Our very first Feminism for Change courses took place in 2017. This year will mark the delivery of our 20th course, and with it we celebrate 20 intakes of working alongside some of the most phenomenal women, all who are in recovery from substance use, addiction and multiple forms of trauma, inequality and oppression.

Originally created by Liz Naylor, one of FfC’s co-founders, the ideas for bringing a course about feminism to women in recovery have been developed and nourished over the years, into the groundbreaking and life-changing course it is today. 

But when we talk about feminism, what is it and what does it mean? This is a huge question, which we explore in theory and practice, throughout our whole approach at Foundation for Change. More specifically, it is one of the first questions we ask women at the start of our Feminism for Change course. 

The word feminism can have a lot of negative and false assumptions connected to it. In a safe, single-sex, women only space, we discuss and challenge these openly, directly, and often with lots of laughter and humour. More seriously, we consider the impacts these assumptions have had - often keeping women, and men, away from crucial ideas, and a powerful social movement that has the potential to bring about much needed change for us all. 

For these reasons, and many more, it has always been important for us to keep the word feminism in our course title, and as an essential strand to all our work at FfC; to be explicit about the need for feminism in recovery and beyond, and to help start the conversation about why.  

“ We encourage people to pause, ‘go meta’, and try to see the importance of stepping back, to look at our lives and worlds systemically, to help make connections and see the bigger picture. We consider feminism essential to this process ”

Essential to this discussion, is naming and understanding one of the most dominant social systems that shapes all our lives - the patriarchy! Defined as ‘a social system in which positions of privilege and dominance are primarily held by men’, patriarchal systems create and maintain unequal power relations between men and women. 

Within our mixed-sex Psychology for Change and single-sex Feminism for Change course, we examine these power dynamics and the realities of living within patriarchal systems, such as our family, education, religion, welfare, health, social care, media and politics. Through this exploration, we encourage people to pause, ‘go meta’, and try to see the importance of stepping back, to look at our lives and worlds systemically, to help make connections and see the bigger picture. We consider feminism essential to this process. 

At FfC, feminism is a lens through which we can look at imbalances of power, to see and critique where power is held, and the ways it is used to uphold and maintain harmful systems like patriarchy. When we put on our ‘feminism glasses’, it is clear to see that we are all harmed by patriarchal systems – although in different ways and to different degrees. The intersections of sex, race, sexuality, social class, and ability make our experiences unique and more complex within this framework, with patriarchy ultimately still being a system of power that is designed to benefit men as a sex-class and disadvantage women.  

“ Much has already been fought for, and so much still remains for us to keep fighting for.”

The sex-based inequality and oppression that women and girls face throughout their lives is a consequence of living within patriarchal systems and societies. Feminism is a movement and response to patriarchy that can and does benefit us all, yet is one that specifically centres women’s and girls’ rights, safety, and freedoms, with a view to liberate women from male domination and subjugation. 

Personally, feminism is never far from my thoughts. As I look at myself, others, society, and the systems that are pervasive throughout all our lives, feminism is the lens from which I see the world. This started for me as a teenager listening to punk music and the powerful women's voices I heard. The politics of female oppression were front and centre as a 13-year-old discovering Crass’s album, Penis Envy, where their lyrics were typed on the sleeves, allowing them to be studied and digested to help see the world in a different way. This included me seeing and challenging how in my family home, the division and burden of labour seemed unfair. I knew then that I never wanted to iron anyone else's clothes…let alone my own!

Later in life, and certainly now, feminist thinking and ideas have been especially significant for me, as a woman navigating recovery. When I was using, the worry of having my children removed stopped me being honest with my doctor, which in turn prevented me from getting help much earlier. The unrealistic and unfair expectations that society places on women, combined with the majority of caring responsibilities falling to women, creates specific barriers to support, and a particularly insidious form of sex-based inequality and oppression. That specialist services for women have been decimated, only compounds this. 

Much has already been fought for, and so much still remains for us to keep fighting for. It is the feminist movement during the 1960 and 70s that specifically demanded a change and push back of men’s use of violence against women, which included setting up the first women's refuges, demanding access to safe abortion, contraception and freedom from all forms of violence and discrimination. Many of the laws we take for granted today came about through ‘angry women’ demanding rights such as equal pay, access to women's own bank accounts, mortgages, and separate taxation, rights for lesbians, and protection at work for mothers. These coalesced into the Equality Act we know of today. 

But whilst we take them for granted, they are never a given. As we see around the world, what can be put into law can be taken away and it remains so important to apply a feminist lens, systemically and not just individually.

“ At FfC, feminism is a lens through which we can look at imbalances of power, to see and critique where power is held, and the ways it is used to uphold and maintain harmful systems like patriarchy.”

Every woman has to navigate patriarchal systems, which have either limited or denied their freedoms and rights to political, legal, economic, health and social justice. Most women have been subjected to multiple and repeated forms of men’s use of violence, abuse and oppression. For these, and so many other reasons, we are proud to provide a space for women in recovery, to come together, and share their experiences in ways that challenge the sex-based oppression of women and girls. To empower women to reframe the impacts of trauma and inequality, for themselves and each other. 

Feminism offers hope, through a lens where we can effectively critique and deconstruct these systems and structures of power, to not only reveal the harms, injustice, and inequality they cause, but to also find ways to challenge, resist, and respond in ways that ultimately create better futures for us all.