> Of course, these sessions were complemented by focus groups and more direct discussion, but in no way was any of this dumbed down by the visual arts.

What's your basis for concluding that the visual arts component provided the benefit, rather than the focus groups and direct discussion?

I also think you're missing the whole point: your activities were for children, and for people who work with children. Why are we treating women like children?

If a non-gender-activist group wanted to host arts & crafts for mental health & community building, I have no problem with that.

I have attended a few and found that there was too much "staring at the problem". We'd start with an agenda and leave off without any action items.

So, if I don't like it why don't I try to change it? At the time I was just starting out and felt that being involved in these groups was not a good use of time as they were a) a distraction, and b) put me at risk of being taken less seriously by my colleagues. A few years later and I've found that I get a lot more satisfaction by having 1:1s or small group discussions with women on my team, who are changing careers, and the leadership in my current company, than I did in a group setting.

I could just live & let live, but the point of this post was to get a feeler out for whether other people feel the same way. Thanks for the data point! :)