A Trustee’s Report

In June, she presented Part One, the challenges of women in SA. Now she will focus on the solution as we know it today.

As a review, in Part One we looked at the following:

• Men feel threatened (fearful) by women in an SA meeting.

• Only 10% of SA members are women, compared to 30% in AA.

• Meetings don’t have readily available resources at hand to support a woman.

• Many women in SA have experienced abuse from men, resulting in them being uncomfortable as the only woman in a room of men.

• Many men in SA have abused women and/or children, resulting in them being less comfortable around women in meetings.

• Many men have spouses not in recovery who object to women in the same meeting as their husbands.

Part Two:

Our founder, Roy K., emphasized the importance of mixed meetings. Please read “Mixed Meetings” on (SA 178-179). Also, as stated in “The SA Purpose” (SA 201), “SA is a fellowship of men and women…”. Women in SA are not a special interest group; they are an integral part of the SA Fellowship. This is the ideal philosophy as established by Roy K. and the early members of this program.

Solutions:

• Pray,

• Discuss your fears with your sponsor; work your program,

• And read the Literature (SA 178-179).

• Discuss with other SA men who have experience with mixed meetings.

• Have printed material ready to give to a new woman, including another SA woman’s contact information and the NEW printable brochure for the Women’s Welcome Packet (found on sa.org website).

• Evaluate and consider changes to your meeting format. New women do not need to hear the nature of how men have acted out in their disease. Also, we should only share in a general way, not giving specific or explicit descriptions. (SA “Meeting Guidelines” 188–189).
• Regarding spouses who try to control and direct their husband’s recovery by limiting what meetings they attend:
  

. Spouses need support to find S-Anon or other recovery paths.

. The sanctuary of a mixed meeting provides a safe place for men and women to learn to relate to each other in a healthy way under the scrutiny of others in recovery.

There are currently four resources specifically for women new to SA:

1. The official website: sa.org,
2. The NEW Women’s Welcome Packet on the SA website at www.sa.org/women/,
3. The NEW PRINTABLE Women’s Welcome Packet Brochure at https://www.sa.org/sdm_downloads/womens-welcome-packet/ ,
4. And SAICO office for a list of women’s contacts.

There are currently two resources specifically to help groups welcome women:

1. The NEW Women and Men Together in SA pamphlet at https://www.sa.org/w/wp-content/uploads/WomenAndMenTogetherInSAPamphlet.pdf.pdf
2. The NEW PRINTABLE Women’s Welcome Packet Brochure at https://www.sa.org/sdm_downloads/womens-welcome-packet/

My hope and prayer are that SA men and women can treat each other as fellow addicts on a quest for recovery. If a woman can be treated as a friend or sister by men, healthy relationships will be formed. I agree with Roy K., who stressed the importance of mixed meetings. I have learned from and benefited greatly from my association with both men and women members in the Program.