Last Saturday I attended the Barcamp Frauen 2011 in Berlin, and no, it is not an ERASMUS party. To be honest, I had never been to a barcamp before and no one I asked had any clue what it was. Turns out it is an overall great idea, some sort of unconference, where the participants decide what should be talked about and are actively engaging in the debates. The upside is that you get to choose which workshops you are going to attend; on the downside, however, you often have to choose between two or more great sessions that happen at the same time. That was precisely my dilemma, and I am not sure I always made the right choice.
The first workshop I participated in was presented by a woman working for the German Trade Union Federation and was titled Work and Future – Future without work? The aim was to talk about women’s desire to have “everything”: a career, a loving partnership, children etc. How can this be achieved, can it be achieved at all and, perhaps more importantly, is it necessary to have to want all these things?
I figured this could be a good session for me to attend, considering that I have almost finished my studies with no clear plan of what to do next. Turns out I wasn’t the only one. At least twenty women attended the session, aged 15-45 and none of them seemed to be entirely sure of what the future might hold for them. Hopes and fears were exchanged between the not so carefree white girls, fuelled by personal stories and examples of structural discrimination.
I guess what irked me a little bit about the discussion was the matter of course way in which we talked about having a career, when so many people these days are struggling just to have a job. Of course, we were discussing these issues because we could, and we should be very happy about that. Nevertheless, the overall mood was defined by uncertainty and worriedness.
I talked to a woman in her mid-thirties who had been successful in the career of her choice and was hoping to have children one day. However, she was well aware of her ticking biological clock and her lack of a partner to start a family with. I listened to a woman who managed to leave the Turkish village she was born in to become a well-respected academic who just had her second child at the age of 41. A success story, one might think, but she still worried about being an “old mum” and having waited too long to have children.
The one thing we could all agree on was that no life is perfect and that there are different paths in life to becoming happy. However, the one thing that almost no one could imagine was having children and a successful career at the same time. The main obstacles were easily identified as structural and systemic problems that cannot be eliminated straight away. So what’s a girl to do if she “wants it all”? Get informed, be aware, find allies and put pressure on employers, political leaders and partners.
After lunch break I only managed to go to one other session which was about feminist politics on the web. Unfortunately much of the time was wasted trying to establish the average web and tech-savviness of the group, and discussing data privacy protection for half an hour made me wish I had gone to “Radical feminist muslima” instead. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed this event, I got to know some fantastic women, and felt inspired to contribute more to next year’s barcamp – perhaps by offering a workshop myself?
You can find pictures and more info on the respective Facebook page (which is down at the moment, I don’t know why). I am not in any of the photographs, which is a good thing considering I was suffering from a major hangover and was still wearing last night’s make-up. Thanks, sis’.
Hi,
I’m the host of the feminism on the internet panel and want to add to the “time wasting” aspect. I know people felt like this during the workshop, even though in the end the feedback was positive. I still think it’s telling that we dismiss getting to know each other and establishing some sort of understanding so easily. The women present came from different backgrounds and in order to work together on feminist policies – whether we just want to use the internet for feminist goals or make the web a more feminist place in itself – we really need to understand each other.
One example that really struck me was the “I don’t use twitter since I don’t fully understand my mobile phone and am wary about privacy concerns.” of a less tech-savy woman. Heavy twitter users rolled their eyes. But if we want to talk about participation, if we want participation we have to take these concerns seriously and find a way to work together.
On some level it might have something to do with cultural impediments, stereotypes that women always talk too much about themselves so they have to restrain themselves in order to be taken seriously. But I guess, apart from this BarCamp, these women wouldn’t really get together. I have been to several feminist events by now and usually only meet one crowd or the other.
In the end people got around, the less-technical ones vowing to get off their arses and the tech-savy ones expressing more understanding. And that, I think, is a good start on which we can build on in the future.
Thank you for your comment. I agree that it is difficult to find common ground within such an open and diverse panel as this one. Not establishing these differences right away may lead to unfortunate misunderstandings further on down the road, so I totally understand where you were trying to go with this. I guess it just became frustrating after a while, because there was so little time and I felt like we missed out on a great opportunity to get to some more substantial stuff. But it was my first time and I’m sure you have more experience with what works and what doesn’t. Perhaps next time it might be a better idea to limit the scope of the workshop by suggesting a more concrete topic?
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