Celebrate Women's History Month throughout March with a whole range of events, run by the Women’s Network society
Royal Holloway has held a long-lived legacy tied to creating better opportunities and supporting the rights of women, originally established as an all-women college. Many of the female alumni became pioneers that has helped to shape the world as we know it, achieving firsts and paved way for future generations to follow. Examples of these hidden heroines include the first female professor at Harvard, Professor Helen Cam to the prominent suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison.
Women’s History Month will be observed during March to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history and aims to raise awareness of ongoing need for gender equality. There will be a whole range of events hosted by the Women’s Network Society (consisting of Fem Soc, Women of Colour Collective, LGBT+ Soc and Coppafeel Uni Boob Team), that you can partake in:
Members of the History department will be giving a series of lectures that are related to Women’s History Month and Royal Holloway’s contributions to women’s rights. Afterwards, join them at Crosslands for some refreshments and a short suffrage inspired crafts session!
The Bedford Centre for the History of Women and Gender and the Feminism Society will be collaborating to host Herstory’s recreation of Judy Chicago’s female empowering piece ‘The Dinner Party’. There will be an interactive workshop highlighting the achievements of unsung female heroes throughout history.
Royal Holloway’s very own Uni Boob team will be campaigning across campus to get students to sign up to free monthly reminder services to check your boobs, spreading the message to stamp out late detection of breast cancer once and for all! Students will get a chance to wear the giant boob costume to take pictures for social media hash-tagged #GetItOffTheirChest.
Hear first-hand accounts of the working experiences from a panel of inspiring women, in both academia and industry. There will be the opportunity to engage with the panel and gain practical advice on various career paths.
March 6 – Women of Faith (7:30pm – 8:30pm) – FE139
Chaplaincy and Faith Support will be hosting this event, encouraging people from all faiths to share stories on women of faith who have helped them grow. No preparations are required, just bring yourself and your stories of the women of faith who have inspired you.
March 7 – Gals Pals (9pm – 2am) - Medicine
Come to the first-ever Gal Pals session, a night out at Medicine dedicated to celebrating women and their history! Expect a night full of female empowering anthems, face paint, free condoms and more.
March 8 – Plant a Tree (12pm-1pm) – Royal Holloway Arboretum
Royal Holloway Women’s Staff and Student Network (RoWaN) invite you to attend a tree planting and tour of the arboretum. The day will begin with a 20-minute guided tour through the Arboretum followed by Rowan tree planting. Refreshments will be available after in the Katherine Worth Building.
Presented by the LGBT+ society, the critically acclaimed new-media series ‘Her Story’ will be featured in a film screening. The drama looks inside the dating lives of trans and queer women as they investigate the intersections of desire and identity.
Royal Holloway’s Women of Colour Collective will be hosting a screening of the 2007 French-Iranian-American animated film 'Persepolis', based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical comic strip. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution.
Various representatives from Royal Holloway Women’s Network including members from Feminism Society, Women of Colour Collective, LGBTQ+ Society and the Coppafeel Campaign team will be collecting donations of sanitary products (e.g. tampons, towels/pads, wipes etc.) for the charitable initiative ‘The Homeless Period’. The charity is motivated to helping homeless women with limited or no access to sanitary products