As people walked into the Student Union Conference Room A at Los Medanos Colleges Pittsburg campus March 11, they were greeted with tables filled with posters, notebooks and other items celebrating Women’s History Month.
The event featured informational posters, games and a slideshow highlighting historical female figures and their accomplishments. It was an open event where those in attendance could move from table to table, enjoy food and talk with others.
Flyers for other campus events and clubs were available, including from the Women in STEM Club, which sold bookmarks as a fundraiser. Several clubs participated in the celebration, while League of Women Voters representative Shawn Gilbert helped women register to vote and spoke with attendees about issues affecting women.
There was also a wide range of information about inventions and contributions made by women throughout history that are often overlooked, and the event quickly became busy.
Activities such as flower making with pipe cleaners and bead bracelet making were available for students to participate in.
“I think Women’s History Month is a celebration and an opportunity to recognize the contributions that we as women make to our society whether it’s here in our home community within our state with our nation or within our world,” said Gilbert.
“Too often women are not recognized and a lot of us, including myself, don’t know the contributions women make,” she added.
For example she explained that in the movie “Hidden Figures” female math mathematicians solved the problem that allowed the safe landing on the moon and the ships return.
‘I mean, who would have thought women are making that happen,” she said.
Student coordinator Cheyenne Phan spoke about the planning process behind the event.
“It’s easy to come up with the ideas, but it’s harder to put them into action and so one of the things we had to think about was, how are we going to do this? What day can we have this? What time works best for everyone? How much of this are we branching out to do.”
Phan added that the event was designed to encourage people to learn more about women’s achievements.
“It is important to recognize what you can do as a female, like what are some of the limitations, how can we overcome that?” she said, adding that events like this create a “safe” space where people can learn from one another.”
Student attendee Andi Wolfe said Women’s History Month helps recognize the experiences and struggles women have faced.
“It’s a good recognition of an oppressed group, so it’s like taking back from the power that was always taken from us,” she said.
The event ended with a Kahoot game about women’s accomplishments, in which attendees participated in a lighthearted activity to test their knowledge.
As the event came to a close, attendees left with handmade flowers, beaded bracelets and smiles on their faces.
