Event 2

Name: IWIN (International Women in Need)
Date: December 3, 2007
Location: Women’s Center


This event was planned to discuss the 2007-2008 IWIN project. This year’s project is to raise money to purchase a power mill for a village in Kenya. This mill would eliminate much of the manual work that the women have to do to grind their corn. Corn is a very important staple in the lives of Kenyan families and having a mill to grind it would make things go much faster and more efficient. The hope of IWIN is to donate this mill to the women’s group in the village and then they can begin a small business of grinding the corn. They are going to do this through fundraising events.
This group and fundraising event is strongly connected the ideas that we discussed throughout this course. Their main objective is to help the women in the village eliminate some of the work that they are required to do. All the corn grinding is the women’s responsibility because of the roles that their society places on them. The IWIN organization is working to help create a more equal society for the women.
I found this informational meeting to be very interesting. I think that this is an organization that I will definitely volunteer for in the future. These ideas that they have planned and the things that they want to do to improve this village in Kenya aresomething that is obviously needed and will help make these women lives better.

A feminist is any person who strives for equality among males and females. They work to create equality by eliminating systems of inequality socially and economically. They do this through activism and educating people to know that this inequality still exists. Today feminist are not only interested in equality in their lives but other women’s lives globally. In today’s society there is also the profeminist man. They are joining the efforts towards the fight for equality among the sexes. They are supporting equality in the work force and changing the way they act and live to help shape the definition of masculinity and redefine the roles that women hold within relationships. Originally coming into this course I would not have labeled myself a feminist. I thought that the word had a negative connotation and really did not understand what they fought for. In general I just thought that a feminist was a man hater. Now however I see that they work towards something that benefits every woman in society. They are doing something that needs to be done and will make things better for women. Because I better understand what they work towards and what they work towards, I know do believe that I am a feminist.
This course has definitely changed the way that I look at things. Before this course I never really took notice of all the areas that women are discriminated in because of their gender. Now I realize that there are still so many areas of inequality left in our society and throughout the world. I see that the feminist movement is something that still needs to be present in our society. Equality is something that the United States needs to strive for as well as countries all around the world.
From this course I will take away that inequality still exist based on gender. I will have the awareness to know when I am being discriminated against based on my gender. Knowing that you are being discriminated against is the first step towards fixing the problem.