About a year ago, I was asked to invite members to write articles for another ESSAY edition about women in SA. A few months later, talking about it during breakfast at the International Convention in Krakow, Poland, someone suggested that it would be more interesting to make an issue about women and men finding sobriety together. We are all equal in the Fellowship, and we need each other’s fellowship to achieve recovery as the White Book states in its chapter on “Mixed Meetings” (SA 178-179).

That has been my experience. After more than three years, I am still the only woman in SA Belgium. If my local home group had only consisted of women, I wouldn’t be able to have a normal conversation with a man today. And it seems to be the same for my male fellows—many say that in the beginning, they found it difficult to have a woman in the meetings, but that now they wouldn’t want it any other way. It was a safe way for them to learn how to relate with a woman as another human being.

For this issue of the ESSAY, we asked both women and men in SA to share their experience, strength, and hope from mixed settings. I see that fellows around the world are having experiences very similar to mine. We need each other to effectively grow in recovery—not grow against each other, but with each other. We practice healthy relationships with the opposite sex in SA, and this helps us outside of the Program, too.

I am grateful for all the submissions and for the opportunity to participate in this issue of the ESSAY. It is my prayer that we may continue to grow together in recovery.