LC Feminists promote education, reflect on historic election

Between educating campus about gender issues and discussing the historic role of women in this year’s presidential election, the Luther College Feminists have had an active start to the year.

LC Feminists often collaborate with other student groups like Global Concerns organizations and PRIDE, as well as the Women and Gender Studies department, to educate the student body and promote safety.

In the past, LC Feminists have hosted “Speak Out,” an event to educate students about domestic abuse, gender violence and hate crimes. This year, the group hosted a film and discussion event about women’s suffrage. Currently, the group is helping organize the “Vagina Monologues” performance.

“[‘Vagina Monologues’] is going to be promoting a lot of the ideas that the Women and Gender Studies department emphasizes as well as issues on campus,” said Rachel Loeffler-Kemp (‘11), a co-leader of LC Feminists.

Through events like these, the group hopes to educate the student body and soften any stigmas associated with feminism.

“Any woman can be a feminist: a stay-at-home mom or a CEO of a company,” said Loeffler-Kemp. “Our theme for the year is redefining feminism. It’s still an issue in our society.”

LC Feminists endorse safety by checking for effective lighting around campus to prevent sexual assault and rape. They also plan to encourage safe sex by making condoms more available to students in the dorms.

“Every year we ask: What are issues for women in college now?” said Loeffler-Kemp.

This year, one issue on most college students’ minds was the presidential election. According to http://marketwatch.com, women favored Sen. Barack Obama (56%) to Sen. John McCain (43%) while men were split almost evenly between the candidates. Loeffler-Kemp offered theories for women’s strong preference for Obama.

“From the start, I think Obama was reaching out to all sorts of people who hadn’t voted before, and a lot of those happened to be women,” said Loeffler-Kemp. “A lot of issues that Obama chose were really important to women: college tuition, lesbian and gay rights issues, pro-choice, universal health care, making sure women are treated fairly in the workplace and other progressive issues.”

Gender issues were also evident in the politicians themselves throughout this election season. After Obama narrowly defeated Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Along his entire campaign trail, Obama received support from his wife, Michelle Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School.

“Because these female politicians are women in a male-dominated role, they had to deal with some different issues,” said Loeffler-Kemp. “I think as a woman and an authority figure, you’re going to deal with different issues than a man as an authority figure. I think women definitely had a bigger role. It was one step after another of women running and doing well.”

Loeffler-Kemp has high hopes for the future First Lady.

“Every First Lady has to be very dedicated to the position,” said Loeffler-Kemp. “Michelle Obama was almost doing more work being a spokesperson and also taking care of the kids. I think she’s taking time to be a mother right now as well, but I don’t think she’s wasting her degree. She’ll be able to help with a lot of legislation and put her degree to work.”

LC Feminists and other feminist groups consider the election a victory, even though no women appeared on the winning side of the ballot. With the election over, LC Feminists plan to keep newly elected politicians informed on gender-related issues.

“After this election, we’re going to continue to advocate and to follow up with [politicians] and get things passed, write letters to congressmen, continue to educate them and keep them informed on important issues,” said Loeffler-Kemp.

The group also plans to persist in its efforts to educate Luther students and promote awareness.

“The biggest issue people face is ignorance and not understanding that there’s a problem,” said Loeffler-Kemp.

LC Feminists meet every week on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in the Student Organization Suite in the Union.