What was your motivation to participate in the European Feminist Forum?

As Lin McDevitt-Pugh explains in the introduction to 'A Herstory (2004-2008)', I and other women from European women’s funds, movements and NGOS met in 2004 at the invitation of Mama Cash, a year before the 10th anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women. As we discussed our different agendas in relation to the success or failure of Beijing one thing clearly emerged: that we wanted to own our own European feminist agenda, one that reflected what European women wanted, rather than one imposed on us by the international community. Most of all we realized that we are living in a very different Europe than one of a decade earlier and we wanted to understand better the current concerns of women living in this new Europe.

To begin with, we felt that it no longer made sense to speak of West and East Europe, nor to put together West Europe with North America in international fora and leave out the connections of West to East and Central Europe. Those women felt they were left hanging as a former Second world and there was not enough connection to the feminist agenda in West Europe, weak as it was. We felt that we wanted as feminists to define the new political space of Europe, not as women born in Europe as such but as women living and working in different parts of Europe.

Personally, as an Australian born citizen, now a citizen of the European country Italy, I was glad to find others were equally puzzling over what is Europe and what is a European feminist space. I felt it was now the time for me to reconnect to that discussion, as I wanted to come back into feminism having taken out time from voluntary feminist activity to have my two daughters, the first being born in 1995.

What was the biggest success of the EFF?

Our primary goal was to create a European political space in which women in Europe could start to shape what was a feminist Europe. The sheer fact that this discussion, in multiple ways, took place, is the main success. A key to that success was that we created an open space, mostly in cyber space, for any woman or man who identified as European and feminist and who wished, to participate. Most were not leaders, nor were they in the Forum in their capacity of different European networks, but were there as feminist individuals from different countries, cultures and ages, identifying in diverse ways as European and feminist. The initial goal of the EFF was to develop a new European Feminist Agenda in a face to face meeting. Did the EFF succeed in this?
The EFF generated a lot of ideas, but no concrete face to face meeting, though young women did meet, and members of the affinity groups and steering group met over the period. It was difficult to realize a big conference for various reasons.

Maybe it was not the right moment or we chose the wrong place in Poland, perhaps there was not enough funding. I suspect that we were too ambitious and institutionalized the process too quickly, so that instead of putting all our energy to making a face to face meeting and then set up a secretariat, we started first with a secretariat and the web connections and building small affinity groups. The affinity groups were very innovative, and did some interesting and different things to the usual type of activity (including queer art, migrant rights, tracing where is the money, etc.) but over all things did not gel into a meeting.

Perhaps because ultimately EFF was managed as a project of Aletta/IIAV some professional requirements were placed on the process that did not entirely suit movement building or even NGO type of organizing. It was great that Aletta/IIAV took up the responsibility for the project and as I said the affinity groups were new, but a highly managed project did not fit well with everyone. Strong efforts were made to be democratic and open but it proved very difficult to go beyond the cyberspace discussions. Perhaps a more fluid, more activist approach that put funds towards a general meeting even if small and less professional, would have lead to a process that had more success in relation to continuity and wider recognition among European feminists leading ultimately to more support.

What will be the next step of the forum, now that the book is launched?

The project European Feminist Forum is now completed for Aletta but other networks continue and certainly are informed by their participation in the EFF process. “Women in Development Europe” and KARAT, two networks involved, continue to shape the European feminist space. I think the herstories in the online publication are fascinating and I hope inspiring for more people to continue to think and act on what it means to be a feminist in Europe.

I think the younger feminists have huge energy and will continue to shape feminist spaces such as the Ladyfests. I am sure more feminist fora are flourishing that I do not know about as a result of the EFF. The publication of the monograph should enhance such processes and new directions. I am rewriting with Saskia Wieringa the monograph into a book for Palgrave Macmillan on European Feminism in Transition which we hope will enable the EFF to continue to inform gender and women’s studies in Europe and around the world.

As to the realization of an actual European feminist agenda, I think the biggest potential for follow-up lies with the young women, particularly from Eastern Europe. The EFF seems to have provided a space that I hope will allow them and others to develop new European feminist insights and action in the future.

Read the article "European Feminist Forum publishes 'A Herstory (2004-2008)'"
www.europeanfeministforum.org