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Women Alone'

by Alison Grant

This workshop was essentially one of personal experiences categorized into the following areas—

• Women who are single by choice
• Women who are lonely people
• Women alone in their traditionally male careers
• Seperated, divorced, widowed women
• Discrimination by words

Response was good and most of the delegates took part in the discussion. Out of the various small discussion groups came some useful recommendations that were taken to the Plenary Session on Sunday afternoon. One was that more advertising of legal advice be done so that women start realizing there is very little legal discrimination in NA—that is is social pressures that cause women to feel they can't own land, buy houses, get a loan, etc. as easily as men. Another recommendation was that the United Women's convention support the Wellington Singles Association, not as a 'lonely hearts club' but as a potentially active lobby group in the struggle to have women who have chosen to be single accepted and their needs in terms of housing, welfare and status in the community recognised.

Finally, that the NZBC stop referring to any woman under the age of 20 as a 'girl' while in the same breath term a man over the age of 18 as a young man'.

It was a good workshop and tended to bring out the more positive aspects of the Convention—that of a feeling of neighbourliness and concern for the women that are perhaps suffering as a result of their newly discovered and accepted freedom.