Women and Local Government — Dialogue, Deliberation and Diversity

Abstract

My work in Islington was both the best and the worst of my professional life — a thoroughly consuming experience. I headed the Women’s Equality Unit at the London Borough of Islington from 1988 to late 1997. The unit was located in the strategic centre of the authority throughout this period. The experience changed me as a feminist. My understandings were enlarged by working with other women on their issues — lesbians and black and ethnic minority women, older women, disabled women and others, including refugees. I learned more about women — became prouder but also angrier, more passionate. I became more cynical about the possibilities of effecting change in a large institution. Cynical because expertise and organisational awareness were not enough to effect change. Providing the necessary facts and figures about the need for change did not necessarily result in policy or practice in a climate in which many officers and politicians denied the need for any more ‘equality’ for women. I developed my understanding of power and the political nature of women’s equality work. Like other equality professionals, I experienced isolation, criticism, ridicule and dislike. Women’s officers are vulnerable precisely because the work is about power, personal commitment and women. These patterns of opposition and resistance to equalities work were paralleled with the experiences of women in different sorts of organisations (Cockburn, 1991).