Sharing their stories
Members of Justice and Diversity League work together to share the importance of Women’s History Month
The Justice and Diversity League put up a display that celebrates important women throughout our history. In hopes to educate the student body, the club worked hard to achieve this. “I also hope this inspires all females in our school to reach for their dreams, keep fighting, and not let others put them down,” sophomore and Justice and Diversity member Zianya Salgado said. “It would be great if more people acknowledged our display and maybe stopped to read the information to educate themselves about Women’s history month, and for every history month this year.”
March 4, 2022
In the wake of March, Women’s History Month is starting to be celebrated nationally, including at Millard West. In celebration of prominent women of the past and present, Justice and Diversity League dedicated their efforts to craft an interactive display to commemorate them and educate the viewers.
On the evening of Tuesday, March 2, the club gathered to set up the display. With a variety of women displayed, a short biography is listed alongside the photos giving insight into their notability. Remarkable women like Malala Yousafzai, Harriet Tubman and other lesser-known women’s stories are all featured on the display.
“The world, historically, has been largely patriarchal,” Justice and Diversity League sponsor and social studies teacher Angela Bosak said. “The stories of the roles and contributions of women are too often overshadowed and they deserve their credit. It shows the struggle women have faced, how far they have come and how much work is left to do. I always tell women to ‘take up space’ and let their voices be heard. This wall is a physical example of women taking up their space throughout history.”
Students played their part in the creation of this display by researching each woman and sharing these stories a month beforehand in preparation. Narrowing down history proved to be a challenge for the club. With so many stories, deciding what needed to be shared took extensive discussion.
“Definitely the most challenging part of the research was choosing what to put in and what to leave out,” freshman Justice and Diversity League member Gabriela Witmer said. “There’s so much interesting history to cover and deciding the specific topic was pretty difficult.”
With a special focus on recent movements within women’s rights, Justice and Diversity League members educated themselves in order to share this information.
“By participating in this project, I gained more knowledge on women leaders and movements that were or still are present today,” sophomore and Justice and Diversity member Zianya Salgado said. “I also learned more about what women, especially women of color, still go through today from unequal pay to misogynistic beliefs normalized in society.”Sharing the importance of women’s history shines a fresh light on this underrepresented group within schools. This year, a book list highlighting feminist subjects within the library was included in posters around the display.
“We hope to find ways in the future to make our displays more interactive,” Justice and Diversity League sponsor and social studies teacher Bryant Bull said. “For instance, over the last year or so, Ms. Jorgensen in the library has helped us by creating a reading list for each awareness month. We pick 15-20 books from her list and the library staff makes small posters with QR codes that link to a website with summaries and other information on the books to encourage students to check them out.”
Their work will be displayed for viewing for the rest of March along with the selected novels. The goal is to cultivate more awareness of prominent women and the issues women face within the community at Millard West was successful.
