By Sophia Studer, President of NeW at FGCU

The Emily Jashinsky Event, “Charting Modern Feminism,” was a great success. Florida Gulf Coast University’s chapter was able to go to dinner with Emily and talk about subjects ranging from politics, to The Office, and everything in between. The dinner was a great way to get to know Emily better, as well as a way to learn from a very well-informed and well-spoken individual.

As the president, I personally have been wanting to get a speaker on campus for a long time. Although I wanted to, I thought it would be a lot of work and planning, and I wasn’t sure if I or any of our board members had the time for it. However, Vanessa was there to help us every step of the way. She made a helpful check list, and clearly lined up every part of what we should do. We incorporated some of our own ideas as well, by making it a University Honors Event as well as an event credit for the business fraternity, Phi Eta Sigma. By opening the event up to other students on campus, we were thrilled with our turnout of about 40 people.

Emily’s topic of discussion was “Charting Modern Feminism”. Within this topic she expanded upon the successes and failures of today’s feminist movement. A moving point she made was that women’s issues should not be political point for the right or the left. There should be bipartisan support for the advances of women, and she said that the modern feminist movement should take a lesson from #MeToo. #MeToo has expanded its reach beyond party lines, and has supported women from both sides of the aisle that have been sexually harassed or abused.

I think that her speech was so provoking because the audience wasn’t necessarily of a certain political orientation. Emily was not partisan in her discussion – she simply laid out the facts and asked the audience to be open minded when talking about women’s issues. I think that the way she spoke was both thought-provoking and informative. All who attended benefited, and I look forward to hearing her speak again.