International Women’s Day, a celebration and recognition of the women in everyone’s life, was first celebrated on March 8, 1909. During that time, it aimed to celebrate the women in the 1908 garment worker strike, but since then it has largely expanded to represent the larger role of women within society. Additionally, the entire month of March, since 1987, has been dubbed “Women’s History Month.”
Elizabethtown College has not always had as large of a celebration as it currently does, however in the past, there was still recognition of women and the work that they did. Many of the buildings on campus, including Myer Hall and Hackman apartments, are named after historic women who left an impact on the College and are recognized regularly through the spread of their names. Women have also always been allowed to attend the institution, though originally with separation in areas such as the doors on buildings and dorms.
Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement Javita Thompson had this to say about how the current celebrations are directly tied to the ideas behind the College: “We have this motto of educate for service and respecting civility and a theme of social justice throughout many things that we do here on our campus. That is no different than the Women’s History Month celebrations that you see. For me, I came to this college with a president who is a woman and I realized how much leadership that we have that is female-forward.”
Etown does uniquely have a larger number of women in its administration from President Betty Rider, Academic Affairs Program Coordinator Carol Costa, Provost Kristi Knees and many more. Besides that, there are powerful figures like Thompson and Deputy Title IX coordinator Gabbie Reed who are the reason major recognition events like these happen on campus, and of course a multitude of female students and staff regularly lifting each other up. Even though these forces are always present at Etown, it may be easy to take for granted that that is not universal or even could be said for many colleges in the areas, which is why Etown must still challenge the current standard of a lack of wage equality and continue to support the women attending and working at the College.
The inclusion of more unity and more events in recent years allows for more opportunity for students to get involved and understand the importance of Women’s History Month. Students throughout this month have and will continue to see the prevalence of purple, the official color of International Women’s Day and opportunities to enrich themselves.
On the first day of celebration, the College was able to get 175 pledges to #EmbraceEquity throughout the College campus as that is the current goal for this year. During the same time period, Elizabethtown’s Kindness Project helped women throughout the community as they cut out over 600 pad inserts that were then donated through a local humanitarian organization called Unto.
Those looking to aid women on campus have opportunities to donate to the menstrual product drive that is happening all throughout March. They can either donate in the boxes around campus or through the Amazon Wishlist which will ship it right to the Blue Jay Pantry.
Another way to help women is by amplifying their voices. The College has been able to do this through the multitude of events with women speakers and performers that interested individuals should attend including, but not limited to, the Women in Business in Partnership with Women in STEM Networking and Panel Event on March 15, HerStory on March 21 and the Women of Etown panel on March 29.
