RSO, other students to march on Capitol for women's lives
Holly Henschen
Issue date: 4/23/04 Section: The Verge
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Registered Student Organization Women's Empowerment organized the trip to Washington D.C. for the March for Women's Lives.
The march is "designed to motivate Americans to stand up to policies that endanger women's lives and health," according to marchforwomen.org. Organizers plan for hundreds of thousands of women and men of all ages, races, incomes, faiths and ethnicities to converge on the capital. Their prescence will signify the belief "that all women worldwide have equal access to critical reproductive and pre-natal healthcare, for women and their children, birth control, access to safe abortions, safe delivery and accurate sex education," the Web site said.
Group members have different expectations of the event.
"I'm really looking forward to my mind being expanded and how diverse the topic is," said Women's Empowerment member Rachel Buck. The sophomore undecided major said the issues can be interpreted religiously, spiritually and in "body politics."
Junior sociology major Shanna Wieneke said she expects to see action during her first participaton in an event of this nature.
"Afterwards, I'm hoping I can expand my mind so that I can take in all these new things," she said. "Just being around so many different people, that's what I'm looking forward to."
Concerns about media coverage of the event are an issue as well. Senior sociology major Lindsy Embree said the media gives a bad image to feminists.
"They think you are un-American if you stand up for what you believe in," she said. Her point of view stems partly from previous participation in an anti-war protest in Washington D.C.
Topics to be addressed at the event include national policies such as the partial birth abortion ban, which was signed by President George W. Bush in November 2003. The law makes it illegal for doctors to abort the fetus of a pregnant woman in her second or third trimester. The bill makes no exceptions for women whose health is at risk or for a fetuses that will be born with birth defects.
Embree said she was afraid "ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justices appointed by the Bush administration" will overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that make abortion a legal medical procedure.
International policies, such as the Global Gag Rule will also be addressed. The rule restricts the activities of foreign non-governmental organizations receiving U.S. family-planning funding. Under the rule, these groups cannot use their own money to provide abortion-related services, including advocating for abortion law reform, the march Web site said.
Women's Empowerment said a pro-choice stance does not necessarily advocate abortion.
"It just means you think women should have the right to choose," Embree said.
Abortion laws are unfair to women, the group said.
"It puts us as producers, as surplus values, not independent thinking beings," Buck, who organized the trip to Washington, said.
"I think going to the march and conciousness raising in that way will add responsibility to being sexually active," Buck said, "and add an awareness of education that needs to happen from K-12 instead of this slippery slope that's being offered by our opposition, saying we just want to kill babies."
Breaking a feminist stereotype
Women's Empowerment became a Registered Student Organization in Fall 2003.
"We're not a huge group of feminists," said Women's Empowerment president Jessica Riner.
She has dealt firsthand with people who expect the organization to be man-haters.
"The stereotype is unreal," said Riner, a sophomore international business major who also plays soccer for Eastern.
Women's Empowerment began as a group formed by the Panhellenic Council, which asked two members of every house to attend each meeting, Riner said.
Riner began attending meetings out of interest and eventually was elected to lead the group when it was restructured as an RSO.
Women's Empowerment holds meetings every other Tuesday in the lounge of Stevenson Hall. Each week, the group discusses a topic, such as perception of women around the world or perception of women in the media.
"It's so laid back, it's just like a group of friends," Riner said.
Women's Empowerment also donates money to female causes.
"It's not just about abortion," Riner said.
The group donated boxes of toiletries to Women's Hope Foundation of Charleston and also raised money to fund mammograms for uninsured women. Women's Empowerment works with the Women's Resource Center and S.A.C.I.S on campus as well.
The phrase "women's empowerment" means different things to each of the members.
"It's really tricky defining what a woman is. How people react to me because I'm a woman - that's how I can claim women's empowerment," Buck said.
Riner said she was from a very traditional family. Her mother made her promise not to follow directly in her footsteps of settling down and having children.
"I want to get involved and be a diverse individual," Riner said. "Not just a woman, but an individual."
"I'm getting a truer sense of what it is to really be a woman," said Shanna Wieneke, "how to take steps to organize with other women and just voice your opinion and take political action of some kind."
The group will leave Friday and return Sunday everning. A rally before the event begins Sunday at 10 a.m. on the national mall. The two-mile march begins at noon.
Organizers of the march include: The American Civil Liberties Union, Feminist Majority, National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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