DivaManc Switch-On, Connecting women and their ideas for a brighter DevoManc, 10 November It was wonderful to see so many women at our 'DivaManc Switch-On' event on 10 November and thank you to Liz Jayne for facilitating the Open Space so beautifully. The use of Open Space was a new experience to most who came, and takes many people out of their comfort zone. Thank you to all who participated for trusting in us and in the system. We purposefully chose the format because of

I arrived at our 'DivaManc Switch-On', on 12 November, a cold wet Thursday evening, feeling rather bruised and shaken by Trump's electoral victory combined by a complete lack of sleep. I knew I wasn't alone. I wondered at the outset whether Trump would hijack our evening, like a tsunami I pictured his big blonde quiff, sweeping away the optimism and aspirations that had kept our DivaManc boat afloat. I'm pleased to say he didn't. Tony Morrison wrote that day, 'This is pre

Further research has shown that the austerity effect 'hits women twice as hard as men' (the Guardian, 19 November). And some women are inevitably hitter harder than others. The pressures on young women are hard enough, let alone as a young mum, yet they are set to bare the brunt of further cuts as precious support services are closed. The following information has been taken from the press release drafted by Unite the Union. Family Nurse Partnership Cut in Manchester Due to

Some people love the name, some people hate it. One thing is for sure, DivaManc has caught people’s attention. This is exactly what we wanted. DivaManc started when five Labour women from Whalley Range, in South Manchester, got together to discuss how we can make our area better, engage with women on issues that matter to them locally and improve their experience of living, working, studying, caring in Manchester. Devolution seemed to us both to be very remote from our day to

Women have expressed a wish to ‘Create open and safe space for collaboration’, to ‘Do things differently’ and to ‘Turn ideas into action’. DivaManc is therefore drawing on ways of organising that enable as many women as possible to have a voice and take action to create change… OPEN SPACE We will be using Open Space at tonight’s meeting. This is a way of enabling women at the meeting to set their own agenda and talk about issues that are most important to them. Beginning of t

One thing that strikes me about much of the great feminist and women’s activism I have been involved with is a strength in listening to the experiences of others, and understanding what has gone before. In that vein I thought it might be helpful to share some knowledge from work in Bristol on women’s representation in political and public life over the last decade or so, in case any of it resonates and provides ideas for action in Greater Manchester. I was living in Bristol