[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":166},["ShallowReactive",2],{"activist-section-mary-lou-stirling-creating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice":3,"activist-mary-lou-stirling":105},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":92,"extension":97,"meta":98,"navigation":99,"oldPath":100,"path":101,"seo":102,"stem":103,"__hash__":104},"activistSections\u002Factivists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002F03.creating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice.md","Creating Change: Lessons, Skills, and Advice",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":91},"minimark",[9,14,54,58,62],[10,11,13],"h2",{"id":12},"lessons-and-skills","Lessons and skills",[15,16,17,21,24,27,30,33,36,39,42,45,48,51],"ul",{},[18,19,20],"li",{},"As an activist, you must have the press on your side to report from a positive point-of-view. Mary Lou made strong connections with the press, believing it was important to keep the public informed.",[18,22,23],{},"Use email networking effectively. Mary Lou instigated sending emails on relevant women's issues to the interested public every two weeks.",[18,25,26],{},"Good communications are crucial. One example Mary Lou gave was the Report Card on the Status of Women in New Brunswick. It was a report rather than a condemnation, with the relevant departments of government, Cabinet ministers and staff, involved in discussion of the issues.",[18,28,29],{},"It is important to adopt a cooperative and inclusive approach rather than a confrontational one even while understanding that government may not act on an issue that needs improvement.",[18,31,32],{},"You must surround yourself with good people—this can make or break an organization.",[18,34,35],{},"Grapple with the tensions you encounter. For Mary Lou while working with LEAF, the biggest lesson was how to call yourself a feminist and still be responsible to the organization's financial and policy dictates.",[18,37,38],{},"Remember that those you are trying to educate may put their own interests before the principles of fairness or equity.",[18,40,41],{},"Each new organization requires fresh learning and revelations.",[18,43,44],{},"Learn what it means to be a good board member and to assume positions such as chair, and how to operate effectively on committees. Understand mission, policies, practices, procedures; financial responsibilities—and the politics involved.",[18,46,47],{},"All volunteer boards should run skill development sessions for board members. Having the mission statement available at every meeting and reviewing actions in terms of this statement is one way to ensure consistent recognition of founding principles.",[18,49,50],{},"There is a different set of skills for every situation you're involved in, for instance one for female researchers, another for dealing with politicians both male and female; another for chairing a board (volunteer or not).",[18,52,53],{},"Walk the talk. Bring aspects of fairness into formal conversation and everyday connections.",[10,55,57],{"id":56},"advice","Advice",[59,60,61],"p",{},"It's that whole idea that everything in life has a language of its own and to get things done you have to know various languages. There is a specific register for getting something done with politicians, another with volunteers, and I think my experiences helped form that language and switch those registers.",[15,63,64,67,70,73,76,79,82,85,88],{},[18,65,66],{},"Pick a cause for which you have passion—you'll need this energy to sustain you.",[18,68,69],{},"Networking is crucial: nothing can be accomplished by going it alone. If you act as an individual to oppose a position, you're seen as cantankerous, but if it's done with the support of others, you will be perceived as an advocate.",[18,71,72],{},"Carefully choose your destination but identify and strategize about the roadblocks along the way.",[18,74,75],{},"Choose your compatriots carefully; avoid \"yes-but\" people and others who exude negative energy.",[18,77,78],{},"Never put yourself in a position of acting as \"un-elected opposition.\"",[18,80,81],{},"Be flexibly determined!",[18,83,84],{},"Women are politicians before they go to high school but don't put themselves front and centre. It's women who are running things, as secretaries, those who organize the Home and School, run church organizations, food banks, transition houses, and community health services. These are political positions, so get involved and put yourself forward to assume your leadership role.",[18,86,87],{},"Choose one particular thing you want to get involved with and talk to older women who've been there. Find an older woman to mentor you—someone who will help get you involved, not to lead you by the hand but to support, educate, and suggest.",[18,89,90],{},"You must get involved and listen to the nuances around the table to understand the issue fully.",{"title":92,"searchDepth":93,"depth":93,"links":94},"",2,[95,96],{"id":12,"depth":93,"text":13},{"id":56,"depth":93,"text":57},"md",{},true,"\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002Fcreating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice","\u002Factivists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002Fcreating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice",{"title":5,"description":92},"activists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002F03.creating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice","jtb7xS5pZKYgX0_6hx7-FGkyE8v_pIEq_EC_krPiuOE",{"id":106,"title":107,"body":108,"description":112,"extension":97,"links":135,"meta":142,"navigation":99,"oldPath":143,"path":144,"pictures":145,"portrait":146,"portraitAlt":147,"province":148,"quote":149,"sections":150,"seo":162,"stem":163,"summary":164,"__hash__":165},"activists\u002Factivists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002Findex.md","Mary Lou Stirling",{"type":7,"value":109,"toc":133},[110,113,124],[59,111,112],{},"Sitting at Mary Lou Stirling's dining table, it was difficult for interviewer Liz Burge to keep her eyes away from the stunning pieces of art hanging on all the walls. But as Mary Lou talked frankly about her life, her experience of negotiating \"power\" in the context of advancing women's causes, Liz quickly left the art to itself and focused on lessons for her own advocacy.",[59,114,115,116,123],{},"Mary Lou Stirling had a 27-year career in the Faculty of Education at the ",[117,118,122],"a",{"href":119,"rel":120},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.unb.ca",[121],"nofollow","University of New Brunswick (UNB)",". Her years of teaching and subsequent retirement have given her many rewarding opportunities to explore what the concept of \"fairness to women\" means in practice and policy. A former elementary school teacher with a strong commitment to innovative language arts methods, Mary Lou was a role model for generations of language arts teachers meeting the varied needs of their students in the province. She made valuable contributions to her field in the form of curriculum documents and textbook materials. As Dean of Residences at UNB from 1989 to 1995 she helped to establish a safe, healthy, supportive and academic environment for students in residence.",[59,125,126,127,132],{},"On her retirement from UNB, Mary Lou became Acting Director of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research from 1999 to 2001. She was Chair of the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women from 2001 to 2005, and was also the gender specialist for the ",[117,128,131],{"href":129,"rel":130},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.acdi-cida.gc.ca\u002Fhome",[121],"Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)"," from 2004 to 2008 on the UNB project in Bhutan. Mary Lou teaches literacy courses for the Faculty of Education at UNB to teachers in Trinidad and Tobago, starting in 1999 and continuing into the present.",{"title":92,"searchDepth":93,"depth":93,"links":134},[],[136,139],{"url":137,"title":138},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.unb.ca\u002Ffaculty\u002Femeritus\u002Fhonorees\u002Ffredericton\u002Fqtou\u002Fstirling.html","Earned award of Professor Emerita in Education, University of New Brunswick, 20…",{"url":140,"title":141},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.utppublishing.com\u002FUnderstanding-Abuse-Partnering-for-Change.html","Stirling, M.L., Cameron, C.A., Nason-Clark, N. & Miedema, B. (eds.) (2004). Und…",{},"\u002Fcontent\u002Fmary-lou-stirling","\u002Factivists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling",[],"\u002Fimages\u002Factivists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002Fportrait.jpg","Portrait of Mary Lou Stirling.","New Brunswick","It wasn't \"helping\" as much as it was looking at things that were fair. There was a change in my understanding of what can be done to promote the concept of fairness for women within the financial constraints and the existing policies and procedures.",[151,154,157,159],{"slug":152,"label":153},"forming-her-activism","Forming Her Activism",{"slug":155,"label":156},"practicing-social-activism","Practicing Social Activism",{"slug":158,"label":5},"creating-change-lessons-skills-and-advice",{"slug":160,"label":161},"last-words","Last Words",{"title":107,"description":112},"activists\u002Fmary-lou-stirling\u002Findex","Mary Lou's extensive work on provincial and national boards to address systemic discrimination against women was always guided by the question, \"Is it fair?\"","PxSLtwpVikFvvexy3uMrbCTT_gfZ81ioVdLTzn8vnYU",1789062651949]