Throughout March during Women’s History Month, the University is celebrating the accomplishments of women with programming involving guest speakers, roundtable discussions and other events.

A student planning team that acts as an advisory committee alongside the Women’s Resources Center assisted in planning these events and social media campaigns. The theme for the events this year is titled “Revealing Untold Stories: Envisioning New Futures.”

“There’s a really rich history of women-identified individuals making life changing contributions, whether that’s on this University of Illinois campus, our local community, society at large, women have a huge impact,” said Kasey Umland, interim director of the Women’s Resources Center. 

Although many programs are sponsored by the Women’s Resources Center, a wide range of organizations and entities are also contributing to the events. These organizations include the Asian American Cultural Center, Champaign-Urbana Cyclists and the Champaign Public Library. 

On International Women’s Day, which is next Tuesday, 12 individuals from the campus and local communities will share stories about a woman in their life that changed their world, according to Antoinette Burton, director of the Humanities Research Institute.

The event will be hosted by the HRI and the Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program at the Levis Faculty Center at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Guests include Jacki Thompson Rand, the new associate vice chancellor for Native Affairs, Carol Ammons, Illinois state representative and Dawn Blackman, steward of the Randolph Street Community Garden.

“We usually get a really great audience because everybody who works in that person’s office comes to see what they’re gonna say,” Burton said.

The past two years of the pandemic have highlighted existing inequities, especially within research institutions like the University.

“The pandemic fed on underlying conditions of inequality,” Burton said. “Women of color continue to be double burdened by everything about the way the university system is organized.”

Most recently, Burton said the invasion of Ukraine will undoubtedly impact women and children disproportionately because “war always does.”

The diverse range of topics that will be covered through events held both virtually and in person reflect the topics the advisory panel felt were specifically important to highlight, according to Umland.

A key takeaway Umland hopes the student body games from these programs is “to help folks to understand the ways in which women are able to accomplish things despite the ways in which they have been oppressed because of their gender identities.” 

“History is an evolving process; we’re living in a moment in history right now, today. We also wanted to emphasize a hopeful celebratory aspect of looking at women today who are making history,” Umland said. 

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