Feminism campaign promotes gender equality

By Maha Aziz     10/8/13 7:00pm

The "Who Needs Feminism?" project was brought to Rice to help eradicate gender inequality and misconceptions about feminism, according to campaign organizer Anastasia Bolshakov.

"The [project] is pretty much a [public relations] campaign at Rice for feminism," Bolshakov, a Duncan College junior, said. "It's to show the campus that feminism is not this radical, crazy thing but that it's about equality and human rights - at least to me."

The project was conceived at Duke University by a group of female students after they learned that many students thought feminism was dead, according to the project's national website, whoneedsfeminism.com.

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Bolshakov said students at Rice could always improve their understanding of the feminist movement.

"In our discussions, we talked about the definition of feminism and why Rice needs it," Bolshakov said. "Many people were able to bring up concrete examples of gender inequality on campus."

Bolshakov and fellow campaign organizer Clara Roberts said they worked together along with Duncan senior Rachel Poppers and Duncan Master Luis Duno-Gottberg to initiate the project.

"This is not as much of an organization as it is a movement," Roberts, a Duncan junior, said. "We really want people to get thinking critically about [feminism] and to bring in people who don't really think about this."

According to Poppers, the project was given a test run at Duncan before it was brought to the rest of campus.

"You interact with people who are unlike you every day while you are here at Rice," Poppers said. "It's necessary to learn how to embrace those differences."

Duno-Gottberg said he has high hopes that change can be achieved at Rice.

"My wish is that Rice students come away with a deeper understanding of the many forms [in which] inequality manifests," Duno-Gottberg said. "This project illustrates a method of activism around urgent social issues."

Poppers said feminism is a misunderstood and uncomfortable topic in today's society.

"I hope more people will embrace the 'f-word,' " Poppers said. "Feminism has bad stereotypes associated with it that simply aren't true."

The project held an event at the Rice University Women's Resource Center this past week to give students an opportunity to speak their minds by providing whiteboards for students to complete the statement, 'I need feminism because ... '

"We didn't provide a definition of feminism [because we wanted] to get people to think about how feminism applies to them personally," Roberts said.

According to Roberts, the organizers frequently upload the photos of students and staff posing with their reasons for needing feminism to the project's Facebook page, "Who Needs Feminism at Rice," in order to raise even more awareness.

Martel College sophomore Audrey Smith said she identified instances of inequality better after she participated in the project.

"I had always assumed that women had reached a point of being treated the same as men," Smith said. "Being around and interacting with people who were more conscious of feminist issues made me start to notice them as well."

Lovett College junior Daniel Imas said he wrote on his whiteboard, "I need feminism because they shouldn't be called women's rights - they're human rights."

"It is important that males send a message that reinforces female equality," Imas said. "If I can lend my voice to a movement that fights to give my mom, my female friends and my female role models a voice, it seems like a no-brainer to me that I should support it."

Bolshakov, Roberts and Poppers said they will continue the "Who Needs Feminism?" project at Rice and try to eliminate inequality based on gender, race and other factors here.

"It's important for young people not to forget how far the U.S. has come in terms of equality, but also how far we have left to go," Imas said.

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