By: Sheridan Kate Murray, Staff Writer
Sophomores Meghan Curran, Caroline Triani and Elena Helmers-Wegman have brought a gender equality club to Wofford’s campus. On Sunday, Oct. 2nd, 2016 at 6 p.m., the Gender Equality Committee held its first meeting in McMillan Theater.
The club will have large meetings every month, as well as small group meetings twice a month on Sundays and Wednesdays. The large meetings will consist of seminars on various issues of gender and equality, as well as planning for events on campus. The small group meetings will be discussion based.
The primary goal of the Gender Equality Committee is to increase awareness of how gender defines experience, while providing a platform to discuss intersectional and multicultural gender issues.
Although the club is only in its initial stages of development, according to Triani the support has been overwhelming. “At the interest fair we had over 60 people sign up,” she says. “Within the next few days, several other people had emailed us or directly told us that they were interested in joining. Total we have about 75 students on our mailing list. We are now working with that number to create some small groups to lead discussions and create events around campus,” says Triani.
Triani recognized the need for the GEC after her freshman year interest fair. “I noticed that there wasn’t a Democrat club, and there were no clubs relating to gender equality at all. I went to Dean Bigger and she agreed that starting a club of this nature would be really great, so I knew I had to figure out how to make it happen,” Triani says.
Curran, Hermers-Wegman and Triani came together to create the club after attending an open feminist philosophy lecture given by Dr. Williams. Curran says, “It was the first time we had been around like-minded people, having conversations about what’s going on in the world in regards to gender and equality. We knew we needed to have a place where we could continue to have these kinds of conversations.”
Curran and Triani are both enthused by the club’s positive reception and are relieved that they aren’t having to “actively recruit people to join.” Curran says, “I am really enthused by the fact that people are talking about the GCE and what we’re doing. People are excited by it and seem to really want to get involved.”
The Gender Equality Committee has several events in the works for the upcoming semester. Curran is particularly excited about creating a gender inequality bake sale in the hopes of drawing attention to wage gaps found in today’s society. The GEC also intends to put on a Breastival, serving as a breast cancer awareness event, as well as a Take Back the Night event to raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault.
The club also hopes to pair up with Greek organizations on campus as a way of “fostering meaningful conversations.” Triani says, “We mentioned in our meeting the possibility of creating a Greek liaison through our club which I think would be a really valuable thing. It would be great to sit down if possible with the presidents of Greek organizations and talk to them about fostering positive and equitable relationships.”
Although the GEC has only had one official meeting, Triani and Curran are excited to see where the club will go in terms of involvement and participation. “The meetings are open to everyone and we value the input that anyone is willing to contribute. Having people come to the meetings and events is the most important part. In college we are exposed to many different values and viewpoints, and it’s really important to be open-minded and understand where others are coming from,” says Curran.
