A variety of events including panels, games, art exhibits and movies will honor women throughout history for Ohio University's celebration of Women's History Month.
March is Women’s History Month, and organizations across campus have planned several ways, from games to movies to panels, to celebrate.
The Women’s Center has planned several events throughout the month, beginning with its annual International Women’s Day Festival on March 13.
The festivities will continue March 15 with a panel discussion titled “Who’s Missing From the Policy Table?: Improving NGO and State Solutions for Gender Inequality.” The panel will be held via Google Hangout as part of the Women’s Center’s Global Conversations series, which offers participants a chance to engage with women from around the world. The panel will discuss the topic of public policy and how it affects women differently based on other factors, such as their race, socioeconomic status and age.
On March 17, the Women’s Center will hold a book party with Associate Professor of English Carey Snyder. Snyder recently published her own edition of H.G. Wells’ 1909 novel Ann Veronica. The novel, which focuses on a young woman’s venture from her home to the city and the experiences she has there, was incredibly controversial in its time. Snyder will discuss her version, and the background and historical information she added to increase readers’ understanding.
A special Women’s History Month Brown Bag will be held March 24, during which participants can play a women’s history-themed game of Jeopardy! Prizes will be given to winners.
Also on March 24, the Women’s Center will be screening the documentary A Thousand Voices, which examines the history of Native American women and how their gendered roles changed with their introduction to colonialists.
On March 29, the Women’s Center will be collaborating with the history department and the Veterans and Military Student Services Center to host the panel “Recognizing Women Veterans Throughout History.” Women from several generations will be present to speak about their experiences in the military.
To end the month's celebration, on March 31, the Women’s Center and the LGBT Center will be screening the film In the Turn, which examines a 10-year-old transgender girl’s experiences in roller derby.
Sarah Jenkins, program coordinator for the Women’s Center, said it is important to celebrate women’s history all year long.
“I think Women’s History Month gives people an opportunity to remember … that although there are many successes women have had, women around the world still have a lot of challenges,” she said. “We need to educate ourselves about what those challenges are and be aware of what’s going on in the world around us so we can participate as active global citizens.”
The Women’s Center is not the only organization with events planned to celebrate Women’s History Month. The Order of Omega will be hosting a Women’s Appreciation Banquet to raise money for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. GenFKD, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating college students about the economy and financial self-sufficiency, will be holding an activation organization fair titled “Activate OU: Empowering Women." It will feature on- and off-campus organizations focused on empowering women and minority groups in the fields of economics and politics.
The Multicultural Center will also be hosting a few events to honor women throughout history. The center began displaying its annual art exhibit “Women in Appalachia” in February and will continue to display it throughout March. The center will be also be collaborating with several other departments to host a lecture by Sachi Nakachi, a professor of English at Tsuru University in Japan and a scholar on literature in various languages and cultures.
The Multicultural Center also will be coordinating with the Women’s Center and other departments for International Women’s Day Festival.
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Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, strategic director for diversity and inclusion and multicultural programs, said she thinks of Women’s History Month in the same context that she does the heritage months, such as Black History Month and National Hispanic Heritage Month.
“The contributions of these people have been overlooked for years,” Chunnu-Brayda said. “The purpose of these months is to highlight their contributions, but also still talk about some of the challenges, because we’re not really where we should be as a nation and as a world.”
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