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#NDA2013 & Women’s Mentoring Network Launch tomorrow!

26 Mar

Tomorrow will be a big day for the Wom*n’s Department!Image

We had a great time painting a banner in WAC on Monday for tomorrow’s National Day of Action organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) against fee increases, course cuts and deregulation of the higher education sector. these are big issues that affect all students, but women and minorities particularly. With the pay gap having increased again this year, it will take women on average over a decade to pay off our HECS, (long than men.) Not to mention the fact that gender studies is often the first thing to go whenever cuts are made (segue: petition).

There will be a BBQ on South Lawn run by the Student Union Education Department at 12.30 with a GIANT GAME OF MONOPOLY and then, most importantly, a rally on the State Library at 3.30pm.

(here’s a Facebook event for campus, state, and national events)

THEN at 6.45 in the Grand Buffet Hall at Union House we will be having the much anticipated launch of our brand new Women’s Mentoring Network! Food and bubbles are on us, and we are excited to have trailblazing scientist Frances Separovic as our guest speaker. It’s the first on many monthly networking evenings that are part of the WMN, as well as fortnightly meetings between mentors and mentees.

Have a fabulously feminist day, we look forward to seeing you!

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International Women’s Day Picnic 2pm Friday Argyle Square

6 Mar

iwd

 

Come join us on Friday for a cross campus International Women’s Day picnic and a chat about women and media. Food, conversation and sun will be provided. The picnic is a collaboration between Melbourne, RMIT, Swinburne and LaTrobe Wom*n’s Departments. The picnic is at Argyle Square (off Lygon Street) and will start from 2pm. Here’s the Facebook event!

This friday marks the 106th birthday of  International Women’s Day. From the first demonstrations in Russia in 1917, a trigger for the February Revolution, the day has been a time for activism by women and for women.

The lives of women have changed, mostly for the better, but IWD remains as a reminder of what is left to do. The theme of IWD this year ‘A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women’ is an assertion that this year, like the years before it, we have been asked to observe terrible violence against women flashed on our tv screens and printed in our newspapers. We have observed how these experiences have been twisted and exploited. How they have been ignored or explained away.

Women and media can get complicated. It connects us, allows sharing of experience, spreads knowledge. It has created new forms of activism and expression. Yet often the stories of women are contorted. Representation of women is like looking into a funhouse mirror, just off. That is if they’re there at all. It’s not surprising, on the whole it is not women who control the production of print, television or film. Females owned only 6.8 percent (91) of 1,348 full-power commercial television stations in 2011, compared with 5.6 percent (66) of 1,187 full-power commercial television stations in 2009 (Federal Communications Commission’s Report on Ownership of
Commercial Broadcast Stations). Despite the prominence of women in 2012’s presidential election, male front-page bylines covering the election at top newspapers outnumbered female bylines nearly three to one (4th Estate Project).

It’s time to talk seriously about the presence of women in the media. It’s time to talk about how we can take control over our own stories.

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Come & practive the flashmob dance moves!

17 Sep

another past melbourne flashmob!

Hey everyone, if you’re interested in the flashmob to help end the stigma surrounding abortion and reproductive choice, tomorrow’s the first practice session! Click here for the facebook event page.

There’ll be another session on Monday the 24th, and here’s the event page for that one!

The final flashmob will be happening on Sat September 30 in Fed Square, with everyone meeting at 10:15.

Get involved!

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Wanna be in a feminist flashmob?!

10 Sep

Hey everyone! Here’s an invite from Reproductive Choice Australia to all students at Melbourne Uni to get involved with a flashmob! We’ll be practicing the moves at uni and you can also practice at home to the video they’ve made. Here’s the details:

LET’S END THE STIGMA!

Reproductive Choice Australia is throwing a Flashmob, and we want YOU to come. Dance in Melbourne’s CBD in support of women and against abortion shame, silence and stigma! The Flashmob will take place on:

  • Sunday September 30, 2012
  • 10:15am arrival, for an 11:00am sharp start

REGISTER NOW to be part of the fun. Dancing is uplifting and fun – the perfect antidote to shame. The Flashmob is a dance everyone can learn – check out our fun instructional video here! 

The Melbourne Flashmob is open to EVERYONE! Men are warmly invited to attend and every effort will be made to ensure disability-access. Rehearsal parties will be after work at the University of Melbourne on 18 and 24 September, for those who want to attend (more info on the times and rooms to be posted soon). We’ll supply the Flashmob t-shirts, which you are free to keep!

I WANT TO STAND UP FOR WOMEN. REGISTER ME FOR THE “LET’S END THE STIGMA” FLASHMOB!

x Belle

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Stress Less Week

13 Aug
First off I want to say thank you so much to everyone who supported Bluestockings Week. From baking cupcakes, womanning the stalls, postering, petitioning and playing snakes and ladders, it was so great to have so many wonderful students get so into it! We had so much interest and involvement (and fun) from wom*n students from all across the uni, it was heartening to see so much support for the cause(s). Everyone should be really proud. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, it’s right here. SPREAD IT ROUND!

No rest for your student union though, right after working with the Wom*n’s department on Bluestockings Week the UMSU Education department is now running Stress Less Week, with workshops on mental health and self-care and THEN A JUMPING CASTLE. Srsly, get on it.

Meanwhile, in the Wom*n’s department, we’re back to our weekly fun:
  • Monday 1pm in the Wom*n’s Room: Women’s Action Collective (WAC)
  • Wednesday morning in the Wom*n’s Room: Stitch n Bitch
  • Thursday 1pm in the Wom*n’s Room: Girlzone (Tea, cake and conversation for queer and questioning wom*n)
  • Thursday 4.30pm in the Students’ Lounge, Ground Floor, Union House: FFFFILMS (open to all genders)

In sisterhood,

Amy x

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Bluestockings Week

28 Jun

Hello everyone, and hope you’re enjoying your uni break! The website has been on a bit of a hiatus as we’ve all slogged through exams & essays, then got the flu, then kinda gone into holiday mode a bit, but also still working away in the background organising our NOWSA collective. Only a week until we go away to Canberra… can’t wait!

In the meantime, we wanted to let you know about a big Semester 2 event that is in the works. We’d love any interested people to get involved – you don’t need any special experience or knowledge, just some enthusiasm and keenness to meet new people! Run in conjunction with the National Union of Students, it’s called Bluestocking Week:

Bluestocking is a campaign which celebrates women in higher education. The ‘week’ will run from the 6th-17th of August. This year’s Bluestocking Week will focus on the original bluestocking themes of celebrating women’s intellectualism; advancing feminism through education; and rebelling against social constructs that prescribe roles for women’ including those of class, race, sexuality and culture, that restrict women’s freedom of expression and thought – and we will add a modern (or postmodern) twist. Bluestocking Week is coordinated by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Women’s Action Committee (which has representatives from each State) and the National Union of Students Women’s Department. Events are being organised at national, divisional and university level. The project will be launched by Jane Garrett MP and Jeannie Rea, President of the NTEU at La Trobe University, Eagle Bar (event details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/196702417124126/)

In terms of what’s happening at Melbourne Uni, that’s where you come in! We’d love you to be part of the organising collective. Please drop us a line at womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au if you’d like to be a part of making the week happen, and getting your thoughts and ideas about women & higher education out there.

Happy uni break everyone!

- bel

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NOWSA looks like it’s really shaping up!

7 Jun
Image

So, this is something that comes up when you search wom*n going to Canberra. lol.

Hope everyone’s surviving assessment time!

Just a quick post to say the ANU students hosting NOWSA this year are working away hard and are super excited about the week! Stay tuned for more information about speakers and workshops.

So far we have around 10 confirmed unimelb wom*n going with a further 10 or so expressing interest (but reserving their final decision until after their uni work is done and they can think about something besides frickin goshdarn word limits for a second!) We should have the money situation worked out early next week so we can start letting you know about costs & reimbursements. Then can start figuring travel arrangements.

So if you’re interested in finding out more or potentially coming along, don’t be shy! There’ll be a fair few new faces and it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been involved with the department before. In fact, a NOWSA trip is how many wom*n students have got to know each other in previous years.

Email womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au if you haven’t already done so :)

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NOWSA (or: road trip!)

21 May

Every July, a conference for wom*n students is held at a different university each year. It’s called NOWSA which stands for Network of Women Students Australia. Last year it was in Sydney and Melbourne Uni sent a rad group along. For those who went, it was great fun to meet new people from our own university and from other ones, as well as meeting speakers and presenters and learning a lot. I know that for me personally, I made a lot of friends and I became much more involved with the Wom*n’s Dept & the student union. This year ANU (Canberra) is hosting and the dates are 9-13 July.

We are currently wanting to find out what you think about attending! We have some accommodation and funding set aside for interested unimelb students, so come along to WAC today at 1pm to find out more. There’s still details to be added by ANU, so some people are reserving their decision on attending until more is released. You can check out their website at http://nowsa2012.com (where I’ve copied the following ‘about’ info from):

About NOWSA

The Network of Women Students Australia was established in 1987, founded on ideals of creating a grassroots, autonomous network concerned with issues that impact women and women students. NOWSA provides a platform for women’s organising across universities and in the wider community through resource, skill and knowledge sharing both in conference and through web branches of the network. The network continues to shift, grow and change, but constantly places feminist agenda at the forefront. Women of all ages, sexuality, ability and experience have the opportunity to be involved.

The NOWSA conference runs for 5-days, giving voice to women students and allowing them to engage with personal, political, social, and cultural issues that are relevant to women. NOWSA is now an annual conference, held from year to year at different universities, and encourages networks to be developed with women from across Australia.

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of NOWSA’s establishment, in 1987 at the ‘Women on Campus’ conference held at ANU. Thus the theme for this years conference has been selected as ’25 Years On: Her Story, Her Future’. The conference will host speakers and workshops that surround this theme over the course of five days.

If you’re interested, email womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au!

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Cherchez La Femme: wanna join our posse?

14 May

Hi All,

If you haven’t heard of Cherchez La Femme, it’s a monthly salon/meet up to share information, hold discussions, and more: Melbourne’s monthly digest of current affairs and popular culture from a feminist perspective.

And the next event is happening soon! A group from the department is going so if you’d like to come along, drop us a line at womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au.

From organiser Karen Pickering (who kindly presented at Rad Sex & Consent Week):

I am thrilled to announce the next Cherchez la Femme will be presented in conjunction with Superlinguo – a community for those who like and use language. It’s run by Georgia Webster and Lauren Gawne, two linguaphiles from Melbourne who needed an online clubhouse for their… regular language geek-outs.

So this month, we’ll take a look at how language is gendered, both literally and sneakily, and how we can ask probing questions of this thing we do, every day, and what our verbal communication has to do with our feminism.

To guide us through the discussion I’ll be welcoming some excellent thinkers and speakers to the CLF stage:

Georgia Webster - broadcaster, communicator, linguist, feminist

Lauren Gawne – PhD student, teacher, linguist, feminist

Julien Leyre – polyglot, translator, artist, activist, feminist

The usual excellent food and drink will be available from our charming hosts at The Gasometer Hotel, on the corner of Smith St and Alexandra Pde. Here’s what you need to know:

7pm – 9pm Tuesday 5 June
$10 / $5 (or whatever you’ve got)
The Bandroom at The Gasometer
484 Smith St, Collingwood

Hope to see you there
Warmest
Karen

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International Women’s Day 2012

7 Mar

Events on Wednesday 7 March 2012

Continue reading →

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