Posted: 12 June 2008 by Kristi

There are wonderful times in life when the world opens up and offers you something new, a new door.  This happened to me at an organic supermarket in Balmain last week.  It's a great place on Victoria Rd, feels so good just being in there, but it wasn't just the food or coffee, it was the company.  Of course.

Three wonderful witches were stewing.  They had come together to make plans for a new venture.  I watched and got a few words in... they were plotting the next chapter of the woman's movement in Sydney. You know, it was a time when you wish you were a fly on the wall and, lucky for me, I was.  This time their plan doesn't centre on breaking glass ceilings in the corporate world, advocacy or gender rights... these issues aren't even discussed.

Today, the transformation centres on encouraging women of means to give to women and girls.  Yes, that's right.  It's about the voluntary contraction of wealth or (to use an old-fashioned word) generosity channelled to women and girls.  It is enabling transformation in families, communities and societies.  Women's philanthropy for social justice meets women's empowerment for social change.  It's a movement that has been ignited globally and it's about to hit Sydney.  Yum.

The centre conspirator and wicked genius is a leading light of Australian feminism.  Thanks to her and the many others with her who were inspired by (they tell me passionately) not Germaine Greer but Betty Friedan.  "It was Betty Friedan!" they all echo together in unsion. I feel nostalgic for a time before I was born.  I picked up The Feminist Mystic at a market years ago.

The problem that has no name - which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities - is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.
- Betty Friedan

It's true, Betty was remarkable.

I listen and lap it up.  The elders are sharing their recipes, old wives tales, stories and myths, plotting the way forward and cooking up who will be joining them on the journey.  Twinkling.  Sparkling.  It is such a beautiful sight and I remember wishing all my girlfriends could also be with me, observing this and taking notes as I was.

Then I think.  The feminist movement has opened up opportunities for a new generation of women, like me, who have extraordinary choices.

Today the feminist movement is expressing itself differently.  The new flow comes when women who have made money (afforded by feminism) meet women who have not yet benefited.  These are women who are suffering violence, disadvantage, hunger, poverty.  Just like us, they have the answers for how to make it work in their own families. Get that right and it can work in communities, in countries, on the globe.

Could it be that we are in a time when we can bring into being a just and equitable world by women supporting women?

It shouldn't be surprising that it was a woman philanthropist Katherine McCormick, who funded and guided the research that produced the first contraceptive pill.  Wow, this could really work.

My friend and mentor, an Aboriginal woman and chairperson of her community, told me it's those elders who can make it happen.  'It' being the change in awareness in our world that we need for our current challenges.  The elders are the ones with the remedies, the knowledge, the wisdom and stories.  They are the grandmothers - be them white or Aboriginal women - they have the answers.  I listen and listen.  I think I'm finally getting a glimpse of it... and I breathe.  It's all working as it should.

It's important to start your giving to women and girls.  Watch for how you can support a woman's fund.  It will be one of your greatest social investments - it will turn your $50, $500 or $5000 into rolled gold for justice.  Good times ahead.

Ageing is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength. - Betty Friedan