Andrews Students Discuss Feminism

Feminism and women's empowerment can take on many forms and advocate for a multitude of social issues because fights for equality are all so interconnected. I asked various students on campus for their thoughts on what they feel is an important feminist issue that should be highlighted in conversations, or that they are particularly passionate about. Clearly this term encompasses a large umbrella of opinions and can give us a look into how we can best support each other as a campus and as a community especially in terms of intersectionality.

For myself, I feel really intimidated by men because I feel very helpless. I struggle with feeling inferior to men and that they're always smarter and better than me and wish that there were classes or something like that to help me stop thinking this way. Being Hispanic, we're taught the concept of machismo, basically putting men first and doing all the cooking and cleaning, so fighting these ideas is hard because it's so cultural. Things like always listening to the guy and stuff is really embedded in our culture so I have trouble knowing where to start in getting rid of these ideas.
Anali Guzman (junior, public health)

One thing I've noticed on campus is the dress code at the Wellness Center, especially for the hot tub and swimming pools. It’s specifically targeted towards women and their workout clothes or swimsuits and it’s a new rule. I go to the gym all the time and it’s annoying because I can’t even wear what I want to go to work out.
Olivia Geiger (senior, elementary education)

In South Carolina, they're proposing legislation to potentially give the death penalty to women who get abortions; even miscarriages could be criminalized due to the broad language of the proposed bill. In the American healthcare systems, women and especially women of color are already so ignored. I'm scared of how this will affect women, because pregnancy can already be dangerous for us. I don't know if this legislation will pass, but I think the fact that it's even being considered is crazy.
Shania Watts  (senior, music and English)

Gender inequality in the healthcare system.  When I was going through my stroke, doctors prescribed anxiety medication to me or thought I was having panic attacks when I was having trouble speaking at all. They all dismissed my symptoms and I had to deal with doctors that talked down to me constantly. I had to really sit down with myself and assure myself that I knew what was going on in my own body and my own mind, that what I was experiencing was real.
It took over a month of advocating for myself to get a proper diagnosis. It's a really flawed system.
Kylene Cave, English Professor

I was actually talking about this with my roommate, but beauty standards. I think the way women are expected to look a certain way and are compared to people online like influencers, and we think that's what we're supposed to look like. I think we should respect our bodies the way God made us and of course we can sometimes modify it in a way that's healthy but we're really perfect the way we are. We should change our standards to allow women to just exist without comparison to other people.
Amanda Orosco (senior, elementary education)

I would say it's very easy to talk about relationships with girls. For example, if you have a table and it's full of girls, it's easy to bring up a boyfriend if conversation is slow and things get very lively. Talking about relationships and boyfriends, things like that in general is something that's easy. But I don't think girls should be generalized to be only gossipy and obsessed with shallow things, because it's not bad to want to talk to friends about these topics. Of course there are also girls that don't talk about gossip as much and I think that’s okay too.
Yishan Jin (senior, biochemistry)

I think sometimes with the feminist movement, there's a lot of encouragement for women's empowerment but sometimes the message gets complicated with an uncompromising attitude. Women are pushed to be very uncompromising in their lives and once a certain standard is set, women are encouraged to just leave when it comes to relationships no matter what instead of staying. I understand there's a good reason for this sometimes, but I feel that now empowerment has turned a little toxic and is leaning towards an extreme—and going too far into any end of the spectrum can be problematic.
Annalise Tessalee (junior, biochemistry)

The Latina women's pay gaps are really bad. I care about this a lot because, you know, I'm Latina and when I go into the professional world, I would be so upset if there were people getting paid significantly more than me for doing the same job. Whether I'm male or female or whatever, pay should be based on profession instead of factors like sex and gender.
Karla Torres (junior, graphic design and Spanish)

I think an issue that's not just for women but is associated with femininity and feminism is consent. We don't really talk about the many nuances of consent. A lot of people think they know what consent is but they don't.
Nora Martin (junior, psychology and English)

For me, one of the primary focuses of feminism and one that means the most to me is the issue of sexual violence against women. Obviously this happens to not just women but it's usually linked back to ideas of misogyny and violence. So usually it's women being assaulted and their assailants are usually men. It's something that's so common yet so stigmatized. One fifth of women in college are sexually assaulted and a lot of women are assaulted before they even turn 18. So many women will face some form of harassment or dating violence in their lifetime. We will all hear so many horrific stories of violence about women's experiences, and so I think the fact that men's assault is not taken seriously is also linked back to misogyny. For a lot of women, sexual violence is a constant looming threat that controls where we go, what we're drinking, and the fact that its usually committed by someone we know is terrible. As long as this is a reality of living in this world, the work of feminism isn't done.
Reagan McCain (sophomore, history)

People who want to put a death penalty on women's abortion.
I don't know how you can be pro life if you're not even being pro-women. I think placing too much importance on a life that hasn't even really existed yet at the expense of a life that already exists is strange. We always say hypotheticals about a fetus being able to cure cancer and things like that but don’t think about whether the mother could do that as well.
Semhar Hailu (sophomore, computer science)

Education. It's important because it's a good step for getting independence.
Erica Shin (senior, biology)

A lot of people know about this but specifically Black women in hospitals not being listened to is a big issue. It’s something that happened to my family as well, with women being seen as both too emotional and making things up or being “strong enough” to deal with their issues on their own. Which usually ends with people dying as a result.
Katy Pierre (sophomore, biology)

As I interviewed different people on campus, I was struck by the sheer variety of responses that I got from students and faculty. Although we might hear or read about many different feminist events or concerns, it’s really interesting to see the different topics that are of interest to individuals and how they can vary from person to person. Reading these responses helped me think again about how feminism gives us a framework of understanding for issues ranging from dress codes and personal relationships to current laws and healthcare practices. Feminism is something that should be and is for everyone and I hope these interviews let us see this in practice!