In honor of Women’s History Month, 30 students attended the Herstory March on April 14 to support and empower women, as well as bring awareness to the issues of equality.  

The Diversity and Equity Center put on the march to celebrate all women, whether that be LGBT women, trans women, women of color, straight women and any other women from other backgrounds. The DEC also wanted to highlight the intersectionality that gets left out of traditional feminism, according to Student Initiative Coordinator with a specialization in the Heritage and History Month Joey Packer. 

“It takes all of us to bring fairness and equity to all female bodies and how people can be allies,” Packer said. 

Freshman Emma Cavin said for her, the march was about empowering everyone, “women, men, trans, as well as equality for all.” Cavin also said everyone deserves to be heard and everyone needs to stand together, rather than stand against each other.

“Everyone’s here, getting to know each other and doing a movement that’s going to impact us all and so why not help it,” Cavin said.

Junior Communications major Chante Jacobs said the march was about supporting women of all backgrounds and love for all women. She said women can change the world and can be anything they put their mind to.

“I feel like I know so many strong women and the people that have impacted my life the most have been women, so to do anything to further show the support for my fellow women is something to make my voice heard,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said she hopes that other people will see some of the same ideas that she has and continue to empower each other.

Freshman Art major Kaitlyn Ness said the march was to spread awareness of an ongoing injustice and help other women.

“I know there is a stigma around women putting other women down for what they want but it’s important to bring everybody up and help everybody,” Ness said.

Ness also said she hopes other people will “get on board” with the movement because she feels ignoring the meaning of the march is not going to help or change anything.

Student Initiative Coordinator and leader of the mentorship program for women of color students Jaeda Nelson said having the march gave students the opportunity to come together and really think about what feminism means. 

Nelson also said the event was meant to offer a relaxed and comfortable community where people could empower others, whether they identify as women or just want to support the movement.

“Having a support system around you and encouraging people that they are doing the right thing continues the work,” Nelson said.

Packer said he enjoyed seeing so many people of all ages come out and support the march, all the people who made signs and being able to provide people with the opportunity to come out and make a difference.

“I would just encourage anyone on campus who feels like they aren’t connected to any communities to come to us come to the DEC and our whole of the job is to help people find community,” Packer said.

At the end of the march, the DEC crew passed out some cards that had sentences with some missing pieces in the middle. Participants filled in the missing pieces with words or phrases that they felt described them. 

The point of this activity was to encourage participants to build a relationship with themselves, remind them to empower themselves and see the beauty of who they are as a person, according to Nelson.