Kaicie Boeglin
News Editor
On Friday March 8, the Rhode Island College Unity Center is hosting an International Women's Day breakfast and panel. The breakfast will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the faculty dining center.
All members of the college who self identify as women are cordially invited, including staff, faculty and students. The theme for the breakfast is analyzing the current movement. The goal is to explore the current state of women's issues within the state, our nation and society as a whole. In particular they will explore Post-Roe America, Title IX and the connotations of the #MeToo movement in relation to backlash.
International Women's Day is an annual event to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world. The day also serves as a call to action to further progress for all women ー women of every color and class. The official first International Women's Day was celebrated in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany. The idea was proposed by Clara Zetkin, a German communist/socialist and women's rights activist. Women's rights and gender equality are topics spoken on every day but the international day highlights a concentrated influx of information and education deemed irrelevant and that go unnoticed.
According to the United Nations, women make up 70% of the world's 1.3 billion people in poverty and also are 80% of those displaced by climate related disasters. According to the RIC 2022-2023 Factbook, enrollment has always been higher with women rather than men. Between 2013 and 2022 female enrollment was three times the amount of men enrolled. Women are 3.92% more likely to attend graduate studies at RIC. In the last 10 years, the highest number of graduate students divided by gender was 242 for men in 2019 and 952 for women in 2013. Between 2014 and 2024, women in RIC graduate programs have always surpassed 850 students whereas men have not seen higher than 242.
Together, the Unity Center, DDI Committee and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are sponsoring this event. The event is advertised for all of those who self identify as women but is open to all who yearn knowledge on gender equality and dismantling bias. The International Women’s Day breakfast is a great opportunity to learn, ask questions and mingle with those working in the gender studies field.