Harvard Groups Host Women’s Week Party

As the Harvard community celebrates Women’s Week over the next seven days, students may notice a new fashion statement on campus—shirts with the declaration, “This is what a feminist looks like.”

Close to a hundred women and men crammed into the Women’s Week kick-off party last night in Ticknor Lounge, discussing their excitement for the upcoming week as they donned t-shirts stating “Strength Through Solidarity,” a theme that has guided much of the planning.

Several student groups—including Latinas Unidas, the Environmental Action Committee, and Harvard Men Against Rape—will be collaborating on events this week, such as discussions on gender and race, environmental and reproductive justice, and pornography.

“The way the women’s community can be strongest is to work together,” said Alice M. Laramore ’11, an intern at the Harvard College Women’s Center who helped plan the events this week. “This event unites all of Harvard’s women’s groups in support of the common goal of Women’s Week.”

Gina Helfrich, Assistant Director of the Women’s Center, said that the goal of this week’s collaboration is to raise awareness of women’s accomplishments, community, and issues. In keeping with this goal, Helfrich emphasized that the week is meant to reach out not only to women, but the entire community.

“I think it’s a mistake to think about women’s issues as only relevant to women and the niche that women fit into,” she said. “Women face similar problems and callenges across diverse social situations, but that’s something everyone should be able to connect with.”

Harvard kicks off the week with its first annual Feminist Coming Out Day in which students will wear the t-shirts declaring themselves as feminists.

“It’s important for people to embrace that word because there’s such a stigma around it,” said Laramore. “Having people come out as feminists in a public way will bring people closer to the term and allow them to really own it.”

Part of Feminist Coming Out Day is an art exhibit opening tonight which features portraits of students, faculty, and administrators at Harvard who identify as feminists. The participants include Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, President of the Harvard Democrats Jason Q. Berkenfeld ’11 and Student Advisory Committee President Mary K.B. Cox ’10.

The portraits in Adams Art Space will be accompanied by paragraphs explaining how each participant understands or connects with the movement and are meant to be visual reminders that feminism can exist in all types of people.

“I think feminism has gotten a bad rap and usually conjures up images of radical and man-hating women,” said Emma Q. Wang ’12, co-chair of the Harvard Queer Students and Allies Political Committee. “But the fact is feminism is really about respecting the equality of genders, and I hope this week will help people realize that.”

—Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.