March is Women’s History Month (WHM), and Delta is celebrating by hosting several events that focus on issues that women have faced in the past and today, for students as well as faculty.
The National Women’s History Alliance, the organization behind WHM, chooses a theme every year. This year’s theme is “Women who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”
Delta’s WHM events are organized by the WHM committee, made up of Delta faculty.
Professor Lynn Hawley, the head of the committee, says that the committee has been leading the WHM events for 10 years now.
“Women’s History Month is an exciting time for me,” said Hawley in an email interview. “This is the subject I teach all year and have been teaching at Delta College for 26 years now.”
The committee is not the only one creating events. Multiple associations in Delta help organize them.
“Often, we have campus organizations, like the Pride Center, Digital Media, Ethnic Studies, or the Horton Gallery, that will do events or videos annually,” said Dr. Sarah Seekatz, another member of the WHS committee. “They plan them and we include them in our advertising material for the month.
Based on the yearly theme, a few of the WHM events focused on educating both students and faculty on how to be a more mindful advocate in work or in school.
“We reached out to faculty members who presented on the issue of micro aggressions before,” said Seekatz. “This fits within the national theme but also it gave our students a chance to hear from amazing women on our campus who advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion — Dr. [Malika] Hollinside, Professor [Vienna] Sa, Professor [Nia] Gregory, and Professor [Lorraine] Doria.
There were also less academic events that took place on campus. The Pride Center’s event, “Share the Warmth,” focused on crafting blankets for foster youth.
The L.H. Horton Gallery is also hosting an exhibition that features all-women artists.
“Singing to the Difference: An Examination of Surface Strategies” was put together by Professor Ruth Santee and Gallery Operator Jan Marlese to showcase women artists.
“If you look at the statistics, only 46 percent of working artists are women,” said Marlese. “Despite the fact that women earn 70 percent of bachelor’s degrees in fine arts, and 65 to 75 percent of master’s degrees. It seems like in industries where women are at the forefront, they still get ignored.”
The exhibition is expected to run until April 5.
Despite nearing the end of the month, there is always a chance to look ahead at next year. “ I think one of the great things about it,” said Seekatz, “Is each year is an opportunity to explore something new — because women’s history is history — all of it — and our experiences are so varied and vast that we’ll never run out of wonderful things to explore.”