UMKC

A Farewell from Taylor Michl, our Graduate Assistant

 

By: Taylor Michl

Boy am I ready to sip cold drinks in the summer sunshine. But, not before reflecting on a busy semester—and year—filled with growth and fun. I’ve been graduate assistant at UMKC Women’s Center since August and it’s bizarre to think that this is the end of the road.

At the Center, I’ve been surrounded by colleagues and visitors who deeply care about the liberation of women and others that experience gender marginalization. There’s something really special about going to work everyday knowing that the smiling faces I will see deeply care about justice in the same ways I do. This semester, I have witnessed Women’s Center staff persevere, create, educate, empower, and grow. I have learned so much from them about ecofeminism, using art to empower and heal, dismantling fatphobia, and using creativity to meet students where they’re at. I’ve also been lucky to work with a variety of students, faculty, and staff in other departments through our Women’s Center programming, which has made me feel a deeper sense of community at UMKC.

Although I don’t plan to work at a university women’s center in the long term, I know that planning events, supervising staff, and building connections here will make me a more thoughtful counselor, researcher, and faculty member in the future. So, I guess all that’s left to say is thank you. Thank you all for making my feminism more informed, nuanced, and caring. Thank you for engaging in our growing gender equity community at UMKC. To anyone reading this, thank you for continuing to show up for yourself and your community every day even though it can be painful to live in a world that is less kind to some than others.

I hope your summer is filled with loved ones, fun, and taking breaks. You deserve it!

Farewell, Au Revoir, and Adios Y’all!

By: Sierra Voorhies

I have learned so much from working at the Women’s Center for two whole semesters! At first, I really struggled to find topics for blogs, I didn’t trust my writing or my interests. Now, after a full academic year, I have gained so much confidence and knowledge that there were actually more blogs that I wanted to write that we didn’t have time to. 

For your entertainment, I will tell you a couple things that I wanted to write about but ran out of time to. First, last semester I went to the Women’s March in Kansas City, and I had such an interesting time, with really good and not so good parts of that experience. I also wanted to talk about wedding ceremonies, specifically how some brides chose to follow or shirk tradition (like by wearing a black or colored dress instead of a white one). Another thing I would have liked to write about is the connection between femininity and commodification. For example how women and femme people are made to feel like it’s normal or necessary to have a collection of shoes, clothes, makeup, nail polish, etc. to be fully performing femininity, and that masculine presenting people don’t have the same capitalistic demands on them. 

If you are working at the Women’s Center in the future, please feel free to make these ideas into your blog posts, I will continue to check into this blog after I am done, because it is truly a great place to get insight into the gendered issues of today from the perspective of college students. I will always remember my time here and thanks to anyone who reads this blog!

Goodbye Women’s Center!

By: Adriana Miranda

Well, it’s been a long academic year and it’s finally coming to a close! My time at the Women’s Center has definitely passed by too quickly though. There are so many blogs I didn’t get to write, and so much to still be said and done. However I’m so glad I still got to share things like: exploring what performing femininity means in relation the the male gaze and desirability, women of color and their role in being essential workers,  SA awareness, and of course my usual spiel: INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM!

I hope we’ll all continue thinking about intersectionality in our fight for gender equity. Remember none of us are equal until we are ALL equal. This includes our trans sisters/brothers/siblings, BIPOC, disabled folks, plus size folks, and anyone else who has to fight for equity in this largely cishet, white, male, able-bodied focused world.

I have loved being part of such a wonderful team for yet another semester and being in an environment where i’m comfortable being my loud, colorful, intense Latina lesbian feminist self, and I get to work on things i’m passionate about.

I’ve met so many wonderful new people and strengthened bonds with other Women’s Center staff who will remain friends for life and I’m so grateful for all we’ve done together.

It’s been real Women’s Center, i’ll miss ya, and I will miss writing for all of you lovely folks reading the blogs 🙂 <3

Reflecting on my Women’s Center Experience

By: Jetzel Chavira

This has been one of the most fulfilling and busiest years of my life. I am reflecting my time at the Women’s Center and my most favorite part about working here was meeting my co-workers. On the daily I work with Adriana and Sierra who are my fellow work-study students. Apart from them, I also get to work with the interns which include Laura, Ebony, Emma Sauer, Emma Stuart and Alyssa.

The most challenging part of working here has been balancing work and life. I tend to get overwhelmed a lot and when I don’t organize or prioritize than I usually end up procrastinating. I found that using a physical planner and my Outlook calendar really helped. I would also make lists of what tasks I needed to do and prioritize them. Overall, the Women’s Center has been a good experience. I learned management skills, organizational skills, and had so much fun hanging out with my coworkers.

Bye for Now, UMKC!

By: Emma Stuart

As the spring semester comes to a close, many of us are logging off of the Women’s Center blog for good, and I am one of those people. This semester seems to have gone by fairly quickly in my eyes and I cannot believe that we are already only 2 weeks from the semesters end. I have enjoyed getting to be a part of the Women’s Center and getting to learn more about what it has to offer. During this internship I have gotten to learn more about how a resource like this functions and how much the people behind it contribute. The thing that I have found most enjoyable about my timer here at the Women’s Center is all of the people I have had the pleasure of interacting with, these people range from students, my co-workers, faculty, and staff here at UMKC. This has been very enriching for me and for my collogues as well.

The connections I have made here are ones that I hope to keep in the future as they are very special to me. Additionally, this internship here at the Women’s Center has been my first so there has been a lot of learning and a lot of firsts over the course of this semester and for this I am grateful. I will cherish the connections that I have made here and all of the knowledge I have gained. This is only my second year at UMKC so I am sure that I will have the opportunity to interact with the Women’s Center again soon! I am thankful for this opportunity and for the skills that I have gained out of this internship. Thank you for the support and encouragement! And I wish the future Women’s Center Staff good luck!

Before I Let Go…

By: Ebony Taylor

Right when I finally memorize all of the login passwords and am confident enough to say that I know what I’m doing, my final days at The Women’s Center are here. As a senior intern, I felt this job was only a requirement for graduation, just get through it and you’re done. I realized quickly that that was not the case. I am glad to have had a role that challenged me mentally and emotionally this semester. Having taken Women and Gender Studies classes in the past, I would not have called myself a feminist back then, for fear that I would be labeled as a “man-hater” or receive strange looks from others.

Even as I stumbled through my first event that I helped program, I was determined to not make the same mistakes again. This internship taught me to embrace the unknown and learn to ask questions. Believe me, I had a lot of them! I also credit my coworkers, peers, and directors for inspiring me to put my whole self into my work, and I think that has been reflected in the work I have done this semester. There are only so many things that can be learned from the classroom, the others by experiencing them. I will honestly say that that those I have worked with this semester were truly amazing and I am honored to have been a part of such a great team. From the open and deep conversations about any topic, the laughs shared in the office, to the many collaborations on projects, it has been a memorable experience at the Women’s Center. I am now proud to wear my “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt in honor of what The Women’s Center represents and what we offer to UMKC.

My only regret is that I did not participate in past Women’s Center events or work study in my early years at UMKC. I hope to take my new and restructured skills of organization, marketing, and coffee-making with me into post- graduation roles and hope to see the future of the Women’s Center advance the programs left behind by the Class of 2022.

Hasta la vista, UMKC!

As One Story Ends, Another Begins…

By: Emma Sauer

Wait, the semester’s over already?  

Is it just me, or did these past couple months just breeze by? It feels like just yesterday, I was making shrink art, fumbling with the office phone, and feverishly typing up my new blog post—and now, suddenly, I have to say goodbye. Even knowing I’ll be returning as a blog intern in the fall, I can’t help but get a lump in my throat. I’m especially going to miss my coworkers, who are some of the sweetest, friendliest, and funniest people I’ve met at UMKC. If any of you are reading this, I’ll miss all of you!  

My favorite part of being the blog editor for the blog has definitely been getting to see what my peers write, and how their personalities, passion, and individual characteristics are weaved into their posts. It’s interesting how everyone has their own voice when writing- at this point in the semester, I can actually pick out characteristics of each person’s writing and tell them apart. Within the Women’s Center, our blog posts have also initiated deep conversations between staff about the topics they were writing on. It’s been really cool to see how writing and researching for the blog has contributed to the intellectual growth of our staff.  

As for myself, I’ve gained critical skills in so many areas. I’m much better at planning, communication, and editing than I was when I first took this internship. It’s been a huge help for my professional development, and it’s been super fun! I can’t wait to come back next semester—I have the rare opportunity to revisit and refine my role as editor. Next semester, my goal is to create new and interesting content, and to write more research-based posts.  

The Women’s Center is a warm, welcoming place, whether you’re an employee, a student, or an off-campus visitor. I’ll miss it dearly over the summer, but I know this isn’t goodbye. We’ll meet again, Spiderman Women’s Center!  

Someone Call Elle Woods Cause I Need a Lawyer to Fight the Pink Tax

 

Source: Creative Commons, https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/50531102396

By: Sierra Voorhies

We all know that there is a gender pay gap; women on average make 83 cents on the dollar that men make. This is worsened by intersections of ethnicity and gender. For example, black women make 63 cents to the white man’s 1-dollar, while Latino women make 55 cents to a white man’s 1-dollar. But did you know about the pink tax?

The pink tax refers to an increase in price for feminine or feminine coded items. So, this commonly refers to things like razors and soaps but can apply to anything from dry cleaning to tech accessories. For example, at Target right now 4 women’s triple blade disposable razors from the Up & Up brand is $3.89 but 8 men’s triple blade disposable razors by the same brand is $4.89.  So, for a man’s razor it’s 61 cents per unit, and for a women’s razor it’s 97 cents per unit. This might not seem like a large difference, but over a lifetime of every hygiene product, it costs a lot more to buy feminine hygiene items than masculine ones.

Now that we are familiar with the Pink Tax, let me introduce you to our Pink Tax Donation Drive, happening Saturday, February 12 at the 2:00pm in the Swinney Center! Come to the game and get a free button from us and donate some Pink Tax item(s)! Ideas for items are things like razors, shampoo, bodywash, deodorants, soaps and more- basically hygiene products. They don’t have to be feminine-coded, just items that the pink tax could affect. For example, get the larger and cheaper pack of razors labeled for “men” to donate instead of the smaller more costly pack pink razors labeled for “women” if you want to! These items will go to the UMKC Kangaroo Pantry and the game is free for students! To get a ticket go to https://kcroos.com.

 

Join The “I Am Enough!” Photo Campaign

By Kiana Mullins

Body image was one of the many things I struggled with in my high school career.
Over the years, I learned the definition of self-love. I had to learn to love myself first and accept the fact that I am beautiful regardless of how I look. I would look at social media and see so many women and believe they were the definition of beauty because of their body image. Today, I look in the mirror and see I am beautiful enough.

The phrase “I am beautiful enough” means I do not have to strive to show my worth, I do not have to change the way I look, I do not have to be self-sufficient, and it does not mean I am the final product. Being enough does not mean you are changing yourself, but you are being yourself.

On October 23, 2019, I will be coordinating the “I Am Enough” Photo Campaign.
This event will inform people on campus on how to love their body. Participants will be able to take a photo with their board describing why they are enough. This will build confidence in the participants to know they are worth it despite their body image. I am very passionate about the development of this event because I want to reach out to the community to help them understand the importance of positive body image to achieve overall health.

Body positivity means feeling comfortable and confident about your body image and accepting oneself concerning body size and appearance. Negative body talk can be linked to negative health issues. I want this event to intervene with the risk of health issues by promoting resources that are available on campus for students.

We hope you will join us on Wednesday!

When: Wednesday, October 23 from 11 a.m. -1p.m
Where: UMKC Student Union, 5100 Cherry St.

Co-Sponsored by: Campus Recreation and UMKC Counseling Services.

Walk A Mile®Through Our Graduate Assistant’s Lens

By Indra Mursid

The first time I heard about Walk a Mile in Her Shoes© I was a senior student representative during my undergraduate studies. Student Senate was co-sponsoring the march with our own sexual assault and Title IX program so we weren’t the ones who were making the executive decisions on how to advertise or how to incorporate community outreach into the march. When I first found out about the Women’s Center involvement in hosting UMKC’s annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event – I was thrilled to be one of a handful of people making executive decisions on how to incorporate community resources within the march. Before Walk a Mile©, I assisted in curating the roaster of community organizations for the Resource Fair. Some organizations there were from previous Resource Fairs like MOSCA, League of Women Voters, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and some were new-and-upcoming organizations that I knew about in the Kansas City area through social media like Barrier Babes. To communicate with organizations about Walk a Mile ©, its cause, and how these organizations could help empower others was incredibly powerful to me because we were exposing survivors and advocates to communal resources they might not have even thought to look into. During the march, I got to witness my efforts through another lens – literally.

During the march, I was also in charge of taking photographs from various vantage points in many stages of the event from the Resource Fair tabling to men crossing the finish line. It was amazing to see students, faculty, Greek Letter societies, and UMKC sports teams unabashedly put on high heels and march in awareness of rape, sexual assault, and gender based violence. I could tell through my interactions with many men how passionate they were about the subject, especially in the speeches Dr. Martin, Justice Horn, and Humberto Gonzalez gave. They spoke about how they advocate for the women closest to them and women who cannot speak out due to the fear of retaliation or lack of support to do so. I want to emphasize how much we need men to use their voice as a vehicle for change, especially in women’s issues. Overall, the experience of planning, executing, and sprinting around the route with the participants taking photos was incredible. I hope to be involved in some way during my time at UMKC and beyond.