By Sierra Voorhies
What a semester! I feel like it went by so fast, honestly! I will be coming back to the Women’s Center in the spring, and will continue to be present on our blog, on social media, and at our programming.
Gender equity intersects with just about any other social issue that might be discussed in classes, and it is a big part of society. It’s been an important part of my personal growth and education to study and speak on gender equity and to advocate more and more for it. I know I am more educated and well spoken on the subject today then when I started at the beginning of the semester.
I think that when a lot of people think of the UMKC Women’s Center or our mission for gender equity they think of women’s issues like access to equal pay, domestic/sexual violence, barriers to reproductive rights. There is no doubt that these things are super important and worthy of attention and care, but it has been my specific goal at the Women’s Center–and it will continue to be my goal next semester–to explore and support gender issues that are not centered around cis men and cis women. Trans+, non-binary, genderqueer, and other gender non-conforming people face a lot of specific gender issues.
This semester I’ve written about gender, pronouns, the representation of queer and bi people in media, as well as some role models in my family. Next semester, I want to focus more on trans+ representation and actions I am taking to become a better advocate and ally. I hope everyone gets some down time as well as some realignment with themselves and their priorities after this challenging semester!