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2009-08-18 issue:

CPT trainings attempt to 'undo' sexism

Christian Peacemaker Teams members learn to shift focus from white men.

by Anna Groff

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When Christian Peacemaker Teams works with a local partner or a supporting church, individuals sometimes make false assumptions about who is in charge.

“For instance, they might assume that an older white man is the person to address,” says Carol Rose, CPT co-director. “To work well as teammates, it is the people who are given the privileges by systems of oppression who need to take initiative to shift the focus.”


From left, CPTers Eloy Garcia, Sylvia Morrison and Jessica Phillips make ice cream together. Photo provided.

This is one example of how CPT urges the people of privilege on their teams to “undo” oppressions around them. This encouragement occurs in CPT’s “undoing sexism and racism” training, which also educates team members about how to serve as allies to others in situations of sexual harassment and oppression.

Rose quotes Harley Eagle of the Mennonite Central Committee Anti-Racism Program to  explain the program: “Awareness building of intersections of oppressions and intentional work in efforts to address the oppressions at their intersections.”

Work undoing oppressions is “homework ahead of time,” Rose says, and is important for team’s health in situation of high stress.

“The contexts where we work in war zones are incredibly stressful,” Rose says. “Human beings need a lot of support in order to act out of their best selves when under stress.”

Another example of “undoing sexism” often occurs during brainstorming meetings in teams.

When the team ignores a woman’s idea but listens when a man who provides a similar idea, the man should publicly give credit to the woman, says Rose. If that doesn’t happen, anyone in the group can acknowledge that the woman had the idea and the man has the opportunity to apologize.

After that, Rose says, it’s important for all members on the team to move on and “acknowledge we all fall short of perfection.”

The undoing sexism trainings began as a half-day training, which quickly grew into full-day training, within the rest of the CPT team training. Mini-training modules include undoing heterosexism and undoing Christian Anti-Semitism.

Two major incidents led CPT to implement this training: First, CPT experienced a sexual harassment case in 2003.

“We added the undoing sexism workshop in 2004 as a result of looking at learning from that situation,” she says.

A second incident that led to the undoing oppressions work involved understanding how oppressions within CPT have negatively affected underrepresented racial/ethnic people and women, especially young women. “It’s a problem throughout all the church,” Rose says.

During the undoing sexism training, participants gather for a men’s and a women’s caucus.
The men look at their male privilege and write a list of commitments to undo their privilege. The women’s caucus group usually writes a list of what they, the women in CPT, want the men in CPT to respond to.

Susan Mark Landis, peace advocate for Mennonite Church USA, participated in the training in March as a member of the CPT steering committee. As a group, the men listed the ways they benefited from sexism in the past. As individuals, the women listed ways sexism affected them. “On the one hand, this was a powerful exercise,” she says. “On the other, I was in tears—as were other women.

“I don’t know that the CPT event is at all what Mennonite Church USA people need,” Landis says. “The more important point is that we not only need to admit that our institutions are rampant with sexism but that we need to deal with it, not once but many times.”

Rose acknowledges that training and policies themselves do not end oppression. But training connected with policies and an increased awareness throughout an organization to name problems does make a difference, she says.

“Certainly there are more women in roles of leadership than five years ago,” Rose says.

Rose says CPT as an organization is relatively new, and this newness serves as an advantage.

“We have started with women and men designing this thing together,” she says. “Where there are gifts that come of this, other organizations are welcome to use them.”

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