Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., with five other young women from South Dakota State University’s Campus Women’s Coalition. We attended the Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Young Women’s Leadership Conference and participated in their Day on Hill, which gave us the opportunity to meet with one of our senators, Tim Johnson (D-SD).
Being a feminist in South Dakota can be an isolating experience; having the opportunity to be in the presence of 500 other like-minded women from all over the country and to meet feminist icons was a thrilling experience.
From Left to Right: Front Row – Lily Ledbetter, Christina Tchen, Eleanor Smeal; Back Row: Dolores Huerta, Kathy Spillar, Catherine Grandorff, Alisha Kropuenske, Anne Shaefer, Liz Jeppesen, Madaline Edison
At the conference we had the chance to share our stories. These included how we mobilized more than a thousand students to vote on Election Day, our excursions to our state capitol to lobby on behalf of students and women, our efforts to expose “fake clinics,” and most recently, our focus on encouraging young women to run for leadership positions at the university level. I think this last point is perhaps one of the most important lessons we have learned. University student governments are a powerful campus institution; they wield multi-million dollar budgets and help set an agenda for the academic community, among other things.
Upon winning a seat on the Students’ Association Senate last year, our vice president noticed a lack of women leaders and saw that a fraternity on campus with 50 male members had the same number of representatives on the senate as there were women senators representing the 6,000 women of SDSU. The fraternity encourages and prepares its members to run for leadership positions at the university level and beyond, with members on the city council and alumni serving in the state legislature. The pipeline link here was very clear.
Members of the Campus Women’s Coalition searched for a similar institution for young women. We soon discovered, however, that one didn’t exist. So we took it upon ourselves to support women candidates and make sure that women ran at every level for the Senate Executive Board. This year, after many years of under-representation, we regained parity for women in the Students’ Association. I was excited to be a part of this change. I am the first woman ever appointed as the state and local chair of the Executive Board. The pipeline is opening up to women at SDSU.
I believe that this anecdote can act as an inspiration for student feminist groups all over the country; put your minds to something and you can change the status quo for the betterment of women in your community.
This post was written by Catherine Grandorff, a 2008–09 AAUW Student Advisory Council member.
