Celebrating the Legacy of Women’s Leadership
YWCA St. John’s Celebrating the Legacy of Women’s Leadership project was focused on celebrating the roles women have played in developing our community and our province, mobilizing existing support networks, and building new mentorship and peer support opportunities for women. Through this project, we hosted quarterly networking events that engaged the community in discussions of women’s leadership on four topics which included:
– Fishing: This event included a dynamic panel discussion exploring women’s roles in fishing in the past, present, and future. The event ended with participants learning to weave a withe and knitting/mending fishing nets.
– Municipal Politics: This event was primarily a panel discussion. We held this event in July as Municipal Elections were taking place the following September. As a result, this event was a great opportunity for women who were considering or running in the upcoming election to connect with women who have been leaders in politics.
– Midwifery: This event was primarily a panel discussion. NL has a long, rich history with midwifery. This event was timely, in that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador had recently hired a Midwifery Consultant to help re-establish a province wide program in NL. This was a great opportunity for people to learn more about the history of midwifery in this province and to ask questions about the process to re-establish a province wide system.
– Arts & Culture: This event included a variety of presentations or performances that focuses on celebrating women and gender non-conforming folk’s leadership in the area of arts and culture. The performances and presentations covered a variety of topics including: the suffrage movement in NL; the great work of Girls Rock NL and women & gender non-conforming folks who’ve been leaders in music in NL; respectful teaching practices and democratic dance classrooms; learning about Persistence Theatre Company including a short snippet of their upcoming play titled “Women Playing Hamlet”; boundaries, intuition, recovering instincts, practicing ‘no’, & the joy of play; intersections of gender and mental health; and celebrating rural women leaders.
Each of these events were a huge success. At each event, we were able to incorporate information sharing, knowledge building, networking, and opportunities to build peer support networks . Two of these four events were also planned and executed by our Young Women’s Collective. This opportunity allowed Collective members to build on their leadership, event planning, budgeting, and partnership building skills.