Upon arrival at the Commission on the status of women, I could tell right away that our delegation was different. Clearly, we were younger then most, but more strikingly, our delegation was made up of woman and men.

Through our preparation for our time together at the United Nations, our delegation spent a lot of time growing as a group by learning about each other and by learning about the Beijing Platform. When it came time to actually come together in New York, there wasn’t really a thought about the fact that there was a male contingency within our group. It didn't seem at all odd, but that all changed on our first day when we went through training with the Ecumenical Women's Community, a gathering of several hundred delegates from a variety of faith communities.

After a day full of words like 'sisters', 'ladies" and 'female power', I will never look at pronouns the same way again. Every time the group was addressed as sisters, I saw my brothers shrug or cock their heads and I thought, "wow, that must make them feel really awkward." It was this use of language that really forced me to recognize how important language is to us and how exclusive it can truly be.

As our time together progressed and all of our personalities came out, I truly began to understand how we were all very different but wonderfully so. Having men in our group, especially the intelligent and creative men we had in our group, brought another voice to a conversation that is so terribly important.

So many of the issues discussed at the UNCSW involve men. And the solutions to these problems depend on the cooperation between men and women. The men I worked with were great examples of the philosophy of cooperation, our men worked with the women in worship, in debriefing and in establishing our community by totally giving of themselves to the group. I found their presence worth while.

At the UNCSW, men and women constantly reminded us that the issues discussed her are not exclusively “women’s issues” they are human issues.

P'tricia Egbert, Diocese of Kentucky

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