Young WILPF

Women of the world have diverse experiences because of variables such as nationality, ethnicity and class. This has been recognized and stated many times. However, one important variable, with a huge influence on a woman’s life, is often forgotten. This variable is age.

Young WILPF (Y-WILPF) is a network for young members of WILPF, initiated by a group of young women who emphasized the importance of age at the International Executive Committee meeting in September 2005. After the establishment of the network, they organized the Gertrude Baer seminar in London 2006, where they also introduced a work plan. The work plan states that the main aims of Y-WILPF are to constitute a platform for members to exchange experience and ideas, as well as to provide an arena for communication and inspiration.

An essential theme that inspires all work of Y-WILPF is the empowerment of young women who want to work for international peace. Therefore, the work plan from 2006 identifies several main goals for the international, national and local work of WILPF. On the international level, Y-WILPF emphasizes the importance of following things:

- One young person from every section should attend the Gertrude Baer seminar. We recommend the sections to nominate younger members to be International Board (IB)-members and /or alternates. If a delegation to an (IB) meeting or congress includes more than one member we recommend that at least one person in the delegation is a young member.

- Sections and young members should work together to develop mentorship programmes so that the young and/or new members can learn from the more experienced members.

- Representation of Y-WILPF in all international committees and working groups.

- Building relationships with other sections and learning from each other through exchanging experiences with other sections.

On the national level, Y-WILPF highlights the importance of:

- There should be at the least one young WILPF member represented as a national coordinator and/or board member in each section. The national contact person for Y-WILPF should be on the national board. This person could be co-opted onto the board until the congress or longer.

- Y-WILPF and WILPF activities should be complementary.  

Regarding the local level, they point out that the purpose of the network is:

- To be a communication channel and inspirational source for the Y-WILPF group.

By recognizing the influence of age on women, Y-WILPF broadens WILPF‘s work to be more inclusive by encouraging the participation of women with new perspectives.

If you want to know more about, or if you would like to join Y-WILPF, please contact:
Inforequest(at)wilpf.ch

You can also read the founding statement of Y-WILPF here.