As part of International Women's Week about 10 women took part in a group discussion on how they have at times felt excluded and some of the prejudices they have experienced.

An off-the-record circle discussion lead to much personal disclosure of ways women have felt put down and how difficult it can be to overcome the insidious force of exclusion and establish a healthy sense of self worth.

A few aboriginal women stopped in briefly, but for most of the discussion all women were white. But the discussion still ranged over several inclusion issues.

"If one is invisible, there can be misunderstanding," Zoe Raemer, speaking as a lesbian, said after the workshop.

"That's why it's important, if you have the safety and security, to be out, given the circumstances, as much as possible."

Raemer said with visible minorities, it is easy to pinpoint that their experiences and perspective are likely very different from whites.

The often-painful coming-out process often spurs suicide among youth and yields a reality much different than the one experienced by most Yellowknifers.

"I was frightened," black woman Sumter-Freitag said of a car ride on a date with a white man whom she once thought was nice. "I could feel the contempt and disrespect in his words. It stunned me."

The man had internalized myths that black girls were "just good for sex," Sumter-Freitag said, and he was speaking explicitly when no one had to her before.

"We know, see and hear these attitudes since we are young girls," she said, and that can make it difficult to resist internalizing them.

Sumter-Freitag said she started believing there may be something to a lot of the myths because she heard them so much.

Now, she believes part of the process of shattering those myths speaking about them. "People don't want talk about these things. That's part of the problem," she said.

And Sumter-Freitag discussed how "many believe (sex) is immoral and (they) have unhealthy views on sex and sexuality."

That can lead to ignorance on how to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. Usually, just knowing how to use a condom could have easily prevented the problem.