First let me start by welcoming you to the FNN. Please, sit down, get comfy, can I get you a drink?
I have been dealt the rather dubious task of trying to introduce and define something which is in its embryonic stages. It is not yet fully formed and we have no idea what it will become, but isn't that a little exciting?!
The FNN is born out of the vision of 3 friends, tired of sitting back and watching misogyny play out on our wards, we decided to take action. On approaching the internet we found there have been a lot of healthcare blogs focused on feminism, but they were disparate, and with the pressures of life commitments, at times difficult to maintain. We found the Cassandra Network which grew up in the 80s and published some amazing work, but is no longer active. We realised we needed to make links and connections with people we'd never met and build a platform bigger than ourselves - and 2018 is the perfect time to do just that!
Feminism and the civil rights movement have reignited in the past few years, with 2017 being particularly memorable for opening the feminist floodgates! This year sees the UK centenary of the suffragette's battle receiving a little victory with some women being granted the right to vote in 1918. There are so many ground breaking projects springing up this year and today that there feels like momentum is back in feminism. It is living and breathing, it is angry and demanding change.
We as carers and nurses need to support each other to see and challenge the ways in which the patriarchy stunts our practice and keeps us silent. We need to bring out the power within each other and the power within our practice - because trust me, nursing is powerful! We need to raise each other's voices, some louder than they have been before. We need to fight back to every micro-aggression, to every cut to services, to every gap in our history. Every time we see oppression based on characteristics we have no control over, our voice needs to be there.
We also need softness, this winter has been hard, and it is not over. The power in our practice comes not only from our ability to challenge but our ability to support and nurture. We need to harness this and share it. To practice self care, to ask for help - and to give it to others, to recognise the value in our emotional and mental labour. To find strength not only from our practice, but from our feminism.
So this doesn't answer the question, 'what is the feminist nursing network?' But then it is not a question that can be answered yet. The FNN is you, and it is me, and it is us. We have the opportunity to shape it into whatever it needs to be. For the moment we are on social media. A Facebook group is being launched today where we can discuss topics, share stories and support each other. Get in contact!
Today this blog is the 3 of us, but in the long run that'll be boring - let's turn this into an online zine. Send through your posts, poems, art, experiences and all will be heard (and if in line with The Code) all will be published. Next month the focus will be on what feminism means to us, and our practice - but you can send us anything.
We are online for the moment and this is where we can make our widest connections. But, call me a dreamer, one day we may be in a position where we can find each other in person, to meet and laugh and cry and vent and laugh. To feel the power of practice and the bonds which bring us together. Nursing needs feminism now more than ever. Now is the time for the FNN.
R xx
Projects of interest marking the Centenary: