The Women’s Political Education

Women Talking

The meetings turn women excluded from literacy and authority into participants in collective planning and interpretation.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

A Record Made for Others A Record Made for Others from "Women Talking". Speaking into a Record August as Scribe August Epp explains that the women cannot write the minutes themselves.

A Record Made for Others from "Women Talking". Speaking into a Record August as Scribe August Epp explains that the women cannot write the minutes themselves.

Speaking into a Record August as Scribe August Epp explains that the women cannot write the minutes themselves. The arrangement exposes how education has been withheld from them. More Than Documentation Ona Friesen wants a record even if its speakers cannot read it. The minutes become an artifact meant to outlast the meeting.

Ideas Enter the Open Ideas Enter the Open from "Women Talking". Naming a Future A Proposed Manifesto Ona Friesen sketches collective decisions, women’s education, a world map, and a religion centered on love.

Ideas Enter the Open from "Women Talking". Naming a Future A Proposed Manifesto Ona Friesen sketches collective decisions, women’s education, a world map, and a religion centered on love.

Naming a Future A Proposed Manifesto Ona Friesen sketches collective decisions, women’s education, a world map, and a religion centered on love. The proposal changes the conversation from reaction to design. Resistance and Interest Mariche Loewen calls Ona a dreamer, yet the younger women listen. The possibility of a different social order becomes discussable.

The Map Is Obtained The Map Is Obtained from "Women Talking". Geography as Possibility A World Beyond the Colony August Epp secures a world map and a regional map, then wraps the map around cheese.

The Map Is Obtained from "Women Talking". Geography as Possibility A World Beyond the Colony August Epp secures a world map and a regional map, then wraps the map around cheese.

Geography as Possibility A World Beyond the Colony August Epp secures a world map and a regional map, then wraps the map around cheese. The women have asked for a way to understand the world beyond their home. Knowledge Shared Unevenly The women know how to write their names but cannot read the map. Younger members may help interpret it, making literacy an immediate practical need.

Reinterpreting Scripture Reinterpreting Scripture from "Women Talking". Authority Under Examination Who Interprets the Bible Salome Friesen points out that women have received scripture through men’s explanations.

Reinterpreting Scripture from "Women Talking". Authority Under Examination Who Interprets the Bible Salome Friesen points out that women have received scripture through men’s explanations.

Authority Under Examination Who Interprets the Bible Salome Friesen points out that women have received scripture through men’s explanations. Their inability to read has made them dependent on male authority. A New Reading The women begin to ask whether departure is disobedience at all. Their own discussion, rather than Peters’s ruling, becomes a source of religious judgment.

A Beginning, Not a Settlement

Collective Autonomy Begins A Shared Declaration The women name their aims: protect children, keep faith, and think. The declaration gives their departure a common political and moral vocabulary. Learning in Motion Their plans remain incomplete, including the destination and the rules for future membership. The women nevertheless begin acting as a collective with authority over its own course.

June 6, 2009, the opening of the meeting

June 6, 2009, during the first debate

June 7, 2009, before the departure

June 7, 2009, during the second meeting

June 7, 2009, as the convoy prepares to move