From when we first started planning Women’s Worlds ’99, we have been dedicated to making it a meeting-place for women’s interests of all kinds.  Now it is time to again emphasize the manifold nature of these congresses.   Although feminist research and interdisciplinary scholarship remain their basis, they are also intended to be meeting-places for grassroots activists and affirmative action officers, for young and old, for students as well as for established academics.  In short, it has been our ambition to bring women ? and men! ? of all persuasions and backgrounds, and from every corner of the world, together for lectures, papers and workshops, panel debates and informal discussions, "important" meetings as well as impromptu get-togethers?and, last but not least, a wide range of cultural and social events.  We hope that the week ahead will satisfy you and make you feel that it was worth your efforts ? and money ? to make the journey to this part of the world.  Furthermore, we hope that you will make new friends and contacts, and find inspiration for continued work in your special field, whatever that may be.  We hope all of you may find something both intellectually stimulating, aesthetically pleasing and socially nourishing in the program "menu" that we have prepared for you.
 

The backbone of the program remains the thirteen program sections that were advertised in the Second Announcement.  We have organized most of the registered conference activities ? such as papers, workshops and poster sessions – around these sections.  This means that those of you who are above all structured and "one-eyed" in your interest, i.e. with a neatly defined sphere of interests, should be able to find your way around the program fairly easily.  It also means generally sticking to what is offered in the one program section that you associate yourself with, whether Culture (X), Health (V), Work (IV), Science and Technology (XI), Men’s Studies (XIII), History (VII), or Politics (III).  Just to name a few.

However, this kind of list also quickly gives rise to questions ? for surely the field "gender and politics" is also a chief element in program section XII (The Women’s Movement/Feminist Activism Worldwide), IV (Gendering Work and the Economy), VIII (Gendering the Future), or IX (Peace, Indigenous and Human Rights).  And when it comes to sexuality or sexual identity, you may have to consult the program for Section I (GenDerations) as well as VI (Sexualized Violence), or II (New Constructions of Gender).  And Women’s Studies may be covered in II as well as IV or XII.

The reason is of course that there are no hard and fast dividing-lines between areas of interests and fields of research!  This is one of the remaining characteristics of feminist research/women’s studies, and one that we hope will inspire many of you to venture to cross the "menu" lines!  As we all know, a balanced and varied diet is healthier than a narrowly defined and unchanging one.

To all of you we in the program committee say bon appetite?help yourself to as much of it as you can!  Indulge, but don’t overeat!  It may be a good idea to take a break now and then, perhaps just to roam the streets of Tromsø, or take a walk in our beautiful Arctic botanical garden.  Or visit one of the exhibits specially put up for the conference. Or how about attending one of the concerts or outings offered in our social and cultural program?
 
 

Gerd Bjørhovde
Conference Convenor