Center for Women & Gender Equity Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary

The Center for Women & Gender Equity (CWGE), formerly the Women’s Resource Center, celebrated its 20th anniversary on Friday, March 8, at the Hagerty Lounge. The audience enjoyed a day filled with women’s stories, poetry, alums, and of course, a festive lunch and commanding keynote speaker—97-year-old National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin. The theme for the event—and the year—is “Small Things Matter: Celebrating 20 Years of Small Victories,” speaking to the slow but steady pace of progress for women and gender equity.

“The day wove together voices of students, faculty, and staff, and couldn’t have happened without the collaboration of JCL and marketing community engagement students, who helped curate experiences and narratives; the Women’s & Gender Studies program, who helped conceptualize the discussion; the MFA program, whose students provided the mid-day performances to welcome our keynote speaker; and the student staff at the Center for Women & Gender Equity, who worked tirelessly to weave the elements of the day together,” said Director of the Center for Women & Gender Equity Sharon Sobotta.

The morning session, “Celebrating Our Herstories,” kicked off with coffee, tea, and pastries, along with a welcome by SMC Senior Diversity Officer Gloria Sosa and SMC Dean of Students Evette Clark, co-chairs of the Bias Incident Response Team. A panel discussion followed, called “Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We’re Going,” featuring SMC Professor Denise Witzig, De Anza College Professor Roseanne Quinn, Sobotta, and former Director of the SMC CARE Center Erin Osanna-Barba. Prianka Chaudhri ’17 served as the facilitator. During the session, Sosa announced that the position of the Center for Women & Gender Equity would be added to the Campus Committee for Inclusive Excellence.

“Inclusion is the cornerstone of the CWGE’s work. Having a seat at the table means having the chance to weigh in on and be a part of important discussions; allows for having a pulse of the institution, understanding the nuances, and being better equipped to advocate for continued progress,” said Sobotta.

The Main Event

A healthful baked potato bar lunch was followed by another real treat: a keynote address featuring Betty Reid Soskin, known for being “America’s Oldest Park Ranger” and so much more. She has appeared on campus five times to discuss her fascinating history and current events. Soskin spoke to current events. “I think that one of the important findings for me was that I realized in the last maybe even two years, that these periods of chaos are cyclical, that they've been happening since 1776. And it’s during those periods of chaos that democracy is being redefined. It’s when we have access to the reset buttons,” Soskin said.

“It's also during those periods when we make the giant leaps forward. I'm not enslaved like my great-grandmother was. It is as if we’re on an upward spiral. We keep touching the same places at higher and higher levels. We are in one of those periods of chaos right now,” Soskin added.

Soskin focused on where women are now: “I think that all we have to look is at the Congress at this point, to see, to know, that women have finally begun to arrive in the places where our thinking is not only valued, but most needed at a time when the feminine side of the population is going to be at the forefront,” she said.

“I got here in time, because these are critical years. They're very critical. I don't know where we're going, except that we are in a period of re-definition, and never have our voices been more needed,” Soskin commented.

An Afternoon With Alums

The afternoon session celebrated “Honoring 20 Alums in Our 20th Year.” This academic year, Community Engagement students and CWGE staff interviewed and transcribed the oral histories of many former students of the Women & Gender Equity Program. A sample of the voices and pictures of these changemakers was presented, including alums such as Desiree Castro-Manner ’18, library assistant with Contra Costa Library; Moodi Mar ’09, IRB analyst for a nonprofit hospital; Crystal Riggens ’05, an attorney and partner at Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel; and Elsie Rita Wanton ’05, attorney for Office of Appellate Operations. Twelve of the 20 alums participated in the closing session, sharing snippets of their favorite WRC memories, ways they engaged with the center as students, and ways they pay the social justice work forward in their lives and careers.

Napolean Dargan Jr. ’10 recalled finding a space for art as a tool for connecting in the center and in finding a home for the open-mic event called the Lounge, which Sobotta advised.

“I always say that if you want to go fast, you go alone; if you want to go far, you need a community,” Dargan said.  

The event closed with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception in the CWGE. Instead of one large ribbon in front of the center, 20 ribbons streamed across the door. Sobotta said this was an intentional way to honor the years of progress in the center.

“Each ribbon symbolized one year of victories, and each one was cut by an alum, a member of student staff or professional staff of the center. The very first ribbon was cut by the center’s first-ever graduate assistant, Elia Moreno Salgado, also a former professional staff member of SMC, as her husband and three children watched. It was a beautiful way to symbolize years of progress,” Sobotta added.