Come along to our free International Women’s Day event on Monday 9th March, 1pm-3pm, in the Hive, 1^st floor of the Students’ Union Building!  

Organised in partnership with SEED (School of Environment, Education and Development), the event will include free coffee and cake, a chance to design your own IWD tote bag to take home and guest talks.

Our guest speakers are:

• Ayla Huseyinoglu – University of Manchester’s Women’s SU Officer 
• Francesca Raine – is the Fundraising and Development Manager at The Pankhurst Trust  
• The Feminist Collective Society 

There will also be stands hosted by the wonderful Blackwell’s bookstore coming along to showcase their feminist literature, the Pankhurst Trust with information on how you can get involved in supporting their work, and the Feminist Collective Society.

We will be collecting sanitary products to donate to Manchester Central Foodbank, to help contribute to putting an end to period poverty. So anything you can bring along, please do! 

You can register your interest in the event here or feel free to drop in and join us from 1pm onwards.

This event is one of a number taking place at the University to mark International Women’s Day. Part of this programme has already inspired one member of the Student Experience team, who recently attended a guest talk by Anita Shervington, titled ‘’Girls Count: Creating Equity in STEM’.

Anita is an Engagement Fellow and leads on public engagement programmes in her role as Director of Community Perspectives at The Wellcome Trust. She is also part of the team who puts on BLAST Fest (https://www.blastfest.org.uk/); a festival that leverages the cultural assets that already exist within local, diverse communities such as Caribbean Carnivals and other cultural events. BLAST Fest have designed a method called ‘flipped engagement’, where the ideas for science engagement are generated and initiated from within the community. They then reach out to the STEM sector to help co-create an exciting programme of activities and events.

Anita’s talk was heart felt and passionate. She spoke about her experiences growing up; she struggled at school and had little confidence but felt strongly that there was unfairness that she needed to fix. Her work supporting girls showed her that they needed resilience as well as confidence. Anita is driven by her passion for change for women to be seen as equal and she said women should hold a fair representation in governments and within industry. She was of the opinion that Gender Equality, the 5th UN Sustainable Development Goal, is one of the most important as it supports the other goals. Her inspirations are the American Christian minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr and Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, an American investigative journalist, educator and early leader in the civil rights movement.

There are more events taking place next week to similarly inspire you, including:

Walk for Women

Saturday, 7 March 2020, 12pm–1.30pm

Cathedral Gardens, Corporation Street, Manchester, M4 3BG

Girls Night Out at Jodrell Bank

Sunday, 8 March 2020, 7pm–10pm

Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre

The School of Chemistry’s International Women’s Day Celebration

Monday, 9 March 2020, 12.30pm–4.30pm

G.53, Chemistry Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL

Why’s Climate Justice a Feminist Issue?

Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 6pm–9pm

Alliance Manchester Business School, Booth Street, Manchester, M15 6PB

You can register for any of these events or find out more information here.  

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