do all of
this. But we could do some of this. Some of it may already be happening
and just needs "shoring up". Some of it may be difficult to get
started, some of it easy. And all of you have ideas to add, too…
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And just a bit more…
The Economic Council has printed an incredible
report on the "Status of Women in Tennessee." Several of you
have asked about that report, which paints a very detailed picture of the
problems we have yet to overcome to achieve true equality in this state.
To receive your own copy, mail a check for $15 (made out to the Tennessee
Economic Council on Women) to the address below.
Tennessee Economic Council on Women
Suite 300, Snodgrass Bldg.
312 8th Ave., North
Nashville, TN 37243
Thank you for your participation, your interest, your ideas, your
enthusiasm and your support. We in AAUW do truly look forward to a lively
and active relationship with each of you as we all strive towards a vision
of safety and equality for all of Blount County.
With great respect,
Wendy Pitts Reeves, L.C.S.W.
Sister-to-Sister Chair, Maryville Branch, 2001
American Association of University Women
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