Chwarae Teg - International Women’s Day Debates

Guide to running your own debate

Background...

Since 1911 International Women’s Day has been acknowledged by events that are organised across the world. International Women’s Day itself is the 8th March, however events take place both on the day itself and also on the days leading up to and after the 8th.

These events aim to celebrate the achievements of women and to also highlight the need for continued progress to help ensure that work continues to ensure the ongoing economic, political and social advancement of women,

This year, to mark International Women’s Day,  Chwarae Teg as the leading agency in Wales working to further the economic advancement of Wales is arranging a series of debates.

Additionally, and to help give women across Wales the opportunity to join in the debate we have prepared this guide to running your own debate.

Why Have a Debate?

By running your own debate you will be joining with women across the world to celebrate International Women’s Day...

At the same time by discussing the debate topics you will be able to forward the views of your group to Chwarae Teg. This is really important as we will use the findings from all the debates that take place to help Chwarae Teg develop its policies. These policies are part of the work we do with key influencers from the political, business, academic and social arenas to help ensure that the issues that most effect women are kept firmly on the agenda.

So by running a debate you will be helping to shape the future of our work and helping to ensure that the women of Wales have the opportunity to have an input in developing the agenda for women’s issues in Wales.

Running Your Debate Guide

Introduction

This guide offers a step-by-step guide to running a debate and aims to be a useful tool for anyone looking to run their own Chwarae Teg International Women’s Day Debate.

By everyone running their debates in the same way, when you forward your findings to Chwarae Teg it will ensure that all the findings can be effectively collated and built into our policy work.

The debate format we have chosen is called a Perspective Debate. This type of debate is simple to set-up and run.

It consists of a group of women sitting at a table and discussing their views on pre-defined topics.

The debate is run by a facilitator whose job it is to introduce each topic, ensure everyone has the opportunity have their say and keep the debate running to time. The facilitator will also work with the group to develop an agreed statement on the given topic. This statement encapsulates the groups overall view on the particular topic.

Each debate also has a note taker (scribe) who captures the key points being made during the debate. This important as on the day the facilitator may want to refer to these notes when working with the group to decide on the agreed statements.

At the end of the debate you will have one agreed statement for each of the debate topics that Chwarae Teg has provided. All you need to do is forward your statements to Chwarae Teg, we will upload them on to our website so you can see how your statements compare with those from other debates, and details of how to do this will be given at the end of this guide.

J