Arnemuiden women jj
Mrs. Jeanet Jaffari, Member of women think-tank in Arnemuiden
Jeanet is a enterpreneur in Arnemuiden and through her business she has had the opportunity to participate in the ladies Think tank, her idea is to create insentives to attract turism to the town. She has lived the fishing history of the town through her mother who use to be a shrimp peeler and her father who was a fisherman. She now uses her business skills and knowledge to create identity symbols for the village. Jeanet has a kniting shop and she has created a kniting pattern in pullovers which identify fishermen in the village of Arnemuiden, as a result the village now has a sense of proudness of their historical fishing origen generating financial revenew. By participating in the women think tank, Jeanet has been able to receive support from the municipality and at the same time policy makers have benefited of women local knowledge been able to implement cohesive social policies by supporting local initiatives such as the creation of the community flag to promote identity, turism and ultimatly bussiness in the forgoten town.
The women thinktank is an example of the importance of local networks, it shows how women are able to contribute to a process of identity transformation; In this case gender in it self constitute an important element of the positive outcome of this network, considering that an skill such as kneeting is often developed by women.