Stitch ‘n Bitch alive and kicking in cities and universities

Alison Reiheld is the Director of Women’s Studies at SIUE and Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy until summer 2019 when Carolina Rocha will take over as Director. Here, she follows up on Christy Ferguson’s Women’s History Month post on the history of Stitch ‘n’ Bitch. Is Stitch ‘n’ Bitch still a thing? You…

Guilt Free Mom Travels

SIUE faculty member Saba Fatima is Associate Professor of Philosophy and and indispensable member of the Women’s Studies program. Here, she reflects on the wisdom of learning that one’s own time and joy is valuable in and of itself, not only for what it might bring to others. I left my kids for 18 days.…

Stitch ‘n Bitch: A Nod to Herstory

A Stitch ‘n Bitch today continues the humble yet integral tradition of women gathering to create and socialize.

Layers of Consent

SIUE Sociology and Women’s Studies Alum Destiny Green is Prevention Educator and Girls Group Facilitator at Safe Connections in St. Louis, MO. The title of this piece comes from one of her colleagues who mentioned that students often will say “I didn’t know that consent has that many layers.”  Here, Green boils down the core…

Proposed definition of Harassment is “Objectively Bad”

Written by: Dr. Trish Oberweis, Professor Criminal Justice In 2011, the Office of Civil Rights sent a policy change to all schools receiving federal funds instructing them that they are required to provide a safe environment for all learners. This was in reaction to a particular (although not unique) study documenting that a quarter of…

Drinking From The Same Well: White Supremacy, Misogyny, and the Fight for Justice in Solidarity

Director of Women’s Studies Alison Reiheld, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at SIUE, is on sabbatical leave this semester. Recent events, however, have driven her to think. And write. And keep acting. CONTENT WARNING: gun violence, racist violence, anti-Semitic violence, gender-based violence. Where possible, images will honor the victims and will only show the faces of…

Because it IS an Emergency-The Mensi Project

SIUE Women’s Studies Interim Director Christy Ferguson discusses her motivation for starting The Mensi Project, a menstrual product sharing program for all women’s, family, and non-gender specific restrooms on campus at SIUE.  Earlier this year, the women of SIUE noticed a change. Suddenly, the menstrual product dispensers that had lived in nearly every restroom, had mostly…

Men, Power, and Everyday Feminism

An SIUE alum now in grad school elsewhere reflects on the assumption that men are entitled to women’s attention whether they are reading, mourning, taking a train ride, talking with friends, or just not interested. Because of the charged nature of the comments, and the possibility of local retaliation in the current environment, the author wishes…

Favorite Feminist Heroes Part 4: Linda Nochlin

Our final installment in our Women’s History Month mini-series on Favorite Feminist Heroes comes to us from SIUE Art & Design Professor Katie Poole-Jones.   It is not a stretch to say that I am art historian, not to mention a feminist art historian, in large part thanks to Linda Nochlin. Although I never had the…

Favorite Feminist Heroes, Part 3: Rachel Held Evans

Part 3 of our Women’s History Month series on Favorite Feminist Heroes comes to us from Instructor Darci Schmidgall of Sociology, also a SIUE graduate. I am a self-identified Jesus freak sociologist, and Rachel Held Evans is one of my favorite feminists because she is taking on the white evangelical patriarchy. Her writings debunk the popular use of colorblindness…