Women’s Leadership met for the first retreat of the 2018-2019 school year to discuss platforms of leadership and coalitions both in and outside of Fieldston. The group started off by defining goals for the program, specifically around highlighting the role of intersectionality.
Alysia Reiner, a recipient of the Persistence of Vision Award by the Women’s Media Summit, was the guest speaker for the retreat. Not only is she an environmental activist and feminist, but also an actress on the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Reiner spoke about small ways she incorporates activism in her every day life and the importance of speaking out against injustice. Reiner then opened the floor for students to share ways they had been activists in their communities and how they worked collaboratively to do so.
Afterwords, students shared their thoughts on the Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s senate confirmation hearings. They discussed watching the hearings in the commons and subsequent class discussions that led to feelings of hopelessness, frustration, and anger, particularly towards male classmates.
Rather than ending off on conversation, however, Reiner wanted to brainstorm an action project to support Dr. Ford and other survivors of sexual assault and harassment. Although students vocalized ideas such as artwork, Reiner decided to create a video where students said “This could be us. This has been us. Believe survivors.” Although the “this has been us” portion was replaced by “would you believe us,” once students spoke out, many felt as though the process was rushed and potentially misleading.
“I believe that the speaker’s intentions were great and I could tell she was really passionate about activism,” said Margo Morris (VI). “However, I wish her version of feminism wasn’t white feminism. She gave off the feeling that she carried a sign in the women’s march that said ‘If Hillary was president, we would be brunching.’ I thought it was great how she got us to do something creative and meaningful, however, the specific thing she had us do made a lot of the girls in women’s leadership feel uncomfortable and like they were just a marketing strategy for her.”
Although many students felt the video was unproductive, they too wanted to continue in the spirit of collaboration and emphasizing action over words. After watching a clip of Angela Davis and Patrisse Cullors discuss the importance of support and leadership between groups of people, students divided into Activism, Leadership & Inclusion, and Outreach and Education groups.
The rest of the retreat was spent creating plans of action to set as goals for the rest of the year. The activism team focused on responding to events both on and off campus that could be supported by the voices and action of Women’s Leadership. Meanwhile, Outreach & Education looked to build programs that would encourage collaboration among different groups on campus while working to educate the larger community, and Leadership and Inclusion discussed forms of mentorship, leadership development, identity, and intersectional work that can be done both within Women’s Leadership and be brought to the Fieldston community as a whole.
These groups plan to continue meeting throughout the year outside of future Women’s Leadership meetings, and many students expressed excitement in finally creating a program that goes beyond closed discussions.
“I felt this retreat indicated steps of progress within Women’s Leadership,” said Cary Moore (VI.) “We implemented a concrete process to planning roundtables and an assembly, and discussed reaching out to other affinity groups, all of which I hope we accomplish throughout the year.”
In addition to the gender assembly, the group plans to host a roundtable in the upcoming weeks comparing Anita Hill’s and Dr. Ford’s testimonies and the reaction to them. The activism group also suggested creating a digital calendar of protests, art exhibits, off-broadway shows and other forms of expression so students could take action in ways that aren’t as published by mainstream social media.
“I’m impressed about how we continue to have such a large number of students in the program,” said Ms. Perez, head of the Foreign Language Department. “The maturity, thoughtfulness and openness with which they approach the topics we discuss also continue to be a trademark of the students in the program…I noticed during this retreat the level of commitment that these students have to making a change. Their determination, eagerness and drive to make a difference is inspiring.”
