WMG 101 - part II

When I started writing actual to-do lists of things of which I would like to raise awareness, for which I would like to campaign, and on which I would like to host events, I fast realised that even if the position were my full-time job there was no possible way to do everything I came up with. This was a little frustrating, and it took me several weeks to accept this as a given and move on to prioritising.
 

Priority #1 - talk to people in the WMG caucus and find out what they want.

As WMG officer, I am mandated to hold at least one forum a term. It quickly became obvious that one would not suffice, I would need at least two - a women students' forum and an marginalised gender / trans* and non-binary student forum. While the two groups do have some overlap (and I invited people who identified into both groups to attend both fora), they do have some individual needs which might not get the necessary exposure in a mixed group.

Image: poster advertising the trans* and
non-binary student forum

The first forum I held was for self-identifying trans* and non-binary students on the 2nd of December. The students and myself got a bit of a surprise in the first few minutes - a handful of students thought there would be a talk on the matter and turned up, keen to hear about the topic. We felt very bad for turning them away! On the plus side, it illustrated that there's a definitive interest from those who don't identify as trans* or non-binary to learn about those who do, which means I will be organising a talk for sometime next term.

The forum was intimate but extremely productive. We discussed safe spaces first, and agreed guidelines with which all felt comfortable. I had prepared a leaflet on non-binary genders, intended for those who hadn't encountered the concept or anyone non-binary before, and the forum attendees happily edited and scribbled on the physical copies I'd brought until we'd settled on phrasing everyone was comfortable with. I plan on completing the final edit of that leaflet this week, it should be available at the SU and online sometime next week!

Apart from the clearly longed-for talk, my next project for the marginalised genders (MG) caucus is to write a leaflet on trans* individuals as an analogue to the non-binary gender leaflet. Discussion at the forum also demonstrated a clear need for at least one awareness campaign amongst academics and other staff, including standard information distribution (emails, flyers, posters) and may include awareness & sensitivity training (e.g. in the case of SU staff). It also includes myself asking for a second or amended email address from the SU, my current one (women@rhul.ac.uk) taking only half my caucus into account. We also discussed the current name of my position (Women's and Marginalised Genders' Officer) but couldn't settle on a viable alternative by the end of the session. Finally, the conversation at the forum made clear that advertising future fora publicly is likely to discourage some students from attending, which means I'll be relying more on word of mouth and asking people to get in touch with me directly if they'd like to attend.

The day after the MG forum, on the 3rd of December, I held the Women students' forum. The agenda included an introduction of myself and my online presence (which seems to have grown every time I look at it), women's sport on (and off) campus, women-only spaces, sexual harassment, and up-coming SU campaigns and other causes women students are likely to want to get involved with.

We hit upon women-only swimming sessions and gym intro classes as something likely to be popular and discussed SU funding differences between W and M teams. The room at large also showed very strong interest in women-only self-defense lessons and was keen on a women-only 'girls night out' on campus. RHUL alumna (and current ULU Women's Officer) Susuana Antubam helped incredibly by sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience on women-only spaces, which include self-defense and swimming. The next step on these topics is to discuss them with the SU (read: our sabbatical officers) and then hopefully with a campus-wide survey to gauge interest.

Image: poster advertising the women
students' forum

We then took a break from building castles in the sky as I turned the discussion to sexual harassment and the hollback! app. I started this part of the session by talking about the legal background of harassment, both sexual and non-sexual, and I think it's fair to say attendees were astonished by how much the law criminalises. Cue general agreement that this information should be widely available, both in the SU and around campus. The SU has recently instituted a Zero Tolerance policy on sexual harassment, with regards to which most SU security members have been trained. However, awareness on how to deal with sexual harassment remains limited, prompting suggestions such as leaflets (I love leaflets) and related sessions during Welcome Week. Funnily enough, I had already spent some time hunting down information on how the SU and College deal with sexual harassment and have two meetings on the topic scheduled for next week. On a lighter note, students present asked about the "I <3 consent" stickers which were available on campus during SHAG week - luckily, those are easily obtained via Susuana! There will be more.

Campaigns and causes touched on both SHAG and Mental Health weeks. Next term will definitely see a screening of a documentary on the phenomenon virginity, aptly titled "How to lose your virginity". Attendees were also keen to see events on body image, which, though often seen as a stereotypical women's topic, remains a difficult subject for many. Two students had already been exchanging facebook messages on the topic and kindly volunteered to help me out with organising a talk and/or workshop on the matter. I then brought up that I was trying to organise a Women in Science event (or events) for next term, which precipitated suggestions for other "Women in" events (sports, politics, anything). During further discussion on women in the public eye, it transpired that the Women's Collection in Founders library isn't widely known and access can be tricky. Requests for tours or open days were put in and I will be in touch with the library about this soon. From libraries we moved to studying and from studying we moved to getting home during the dark hours after spending long hours in the library - there was some debate on the availability of SSHH busses, which I will also clarify next week.

The two fora set me up nicely to tackle my #2 priority - supporting and representing the WMG caucus in attaining their goals. I'll keep you updated.