March events celebrate Women’s History Month
By Estela Fuentes
The Guardsman
In honor of International Women’s History Month, City College will be hosting a series of events throughout March with the theme of “Women Resisting Hard Times.”
“It’s great. I just think women’s month is every month,” City College student Olson Martinez said. “We should appreciate women every day.”
City College will be screening films, holding workshops and hosting lectures.
“All the events are very focused on women struggling,” said Women’s Studies instructor Leslie Simon.
The first event of City College’s celebration, held on Feb. 24, was the Women of Color Gathering, a lecture that informed people about important events in the local and global community through the lens of women of color.
Kimberly Lewis, a staff member of the City College Women’s Resource Center, organized the Women of Color Gathering.
“Every year this event stands for uniting Black History Month with Women’s History Month,” Lewis said. “It bridges the divide between those two history months and shows films that are related to both topics.”
The 5th Annual Intersecting Identities Conference, on March 2, started with a faculty panel discussing how women can survive in hard times. Valerie Watson, Leslie Simon, Marco Mojica and Trinity Ordona shared stories about dealing with difficult times in their lives.
The conference hosted a book release party for “Big Girl Panties: Small Book, Big Emotions,” a book compiled by the students in Dr. Jean Ishibashi’s women’s studies class.
Intersecting Identities also included a workshop lead by Lakota Harden that focused on raising awareness about social issues.
The closing event was a workshop lead by Brenda Molina accompanied by a film, “Women In Conservation.”
The upcoming “Tribute to Jennie Matyas and Chinese Garment Workers,” scheduled for March 11 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Rosenberg Library room 305, commemorates the leadership of Matyas in the struggle of garment workers in Chinatown for livable conditions and wages in the 1930s.
Matyas was instrumental in the 1938 National Dollar Store Strike held by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union against what was then the biggest clothing factory in Chinatown.
To connect the struggle of immigrant workers in the past to the current immigrant rights movement, there will be a screening of “Made in LA,” an independent film about Latina immigrants fighting for the rights of garment workers in Los Angeles sweatshops, Friday, March 19, 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the Rosenberg Library room 305.
“I think it’s a really good idea because I think women are really over looked as a group,” City College student Stepahnie Boyette said. “We tend not to have certain power positions within society and we are not really recognized in the same fashion as other groups are by race or orientation.”
The “Women Leaders Resisting Hard Times” workshop with Akaya Windwood will be held Wednesday, March 17, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Conlan Hall room 101.