By TIFFANY KNAPP
Women’s Initiative
On behalf of the Women’s Initiative, I would like to welcome you back to Saint Rose, or welcome you to Saint Rose if it is your first semester. We wish you luck on all of your endeavors this semester!
The Women’s Initiative, for those who may not be familiar, is an on-campus group focused on celebrating women and their many contributions within the Saint Rose community and beyond.
In addition, we promote awareness and advocacy of women’s issues, both on and off campus, through programming and various responses to on-campus concerns, interests, and needs. If this sounds intriguing to you, you are more than welcome to join us! You can find us on Facebook (Saint Rose Women’s Initiative), drop by the OIL House office across the street from Albertus, or come by a meeting or event! We would love to have you!
Speaking of events, we would like to invite you to join us for some of our upcoming events:
February 11th and February 12th is V-Day. V-day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. V-day campaigns raise money through performances of The Vagina Monologues, such as ours, or a variety of other performances or film screenings. Proceeds go to local anti-violence groups, such as Equinox. Equinox provides services to victims of domestic violence as well as residential programs for homeless youth and more. If you would like to perform in The Vagina Monologues, there will be an interest meeting very soon! Keep your eyes peeled for more information!
In March as part of Social Justice Week, The Women’s Initiative is planning to screen MissRepresentation, a documentary about women’s representation in media and how it affects not only women’s perceptions of themselves, but also their potential success due to how others perceive them. Young people are being taught that a woman’s worth is only in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and this affects how they behave perpetuating a cycle of negative images of women as well as harmful effects on the health of young women such as eating disorders, depression, and self-mutilation. We want to show that we are worth so much more than just our appearances. The film also discusses potential ways to solve this problem, starting with us.
The Women’s Initiative certainly has more coming, so keep an eye out!
We would also like to congratulate our two new E-board members, Elizabeth Mendez and Paige Fitzgerald! They have so much to offer us, so we are sure it is going to be an excellent semester!
If there is anything you would like to see, email us at csrwomensinitiative@gmail.com
