Women's Equality Day Is Going To The Birds

Not only is Aug. 26th the first day of school, but it’s also Women’s Equality Day. According to Patricia Earl, unit coordinator for Tech’s Women’s Studies Program, the special day is going to be celebrated in a modern way.

Earl said Tech’s Women’s Studies Program is celebrating Women’s Equality Day but conducting a tweet chat via social media site Twitter (the one with the blue little bird logo).

“Social media is a great way to narrow what you’re going to focus on and how to network with other young women or other universities, “ she said. “Other faculty or just advocates can participate as well. And the thing is it doesn’t just have to be in Lubbock.”

Earl said she has also reached out to politician Wendy Davis by tweeting to her about the tweet chat that is going to take place on the first day of the fall semester between 2 and 4 p.m. on that day. She said she has also tweeted representatives for District 19.

Earl said Women’s Equality Day can be traced back to the early 70’s and is considered a nationally recognized day to commemorate the passing of the 19th amendment. But, she said, the special day is not only something to commemorate in the past, but something to pay attention to in the present. She said some questions men and women should ask in today’s society consist of ‘What is equality, what are women equal to?’

“I’ve heard it said to me at one time ‘If we’re talking about equality, we’re obviously talking about gender equality, so what man is the woman wanting to be equal to,” Earl asked.

She said gender roles, race, and class all fall under the blanket of equality. Earl said when talking about Women’s Equality Day she said she thinks it is very important to have the intersection of race and gender.

Earl said people can get involved in Tech’s Women Equality tweet chat by simply signing on to Twitter (or making a Twitter account) and following TTUWSP, and if one wishes to get even more involved, she said she would be more than happy to have mediator volunteers to help monitor the tweet chat and tweet questions and help promote conversation to whoever is online during that time.

“What I’m trying to focus on is how to use it for social change,” Earl said. “When people are still figuring out new technologies I think it’s vital to show them what it’s for and how it can be a tool in today’s society. Just as if I were to show a documentary on campus it’s similar to the message we hope to continue to spread about women’s equality.”

Earl said to help people get involved in the tweet chat and to give them a little background knowledge on Women’s Equality Day, all they have to do is take a quiz that has been posted on Tech’s Women Studies Website. http://www.depts.ttu.edu/wstudies/events_womensequality_quiz.php

She said it gives a lot of insight and facts that many people might not know about women’s equality. For example, did you know that New Zealand was the first country that gave women the right to vote?

Earl said everyone is welcome to watch the tweet chat feed and if anyone would like to partake in the Women’s Equality Day chat they must use the hash tag WED2013 (like so: #WED2013) and their Twitter profile must be public.

She said she currently does not have a goal or a set amount of tweets for the Women’s Quality Day tweet chat considering this is only the second one they’ve put on. Earl said the most important part of the tweet chat would be the event effecting one person.

“Reaching them could be five minutes after we ended they come up and say something or five years from then,” she said. “You never know when it’s going to happen or how it will effect people or if there will be an epiphany of any kind.”

To learn more about Tech’s Women’s Studies program or more about Women’s Equality Day be sure to check out their site here: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/wstudies/

And to take part in the Women’s Equality Day tweet chat on Aug. 26th from 2 – 4 p.m. here is the link to their twitter page: https://twitter.com/TTUWSP

About Lauren Estlinbaum

Entertainment Director    —    Journalism major, Class of 2014
Lauren Estlinbaum grew up in Pearland, Texas, south of Houston (go Texans). She is a journalism major with a minor in apparel design. Lauren would like to work for either a fashion or lifestyle publication post-graduation. As she likes to say, she considers fashion magazines survival guides.