Women’s Herstory kickoff celebrates Women’s History Month
Chapman’s Cross-Cultural Center began Women’s History Month with a celebratory virtual kickoff event March 2 featuring a student panel conversation about feminism and intersectionality. Unsplash
Feminist advocacy is a concept that has always fed into the intersectionality of other facets of social justice. Ethnic empowerment, LGBTQIA+ allyship; the “glass ceiling” that is often discussed as an obstacle for women exists for many other demographics - and this concept was emphasized by panelists at Chapman’s “Women’s Herstory” virtual kickoff event.
The event was hosted March 2 by the Cross-Cultural Center as the first in a series of virtual events in tribute of Women’s History Month, including lectures, panels, art workshops and other social opportunities. The panel featured eight students, some part of the Armenian Student Union and Black Student Union, who range from finance to peace studies majors and facilitated a conversation about the integration of feminist ideals both at Chapman and in a global context.
“Feminism is a lot about resisting the Western (cisgender, heterosexual) patriarchal norms that we’ve all been born into and realizing that we don’t have to live in a world that wasn’t created for us,” said Marisa Quezada, an event panelist and a junior sociology major. “We can create our own understanding and a world that works for us, because it wasn’t built for us.”
Like Quezada, each of the panelists drew on personal testimonies to enrich the dialogue concerning the importance of feminism and its teachings.
Natalia Ventura, a senior peace studies major and an assistant lead at the Cross-Cultural Center, started planning the month’s programming during interterm. Ventura told The Panther she ensured intersectionality remained a key theme through the events.
“I wanted to really make sure that we had a diverse panel that was representing intersectionality on our campus,” Ventura said. “You can't talk about feminism without including those intersectional voices.”
The March 2 panel included eight women from different races, ethnicities and regional backgrounds. To Sophia Morissette, a panelist and senior peace studies and psychology double major, feminism and women’s history as a whole are deeply embedded in the narrative of social justice.
“True feminism should not just be white feminism. It shouldn’t just be for women who identify as women and were born with vaginas,” Morissette said. “It should be wanting and demanding rights for ourselves and for everybody else regardless of their race, gender or sexual orientation.”
The Cross-Cultural Center has four more events planned for the month: a March 8 International Women’s Day celebration, a March 15 art workshop led by Ni Santas, a local group featuring artists who are women of color and a final keynote address March 30 from speaker and Chapman alumna Beatriz Valencia. Valencia earned her Ph.D. in leadership studies and is a community organizer both at Chapman and within the City of Orange.