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1. Governance of UU Women’s Groups

Quotes from UU Women:
A Sampling from the Interviews

I’m a feminist, but I don’t want the women’s group to be a political group.

I have a fear of over-committing myself even though my kids no longer need me as much anymore. It’s time to reclaim my life.

I like getting to know older women through the women’s organization in my church. I respect them a lot.

I haven’t been attending events of the women’s group because of what’s happening in my life. Then, when I come to church coffee hour, I don’t feel as connected to other women. This brings a certain grief. I’ve got the treading water syndrome.

Midday meetings are out for me—always.

I want to come but I don’t want to take leadership.

To get connections among members, people must get to know each other in smaller cluster groups of no more than twenty per group.

In support groups, twelve is a bit large. In our group, we listen and offer support, but we don’t tell each other what to do. It takes time to develop trust in a support group. It takes time to make a good group.

Young women are not coming because they’re too busy. It’s not that there is something wrong with the group.

If I’m going to go out to a meeting, there has to be focus on women’s issues. I’d like to be involved in an ongoing social action project—to have our women’s group be like a sponsor. I’d like to have deeper friendships by working toward a common goal such as helping women move into non-traditional roles, overcoming domestic violence, or socializing our girls.

We need to learn to live with the tension of differences between women of different generations. We have so much to learn from each other.

There are more and more men who want ritual too; some of our programs should include opportunities for men and women to practice ritual together. Our culture has become very left-brain oriented. Many hunger for more right brain activities; ritual bridges the left and right parts of the brain.

For some elderly women, the routine and regularity of monthly meetings is the ritual. Women who have known each other for twenty or thirty years don’t have the same need to go around in a circle and share in order to feel intimate.