Submitted by Rossana Cambron, Los Angeles, CA

As we all know gender equality is an integral part of our struggle in building a transformative movement towards a socialist society.

So I ask myself what are some of our challenges for our Party. What are some things, which we have to do different in this coming four years that will contribute towards the fight for gender equality?

A few thoughts come to mind:

First and foremost we need to recruit more women into our Party, if you agree then we need to explore new ideas of how to make this happen.

Instead of going into listing our past practices and how each may fall short I would like to put forth the idea of having a face to face all women conference one time per year, or every other year depending on our finances, where women can engage in discussion the immediate and upcoming struggles and how to respond to them.

I propose an all women conference because it has been my experience that women feel the need to have a space where those around her share the common interest and experiences which builds a trust and sets into motion the freedom to express one self.

An all women conference will allow us to take a moment in time to focus on this fight for gender equality without all the other distractions that prevent us from giving it the importance that it deserves.

At this conference we can explore the details of the struggle for gender equality, and decide what images resonate with women and how do we incorporate them into messages that activate a desire to join our movement. Discuss ways how to retain our new members, such as provide childcare, meals etc.

There are many subtleties of male chauvinism which women experience in society, but how to deal with them is not fully discussed.  

At this conference we can discuss developing educationals that are geared toward women, for example having all women study groups, many women feel this is a safe space for them to learn, without the male present because of male dominated society we live in.  

At this conference we can explore ideas of how do we as a Party communicate our ideas that resonate specifically to women. We can make an assessment of what has been our contribution to the fight for gender equality. We can also develop ideas of ensuring that the face of the party includes the face of women and their struggle.

I believe we all agree that we would like to recruit more women into our Party for many reasons, but most important is that they are a large portion of the working class who will bring their perspective and fighting spirit.

We can ensure that all aspects of the fight for gender equality are looked at, so that we can better link them to the overall working class struggle.

A women’s conference will give us the opportunity to build a sisterhood among our membership and where we can focus on the fight for gender equality, in a new way, which we can take with us into our other struggles.

The views and opinions expressed in the Convention Discussion are those of the author alone. The Communist Party is publishing these views as a service to encourage discussion and debate. Those views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Communist Party, its leading bodies or staff members. The CPUSA Constitution, Program, and all its existing policies remain in effect during the Convention discussion period and during the Convention.

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CONVENTION DISCUSSION 
30th National Convention, Communist Party USA
Chicago | June 13-15, 2014

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