The African Student Union hosted Ferris’ first event for Women’s Equality Day, introducing a series of speakers who shared the struggles women have and continue to face.
Women’s Equality Month was on Monday, Aug. 26, and ASU decided to hold an event for the national holiday to bring more awareness to women’s issues in the UC ballrooms.
The president of ASU and computer information junior Okedi Matseka felt that it was going unrecognized and underrepresented.
“I decided to throw the event because no one would,” Matseka said. “It was a personal vendetta to ensure that women feel represented, heard and advocated for.”
The Women’s Equality Day event consisted of four speeches and slideshow presentations concerning various topics relating to women’s issues, including women in the technical field and intersectionality.
Information security and technology junior Seth Brott was invited to speak at the event by ASU to speak about women in tech, and the difference in experiences in men and women working in that field.
He worked with a team of people to ensure that he made a well-thought-out presentation, showing the barrier women in tech face and how to empower women despite that.
“Twenty-seven percent of the workforce in technology is women, and massive amounts of those women are harassed, abused and they find a lot of discrimination against them,” Brott said. “Being able to bring awareness to that will help to solve those issues, as well as helping to find solutions as we try to move forward.”
speaks about minority women who have missed media representation. Lucas Gill | Demo 64
Brott wished that the event had more traction and that a wider range of students knew more about Women’s Equality Day and the event held on it. He wants Ferris students to not only know about Women’s Equality Day but to understand the importance of it. Brott admits his lack of awareness of the day and event.
“Women’s Equality Day was not something I knew before this,” Brott said. “I didn’t understand that it was a nationally recognized holiday, much less that it was something that we here at Ferris would hold an event for.”
Medical lab science senior Alaa Mohamed is another member of ASU. She believes that ASU is a small, registered student organization and that the group wanted to do something for Women’s Equality Day as their first event.
Mohamed also feels like it was slightly inconvenient that women’s equality fell on the first day of classes, and that there were mistakes made before and during the event.
“We didn’t get a chance to get properly plan together, and we had some hiccups in the event,” Mohamed said. “We really wanted to do something for Women’s Equality Day and just show one of the things we stand for in our organization.”
Mohamed is still glad that ASU could throw the event because of how many people did not know about the national holiday until this event.
She believes that women’s equality is often talked about but is often not taken seriously.
“This is my senior year, I don’t think I have ever attended an event or heard of an event of Women’s Equality Day,” Mohamed said. “So, I’m glad we did something about that even if it was small.”