Indivisible Women Nevada County Creates Historic Meeting: Rural Women from the Home of Tea Party

Grass Valley, CA— February 1st, 2017 — What started as 35 women gathering to discuss leadership in the current political climate has grown to an organized movement for Nevada County Women. Sunday, January 29th, Indivisible Women Nevada County hosted over 350 local women of all ages, with differing political focus; life experience and goals who are united in their concern about the political climate and the direction of our current administration. Later that evening, as news spread across social media, the Facebook group quickly grew to over 1,100 members focused on engaging with the political process, better understanding the issues and taking action to be part of the solution.

“We knew that we were not alone when we saw the lines begin to form outside the meeting” said Barbara DeHart, co-creator of the group.  With over 350 women gathered for an afternoon of action, we saw the same openness, shared vision and willingness to work together that we saw in the recent marches across the Country.”

The group Indivisible Women Nevada County is a results-oriented collective of women who are committed to engaging more fully at local, state and national levels to transform our political process.   In addition, the organization encourages and supports women interested in running for office. Indivisible Women Nevada County consists of progressive rural women in a red county in a blue state, home of the Tea Party co-founder, Mark Meckler.  

“Women of all ages and experience participated in the event, in fact for a number of women this was the first time they had stepped into an activist role,“ says  co-organizer, Elisa Parker and co-founder of See Jane Do.   Parker along with current elected officials are working with women to help step into their leadership, “ We are headed in the right direction but we still have a ways to go when it comes to gender parity in the United States.”

A Model for a National Movement 

The Indivisible Guide was created by former congressional staffers and is intended to serve as a resource to all individuals who would like to more effectively participate in the democratic process. Indivisible Women Nevada County is working with the national effort and has been informally recognized as one of the larger and most organized groups. It also serves as an inspiring model for rural women and women who have never before engaged in political action to find their voice in a new way.

Julie Baker, Executive Director of The Center for the Arts participated in the event, “I believe we share core values as Americans and we can move beyond party lines to resist ideas antithetical to  those values. I invite all women to join this group so we can have these robust conversations and action plans to promote a healthy, inclusive and respectful agenda for our community and beyond. This is the hard work of holding a Democracy together. We won’t always agree on certain issues but learning to find common ground is as important as ever.”

Indivisible Women Nevada County is excited to be working closely with other Indivisible groups throughout District 1 including Yuba Indivisible, Indivisible Gold Country, and the Local Democratic Indivisible Action Club to unify a message and action items.

“A lot of us seemed to finally get pushed over the hump of literally standing up to fight back, and about six groups emerged over the past couple weeks. We’re all getting together to talk about how  to collaborate or merge as appropriate,” says Take2 founder and Yuba Indivisible co-organizer, Kipchoge Spencer.  “I’m really optimistic that we can use digital tools in new ways and build new ones to better organize, too. I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of people building up steam behind their keyboards and then coming out of the woodwork in the flesh to stand for justice.”

Organizers are currently identifying a larger venue for their next meeting and encourages interested women to join their Facebook group. “We are, for sure, going to need a bigger facility.” Adds Sheila Cameron noting the overflow of Sunday’s event.