Tag Archives: Seven Sisters

The Huffington Post

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I am so pleased to write that I recently had an article published in The Huffington Post.

Last year for my Junior Seminar, a writing intensive class for sociology majors, I researched the relationship between women’s colleges and women in positions of leadership; namely, my project explored whether or not a positive relationship existed between the two.

Studies of the past have shown that a positive relationship does exist, and I am currently debating whether or not to write a thesis on exploring this relationship today.

Clearly, the relationship between women’s colleges and women in positions of power is not new. And moreover, there seems to be a constant debate about the relevance of women’s colleges in the 21st century.

This December Elisabeth Pfeiffer, a student at the all women’s Scripps College, published the piece, Don’t Like the Gender Gap? Women’s Colleges Might Just Be the Answer. After reading the piece, I was in complete agreement with Ms. Pfeiffer’s argument, and have had many of the same experiences while at Bryn Mawr College.

What I am quite embarrassed to admit, however, is that I was lead to her article by Shannon Miller’s, Don’t Like the Gender Gap? Don’t Encourage It, which was spamming my Facebook and Twitter feeds for the past week.

And so in the spirit of sisterhood, I wanted to reiterate Elisabeth Pfeiffer’s argument, tell of some of my own experiences at Bryn Mawr, and incorporate some of the research I had done for my Junior Seminar into my piece, Women’s Underrepresentation in Politics Makes Women’s Colleges Relevant.

I have already received a lot of encouragement from the Bryn Mawr community as well as the broader women’s college community.

Comments and feedback on the article or this blog would be greatly appreciated!  

The Next Wave

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Last Tuesday I participated in The Next Wave, an international colloquium hosted by Bryn Mawr College.

The one-day colloquium aimed to discuss strategies for women’s advancement in this moment of global shift. It facilitated discussion on expanding sustainable economic opportunity for women post-2015, while broadening women’s participation in civic and political life, and engaging the talents of the “next wave” of emerging women activists and leaders.

I enjoyed watching keynote speaker Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women’s World Banking who talked about issues of economic development for women namely, how human rights for women will never be fully recognized without economic rights for women. She also asked the audience to constantly question whether or not women are being served in NGO’s we support.

Throughout the colloquium I was particularly thankful for my Women in Society in the Global South seminar, a sociology class that I’m taking with Professor Mary Osirim. It helped me to better understand themes discussed throughout the day, in particular, women’s economic empowerment through the micro-enterprise sector.

Another speaker I really enjoyed seeing was Shelby Knox, who serves as the Director of Organizing, Women’s Rights for Change.org, the world’s largest petition platform. Ms. Knox said she was most proud to be a “young feminist organizer” and promoter of “clicktivism.” She also talked about a petition started on Change.org by three teens from New Jersey who wanted to have a female moderate one of the presidential debates this year, something that had not been done since 1992. This petition ultimately resulted in Candy Crowley moderating the second presidential debate.

Finally, students from Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, Smith and Brandeis, including my friend and fellow sociology major Molly Fessler, spoke about youth activism and the next wave of change. There were many female high school students at the colloquium and I’m certain this discussion was particularly enlightening for them to hear. I would have loved to have been a part of a Next Wave like conference while in high school, and am thankful for the opportunity to do so in college.

Photo from Bryn Mawr College.