Here’s what Lancs societies did this International Women’s Day

It’s International Women’s Day! Societies normally host in-person events to celebrate, but obviously this year that wasn’t on the cards – but that hasn’t stopped Lancs groups from coming together (virtually) to celebrate. We spoke to different societies and liberation forums asking them how they marked International Women’s Day. Here’s what’s happened:

Women+ Forum

Taking the lead not only today but also the entire month of March is the Women+ Forum. They have organised numerous events throughout March to mark Women’s History Month as well as International Women’s Day. Charli Clement, LUSU’s Women+ PTO told us: “We are asking Lancaster students, officers and staff to make a pledge on how they will #ChooseToChallenge gender inequality. This week, we also have Reclaim the Night which is a protest against catcalling and abuse – this time taking place online. Finally, we have several events happening in the next two weeks about topics like period poverty, women of ethnic minorities in academia and debating forms of feminism.

“We hope to see lots of Lancaster students and staff getting involved across the month to challenge issues of gender inequality as well as celebrating women!”

Credit: LU Women Plus

Collaborations

Many societies are taking the lead from the Women+ Forum in the marking of IWD specifically and have chosen to share their content. There are numerous collaborations happening across different societies as part of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. The General Secretary of Craft Society, Jaimee Truss-Clarke told us about one such collaboration: “As a society that is primarily made up of women and non-binary students, we are collaborating with the Women+ Forum on Tuesday 9th March to celebrate the month as a whole.”

Credit: Lancaster University Craft

The event on Tuesday is the “Reclaim the Night Banner Making”, a collaboration between the Women+ Forum, Craft Society and Feminist Society as preparation for the annual “Reclaim the Night” protest.

Also, the Women in Business Society have an exciting collaboration with EY in an event featuring Col Dame Kelly Holmes MBE on Wednesday 10th. If you’re interested you can get further information from their social media here.

Credit: Lancaster Uni WIB Soc

Social Media Posts

The predominant form of marking the day this year is in particular with social media posts. Lancaster BAME Network published educational posts on BAME women from the past and present. Lancaster University Korfball Club collated a number of testimonials from their members about the experiences of being a woman in korfball and part of a mixed-gender sport, as well as a photo collage of the official #ChooseToChallenge sign.

Lancaster Survivors and the LGBTQ+ Forum also made posts for the day, the former with a list of films, tv shows, books and podcasts that challenge the representation of sexual assault, and the latter created a post around the theme of #ChooseToChallenge and posed a number of questions for readers to consider. The Lancaster Survivors post does have content warnings surrounding sensitive content. Take 2 Cinema are also using their social media this week to celebrate women in cinema, with a range of quizzes and posts going up to mark the event.

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