saquigley@watdaisy.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (01/22/84)
I have not never been a member of any support group, but in the two universities I've been to (McGill and Waterloo) there has been some kind of women organisation. The role of these organisations has been mainly educative, organising seminars on pornography, women health issues, courses in self- defense, keeping a list of women gynecologists as well as a well-stacked feminist library (at McGill). Here at Waterloo, they have organised "walking home" groups for women who are afraid to walk home alone. I think that these groups provide very useful services which would not have been provided through a more general group such as the Federation of Students (at Waterloo) or its equivalent at McGill. So there are many useful things that women can do other than hate men, when they get together. Of course most of these groups have an ideological basis, and one of the purpose of the group is to promote this ideology. The important point is that one does not need to support that ideolo- gy in order to use the facilities offered, but if one goes to the group for "support" of any kind, one should expect to receive advice consistent with the group's ideology. As far as I see, there is nothing wrong with that; after all I think that each person should be free to seek whatever sort of advice one wants to get.