In this blog, Lindsay tells us why she has volunteered to be interviewed about her experience of being involved in Women’s Aid.
“When a friend from my days at Women’s Aid suggested I might want to take part in the Speaking Out project, I immediately contacted the project coordinator, Sarah. Not because I played any kind of spectacular role – I was an unpaid worker for a short while at Dundee Women’s Aid and, later, helped to get East Fife Women’s Aid off the ground – in fact, now that I have to think and write about it, I want to participate BECAUSE I didn’t play a spectacular role. So much of “history” is made up of “heroes” – individuals, mainly men, mainly white, mainly able-bodied. I feel it’s important to record what women have achieved by working together for a common purpose – what we have done, collectively, how we did it and how all of that has informed what we are currently doing. And that’s not to say we should only record what went well – though lots did – but also so that we and future generations can learn from what didn’t work, who it didn’t work for, and why.
Women’s Aid is a transformational organisation – it has transformed the lives of countless individual women, children and young people; it has contributed significantly to social, economic, legal and political transformations in Scotland over the last 40 years. Women’s Aid has, in turn, continually been transformed by listening to the women, children and young people who have come through its doors.
So I feel Speaking Out is an opportunity not to be missed – to make different, more pluralistic histories which reflect women’s different stories, experiences, perspectives and opinions. That needs as many of us as possible to tell our part of the story in all our different ways.”
If you are inspired by Lindsay’s reasons for being interviewed and have a story to tell about your involvement with Women’s Aid, please get in touch with Sarah at sarah.browne@scottishwomensaid.org.uk
