Women’s History Month: Alma College

JAMIE DIEDRICH
PHOTOGRAPHER
LAYOUT EDITOR

3/30/2026

Women’s History Month takes place throughout March, and Alma College had several events to celebrate the occasion.

“To me, Women’s History Month is a celebration, but not just that–it is also a correction of historical omissions, minimizations, exclusions, and erasures so we can understand the immense historical influence of women in shaping societies through leadership, innovation, activism, cultural production, and the crucial everyday labor that sustains communities,” said Dora-Laskey.

Alma College hosted an International Women’s Day Tea; a screening of the film Paris Is Burning; the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Annual Symposium; “It’s Women’s History Month” with speaker Lysne Beckwith Tait; Queer Women’s Tea Time; March Into the Arts: Women’s History Month Concert, which featured only music created by women; screenings of Little Women; and a hosting of The Vagina Monologues.

“The Vagina Monologues were written by Eve Ensler. It was a collection of women of different generations talking about their story, some about historical events, tied to the Holocaust, some with personal stories about family, about domestic violence, but it’s all a collection of women’s voices. So it becomes a very rich and also meaningful source for us to take from,” said Dr. Chih-Ping Chen,  Associate Professor of English, with expertise in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies.

The Women and Gender Studies Annual Symposium featured student-created posters and presentations on women and feminism. Examples include Kennedy Mullins (’29), who made a presentation on the male gaze and how it affects female characters; Aspen Smith (’28), whose presentation highlights the misrepresentation of cheerleaders in the media; and Lily Thompson’s (’28) presentation on the sexualisation of women romance readers.  

“It’s a time for celebration, women’s achievement, and women’s efforts. I think the larger picture is that Women’s History Month is not something that only a few of us do. We want to get other people to form alliances with us, whatever program or whatever group, student organization, faculty or department-wise. If they have something they feel shows some support, caring, or brings awareness to women’s issues, we are very open to that,” said Chen.

Chen also shared support for representation during our current political climate, and regarding reproductive health and its impact on the modern woman. The Wilcox Center has resources for women regarding reproductive health. 

“If we end up thinking of ongoing inequalities such as pay gaps, representation and access to rights, it links us to historical patterns and reminds us that many of today’s challenges have deep roots,” said Dr. Dora-Laskey, Associate Professor of English with expertise in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies. 

During Women’s History Month, it was announced that the women’s-only house, the McCurdy residence, would be shutting down. The Queer Women’s tea time held there this year was the last, an event Dora-Laskey usually hosts. 

“Women’s History Month is not just a festival or marking the calendar. The fact that half of the population of the United States is women should really matter to us. We should want to have a world with more representation, for more to what we need, and what we want. It’s essential not only for our existence, but also for the values of our life or the purpose of our life,” said Dr. Chen.