So it's time to show you what I've been up to all year as your Women and Marginalised Genders' Officer. I hope most of you who have needed to have met me and known who I am, and that you might recognise some of the events and activities that were held on campus throughout the year. I thought I'd go through each sub-heading of my manifesto, and then give a bit of info on anything I did outside of these categories!
Education
Film Screenings
Throughout the year I showed films that relate to women and marginalised genders' issues and facilitated discussion of them afterwards. The first one as part of Black History Month in October was Dark Girls, which I screened jointly with Dunola, our BME officer. I also showed Obvious Child, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Miss Representation.
Women in Academia
As part of Women's History month I organised an event on women in academia. We covered a range of topics at this event that were raised by both staff and students. Of course the gender-pay gap was one of them, which is particularly noticeable at RHUL, but we also talked about gendered marking, parenting and academia and representation of BME women in academia.I think everyone came out of that talk a bit angry at the injustices within the university system, but more knowledgeable and able to do something about them which I hope will happen in the next through years. For more on the event, watch this space!
Pronoun Guides
One student made a pronoun guide to give out to people to educate them on their pronouns. I asked them if they could make it available to everyone for students to fill out themselves and they were happy to, so I printed out a load and they are now available for all to use upstairs in the SU.Liberation Library
In January, I went to London 5 other students involved in liberation issues. We went to various bookshops across London and picked up books relating to liberation issues we felt would be good to have in a liberation library. The library is being set up upstairs in the SU and these books will be available to anyone with an interest in these issues to come and read.Vote
Not so much as educating as encouraging people to do so. I found at the GM where a motion was proposed to lobby the college to call the new library the Emily Wilding Davison library there was a lot of misunderstanding about her role in women's suffrage. You can read my blogpost here about how women got the vote.
I also wrote more about women in politics for The Orbital, trying to get people involved because they cared, not because they were being told they had to vote because someone died for their right.
Royal Holloway's Own History
There is so much history at our university and I wish we made more of it! For women's history month I worked with the archives to get people learning about our college. We printed old magazines, had a successful women from Royal Holloway exhibition, and worked with the RHUL Sport Inclusion Officer to get then and now pictures of sports teams at Royal Holloway.Wollstonecraft
One of the big events of women's history month was a discussion on Mary Wollstonecraft. It was organised by students at Royal Holloway and you can read more about it here.
Liberation Station
This has been running all year and I'm glad to have been on so many of the shows. It's been a brilliant thing to do and engaged lots of people.
Abortion
I went to an abortion rights conference and learnt a lot myself. I've been talking to them since and trying to get together information for those who may need to have an abortion talking about what to do and other issues.Representatoin
Campus connect
Got in contact with the people who administrate campus connect as they only provided male and female for gender options. They couldn't change it this year, but from next year onwards, they're adding a third.
Transgender Awareness Week
Organised a vigil for transgender day of remembrance. Held a workshop making leaflets and posters for transgender awareness week and ordered stickers to distribute during this week.
NUS reclaim your campus
Did a RHUL carries that weight campaign to show support for sexual assault victims and abuse survivors on campus.
As well as this I ran an activism burn-out session, sold white ribbons to raise money for End Violence against Women, and organised an Intersectionality 101 panel, which sadly didn't happen.
Women in Art
Along with Royal Holloway's Picture Gallery curator Laura McCulloch, I ran an event on Suffrage and Art, where Laura discussed the only painting by a female artist in the picture gallery.
As well as this, one of the volunteers ran an event talking about the Erinna statue in the North Quad. Not much research has been done into it before, but it's a really interesting piece and it seems like we have an early feminist in our midst!
Confidence
Love your body week
To read more about Let's Talk About Body Image go here.
To see the zines go here.
I also ran a winter warmer campaign through November which you can read more about here.
Safe Space in the SU
I talked to the SU about doing this during Fresher's Week this academic year. I hope it's something that might be full-time one day so that people having panic attacks or who get harrassed on a night out can sit in a quiet place for a little bit.Sport
Worked with the Inclusions Officer to try and get women-only gym introductions. We didn't get a massive amount of sign-ups, so I think it's best this is done during fresher's week.Self defense
Looked into running these with sports clubs at Royal Holloway along with LGBT+ society, but insurance and education in this area meant we couldn't run it easily.Others
Health Centre
At the beginning of the year, I spoke to the health centre about getting free condoms- available all the time on campus. We realised all of them were being sent there and Royal Holloway is entitled to free condoms from the R U Clear scheme, so that was good!Medicine Night
Had a riot grrrl night in medicine to raise money for charities during women's history month. We played music by women all night, had pin the rosette on the suffragette and an awesome raffle!
Tampon Tubs
Some unis started doing these, and now I've got everything to set up some at Royal Holloway. For more info on them see here.Online Resources
Before I leave I'm going to get all the resources available to WAMGO online in an easy to find area. This includes leaflets on non-binary gender identity, pronoun guides and abortion information.Forums
Held forums regularly throughout the year to talk about issues faced by women and marginalised genders on campus. We did lots of crafts.
Women's History Month
A lot of what I did was talked about here, but here's a full guide of what was on that month:
