Finding the right way to mark Women’s History Month — and the ongoing battle to overcome discrimination, exclusion and other obstacles — can be tricky.
But it’s a challenge that campus leaders like Silvia Carias-Centeno ’25 and Audrey Gibson ’26, student managers at the Crozier Center for Women, are eager to take on.
“We wanted to have both a balance of acknowledging the historical work and struggle that women and femmes have done, while also having this celebratory aspect at the same time,” Carias-Centeno said.
Several programs in the works for the remainder of the month — organized through Crozier and other groups — will try to walk that line, noting historic hurdles while providing moments to connect and feel empowered.
These include a book club in which students will discuss the racial and class complexities implicit in the suffrage movement as described in “Women, Race and Class” by Angela Y. Davis. Students, who can register to receive a free copy of the book, will gather at Crozier at a yet-to-be-determined date.
Also this month, up to 50 students will take a free bus trip to Cleveland, where they will learn about Black female musicians at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Visitors also can see an exhibition called “Revolutionary Women in Music: Left of Center.”
Details will be forthcoming about this event, which will take place in conjunction with several organizations, including Crozier, the Black Student Union, Men of Color, Sisterhood, Unity House and the Snowden Multicultural Center.
“In the museum, there's a lot of things about the contributions of Black women, but they're pretty scattered,” Carias-Centeno said. “What do we lose when we don't end up centering the contributions of Black women and of marginalized people in general?”
Having these sorts of programs and organizations like Sisterhood — a group dedicated to women of color — helps students get more in touch with their identities and worry less about them not being acknowledged or even being erased, according to Sisterhood vice president, Auden Harper ’25.
”It's really important for a sense of community among women of color,” she said.
Sisterhood has other Women’s History Month plans as well, including a Women’s History Trivia Night with prizes held with Quiz Bowl on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Weaver College.
The organization is joining with Adelante and the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies to host a lunch and learn scheduled for March 28 at 11:10 a.m. in Gund Commons Ballroom that is open to faculty, staff and students. Boxed lunches will be provided for those who register by 11:59 p.m. on March 20.
The Natural Hair Club, led by Sydney Lewis ’26 and advised by Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sasha Pauline Fanny-Holston '11, is hosting author and Black beauty activist Tameka Ellington on March 28. She will be talking at 11:10 a.m. in Higley Hall Auditorium about “Racialized Beauty Standards and the Black Woman.” This will be followed by a lunch and learn event at Allen House.
Crozier also has plans for a social event in March for women-loving women that will include related art and historical displays, Carias-Centeno said. Details for this program have not been finalized yet.
Crozier is meant to provide a space for the empowerment of femmes and women as well as for education, resources, allyship and advocacy, and it’s important that this be done in a way that’s not exclusionary, Carias-Centeno said.
“Especially at predominantly white institutions, we often don't include the stories of women of color or we may not always include the stories and perspectives of trans women or working-class women, all of these identities that have different experiences as women,” Carias-Centeno said. “Something that we've really tried to make our mission this semester is to make sure that we are centering as wide a variety of marginalized identities [as possible] when we talk about feminism.”