Women’s Day Friday!
Friday, March 30th from 9-4pm
Lower Level of BCC
GSS Event! This year’s theme of Empowerment will explore the different ways our campus, community, culture, and world empowers women and girls to overcome adversity and to make a difference. The event will focus on a variety of issues women and girls face around topics of gender, sexuality, workplace inequality, political involvement, and economic disadvantages. The day will explore this theme through artwork, music, performances, displays, fundraisers, and of course, food!
This Friday is Women’s Day.
I contacted organizer Marissa Tota who gave me an insider look at putting on this exciting event!
Q. Tell me about planning Women’s Day:
A. Planning Women’s Day has always been an initiative of a few students with the support of Departments such as Women Studies, Diversity and Peace and Justice (this year they were joined by Students for Justice Residential College and Dean of Students).
In the past, these students were seniors from a group called Project Peg, but when this disbanded earlier this year, Rachel and I took it upon ourselves to take the organizing reigns. Both Rachel and I felt that we wanted to make this year’s Women’s Day bigger than ever before by bringing in other student leaders and students groups on campus to help from the beginning planning stages. By bringing in a diverse group of students we felt we could attract a larger population of students to the event, as well as come up with new ideas that enabled students to interact with these different clubs and initiatives.
Q. Why the theme Empowerment?
A. The theme we chose this year was Empowerment because we felt that it was something all students could relate to and plays a central role in the reason why most of the student leaders do what they do- they want to empower others to do the same.
Q. What was planning like?
A. To plan the event we met multiple times as a group to brainstorm ideas, delegate tasks, and ensure we reached out to as many clubs as we could think, as well as come up with creative ways to get students to participate in the different activities at the event. This year, we were also especially interested in involving more men in the planning process as well as attracting them to the event itself.
Q. How do you hope to incorporate men into the event?
A. We hope that through displays that ask men to post what women in their lives inspire them (led by Josh Robichaud and Men to Men), as well as having men sign certificates promising to prevent sexual assault, we can better include them in the event.
Q. What was the inspiration for the slogan?
A. The slogan “She Loves You”, which derives from the Beatles song, is also reminder to both men and women that there are women in all of our lives that love us, and Women’s Day is a day to celebrate and honor those women.
Q. Is there an aspect of the event you are particularly interested in?
A. We are very excited for the performances organized by Jasmine Fernandez which features inspirational women throughout history, in a timeline fashion, from Betty Friedan, and Abigail Adams, to Eve Ensler, and personal pieces written by Performing for Change, that will be performed throughout the day.
