The cold weather may have stopped members of the Oswego State community from going outside for the annual Women’s March, but it did not stop them from marching through the Marano Campus Center on March 4.

Hosted by the Women’s Center, the march brought together women and men in solidarity to celebrate the existence of women and to fight for gender equality. 

According to the national Women’s March website, its mission is to “harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change.”

Before the march through campus, community members signed a poster showing their respect for Women’s History Month, made signs and discussed why the march and feminism is important to them. 

Women’s Center President Iyuhna Callands said the Women’s Center and Women’s March are not exclusive to those who do not identify as women. Although it is led and pushed forth by women, it is for inclusivity and gender equality.

“Women have been so oppressed throughout the years, throughout decades,” Callands said. “The Women’s March was created to show that we are here to be seen. … We are not trying to disregard men, but we also want to be in that path as well.”

Speaking to the men in the room, Callands said it is necessary that they stand with women but do not speak for women.

Women’s Center co-Director of Programming Tasha Burgess said, without women, humans would not exist because they are the creators of life. She said she finds it absurd that women find themselves not having access to the same things as men because men come from women initially. 

“It is our responsibility to ourselves and our future generations, our siblings, our grandparents, our mothers, our brothers as well, [and] people in the LGBTQ+ community to fight,” Burgess said. “All we have is each other to fight for each other.”

Burgess said the community members who showed up for the march show that women are powerful. She said the goal of the Women’s Center is to show women how powerful they are. She said these values need to be thought about beyond the march and Oswego because it is women’s identity. 

Tiffany Peña, co-director of programming, said the Women’s Center was the first organization she got involved with on campus and it has taught her a lot about herself, women in general and the injustices against women that occur in the world. She said women have come such a long way throughout the ages.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that women are powerful,” Peñasaid. “We run this world, regardless of who tries to deny that. … We’re celebrating our existence.”

Women’s Center Secretary Lizeth Ortega Ramirez said she has never attended a Women’s March outside of Oswego State and is grateful that the Women’s Center has given her the opportunity to experience a Women’s March twice.

“This is the most empowering moment of my whole life,” Ortega Ramirez said. “Women’s Center has really been a platform, which has allowed a lot of students like me, who never had the opportunity to be part of something like this, to feel this empowered.”

Ortega Ramirez is also director of gender equality and women’s affairs for Student Association, which recently passed a bill to supply academic buildings with free menstrual products. Oswego State is one of the first SUNY schools to do so. 

Following the march around the Marano Campus Center, graduate chemistry student Kimberly LaGatta spoke on her experience at a science conference in Baltimore. 

“I was really warm on the inside when I saw how many females were at this STEM-based conference; it was a forensic science conference,” LaGatta said. “It was amazing, and this [march] has given me a very similar feeling just to see us all together.”

Sharona Ginsberg, the learning technologies librarian at Penfield Library, said, when she was in college, there was not nearly as much awareness to women’s issues or activism for women. She said seeing the awareness the Women’s Center presents gives her hope for the future. 

The Women’s Center has four more events to celebrate Women’s History Month for the remainder of March. These include the Women in Leadership Conference March 12, “Sex Study” March 13, Vagina Monologues March 27 and the organization’s dinner March 30.

Photo by Kassadee Paulo | The Oswegonian