The college came together to celebrate Women’s History Month
During the month of March, Wofford’s faculty, staff and students have had the pleasure of celebrating the women who make a difference in the classroom, on the playing fields, and in the everyday moments that happen on our campus. Similar to the team that was put together in order to properly honor Black History Month, a group was formed to create an agenda and design activities, which included Sera Guerry ‘22 and Lelia Jones ‘21.
When asking both ladies what this month meant to them, their words spoke volumes to the need for more quality time talking about what it means to be a woman on a college campus, what it means to be a woman when standing up for other women and what it means to be a woman in higher education.
Guerry, the chair of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Women’s History Month Planning Committee, noted that events like Women in the Classroom (March 23, 2021) are especially meaningful because they “offer a space for female-identifying students and faculty, along with their male-identifying peers to speak on their experiences on Wofford’s campus, which helps to ground and center these massive topics like feminism, toxic masculinity and gender stereotypes to the framework of the Wofford experience.”
When saying this, Guerry highlights an important aspect of all of the events we have had on campus this year, most especially having to comply with COVID-19 guidelines. The difficulties that come with planning either virtual or hybrid events show a deeper investment in the cause itself. In the case of Women’s History Month, the effort made by this planning committee shows their commitment to making women the center of a community, and not just isolated to the women themselves.
Jones, a senior, celebrating her last Women’s History Month on Wofford’s campus, discussed the uplifting moments found in their events where there was, “empowering music, people writing notes of encouragement or just letters of gratitude”.
Both of these young women on campus mentioned that they could not do this important work without the guidance and support of Taifha Alexander, assistant dean of students for diversity and leadership;Nadia Glover, coordinator for inclusive engagement; Nikia Franklin and Isaiah Franco.
As we commemorate this month as a Wofford family, it does not go unnoticed that our national and global community has had to take the time to mourn the loss of many women during this month in particular and during the pandemic.
Women, and more specifically and severely women of color, were disproportionately affected in the job market crisis that hit as the COVID-19 virus spread. Women were tasked with running the household, putting their children through virtual classes and many of them did this while being expected to complete the same workload. Women were the ones who had to take all of this in stride as mothers, providers, and friends.
This month also marks a year since the death of Breonna Taylor, a Louisville first responder whose murder sparked outrage amid various other racially-motivated incidents over the summer of 2020. Her death marked, for many young women, a fear that has yet to be shaken about law enforcement. A law has since been passed in her honor in Virginia banning no-knock warrants.
More recently, six Asian American women were killed in a mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia (March 16, 2021) — just 3 short hours from our campus. In multiple news sources it has been cited that the Asian American community recognizes that they are uniquely vulnerable because of the media’s hypersexualization of Asian American women.
These conversations about violence towards women do in fact hold a spot in our Wofford Women’s History Month, because most of us are fortunate enough to learn about them through the news as opposed to experiencing it ourselves.
Bringing it back home, Wofford has also taken steps in order to prevent and increase education relating to sexual assaults and access to forensic medical care. Danielle Berry is our new Forensic Campus Nurse liaison from Spartanburg Regional. Her information will be located at the end of this article, and is also available on Wofford’s website, as well as similar information regarding Title IX.
This Women’s History Month has had the unique opportunity to lead to conversations about the marginalization of certain groups of women, how to better protect your female community on a college campus, and how to amplify the voices of the female scholars who sit next to you in class every day.
Contact information for Danielle Berry: [email protected] 864-597-4356
To learn more about Women’s History Month outside of Wofford’s campus, visit https://womenshistorymonth.gov