Every other Friday afternoon, the Women’s Center staff hands over the reins to a student facilitator to lead a group of their peers through a presentation, discussion or activity on a feminism-related topic of their choosing.
According to Simone Spencer, a graduate student in higher education administration and the graduate assistant for the Women’s Center, Feminist Fridays are a way to welcome students in to the Women’s Center and build community while learning something new.
“I see it as a big, community-building thing,” Spencer said. “I definitely see that we get a lot of people from our different women’s groups on campus. It’s kind of a time for them to connect as well as [a time for] education.”
Facilitation of Feminist Friday events is open to anyone who has a topic they’re excited to talk about. Student facilitators get the opportunity to build leadership and presentation skills as well as receive feedback on their ideas and work. Women’s Center staff work with students every step along the way to make sure their topics and presentations are fully formed.
“What we normally do is we help [facilitators] generate a title,” said Alexus Smith, program coordinator for the Women’s Center. “We help them with the presentation, any activities they want to do, questions, different things like that and help them get set up to give that presentation to the best of their ability.”
The topics for each event vary widely from the history of women and roller skating to divestment culture. According to Smith, there are very few restrictions on the types of topics students can present on.
“Something that I look for is, first of all, what are they interested in,” Smith said. “Then making sure that they can connect that to social justice, gender equity, other types of justice issues; making sure that no matter what the topic is, it can be connected to one of the pillars of the Women’s Center and really giving them an opportunity to explore their personal interests.”
Spencer, who acts as the main coordinator of the events, said she helps students make their presentations applicable for their peers.
“What I kind of push them towards is relevance,” Spencer said. “I just want people to take the information that they get this day [and] be able to leave and apply it to their lives as they continue.”
During her own graduate studies, Smith served in Spencer’s current position as graduate assistant for the center and has seen multiple years of student presentations unfold. She said one of the fun things about the Feminist Friday structure is everyone has a chance to learn something new.
“It’s really interesting to see what other students come up with,” Smith said. “You’re sitting in the crowd like, ‘I didn’t know the significance of roller skating for women and the Black community’ or other topics. And that’s just really cool. There’s been so many different types of presentations.”
Des Woods, a graduate student in higher education administration, led Friday’s event with a presentation on hidden figures in feminism and social justice. During the presentation, Woods discussed several historical feminist figures who are often overlooked in history classes, such as Wilma Mankiller and Patsy Takemoto Mink.
“I presented last year and this year,” Woods said. “I just enjoy coming to different community centers on campus and learning about different things. I think, especially if you consider yourself a social justice advocate, it’s important to learn about groups that don’t match my identity, so I can learn how to become a better ally and advocate for other historically marginalized identities.”
As a second-time presenter for Feminist Friday, Woods appreciates the opportunity to learn about and educate about topics that not everyone sees in the classsroom.
“I’ve always been interested in voting rights and social justice,” Woods said. “Going through K-12, you learn about the big names — maybe Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King — and that’s pretty much it. … For every Martin Luther King, there [are] 100 other people, such as James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, who don’t get talked about enough. So I think that’s why I wanted to do a presentation on this and try to pick people that were not just from America or not just from one time period.”
This year, Smith and Spencer hope to incorporate even more diversity in terms of topic, format and audience into Feminist Friday events.
“I am wanting to see a little bit more interactiveness between presenters and the people in the audience,” Spencer said. “I am wanting to see more representation among student groups. I’m wanting to see [students] who are women of color, more non-binary students, students that identify differently. And I am wanting to see more male students as well, just people getting involved with feminism and whatnot.”
Anyone and everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend and/or facilitate a Feminist Friday event.
“I really want Feminist Fridays to continue to become a more welcoming space for every person and everybody that comes into the space,” Smith said.
