Fighting for equality

Feminists for Gender Equality Club kicks off

By Eric Wilkins, Staff Writer

On Friday, November 16, one of Douglas College’s newest clubs put in its first public appearance. The Feminists for Gender Equality club had tables at both campuses to help introduce themselves to the school. The club screened relevant documentaries as they encouraged interested parties to write down what they thought feminism was on a large whiteboard to show the many interpretations of the word.

Co-president, Sarah Kahn had this to say about the purpose of the club, “We want to raise awareness on gender-related issues and create workshops to help bring people understanding. We believe in gender equality. Equality for both men and women or however you like to identify yourself. We’d like to bring awareness to certain things that happen, sometimes on a daily basis, that we kind of accept as a norm, and that needs to be changed.”

The club is the recent brainchild of Kahn and Illoradanon Efimoff. “We started the club somewhere in mid-October. I think we just started it as a small group with a few friends, and we made a Facebook page and started inviting a few people, and then it started getting really, really popular. We had more and more people joining the club, and then they started inviting other people, and within a month or so we had about 50 members,” beamed Kahn.

Kahn also commented that over 30 additional people had signed up due to their promoting that day.

“I think it kind of reflects the demographic of the college. I’d say it’s mostly people who are in their twenties, but we do have people who are mature students as well,” commented Kahn on the makeup of their membership. “We’d like to get more men involved. I think it’s more female centric. It’s an ideology that’s attracted more women. We do have members of both [sexes] though.”

While the club doesn’t currently have any upcoming events, Kahn mentioned a project they already have in the works. “Right now we’re working on a magazine, and we hope to publish that and distribute that among students.” There are also plans to collaborate in the future with the DSU Pride Community and the Women’s Centre.

For more information, or to join the club, check out their Facebook page, “Douglas College Feminists for Gender Equality Club.”

Image from Sarah Khan.