While the 55th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women continues in New York, Julie White and Kim Yardy returned home this past weekend having had the honour and the privilege of attending the first 7 days of the two-week UNCSW55. After a full week of official UNCSW proceedings, round table events, and NGO parallel events, we left some incredible trade union women in New York who continue to work towards ensuring that the final conclusions of this UNCSW session reflect the needs of trade union women, and more broadly, women around the world.
Attending the UN was a great opportunity to connect with women and activists from around the world and engage politically on the issue of women's equality. It has also been our first attempt at using technology and social media as an activist tool - as a means of reaching out and sharing our experiences, of building new relationships and deepening existing ones with activists here at home. Our main objective in using technology tools such as the blog and twitter was to keep our members connected to this important work. One of the surprising by-products was the depth of connections made with people from around the world. While the majority of visits to our blog came from Canada, people checked in from the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Singapore, Brazil, Sweden, Australia, and Belgium.
This has been a learning curve for us all, and while there have been things we feel worked well, there are many that could have been done differently. And we cannot underestimate the need to have a communications strategy when embracing such an undertaking.
Look for our final posts on the UNCSW shortly, in which we will share the conclusions of the UNCSW and reflect on our experiences there. Stay tuned...
In sisterhood,
Julie and Kim
