Center for Women and Gender Equity

West Chester University provides lactation spaces to support individuals who chestfeed on campus. Each room offers a clean, secure, and private space for individuals who need to pump or nurse. Individuals should bring any personal supplies needed with them. Peer educators in the CW&GE are currently doing a thorough inventory of the lactation spaces on campus. This includes taking photos of each space and noting what changes need to be made to best serve our communities' needs. This work will ensure that our students, faculty and staff are empowered with what they need to support their chestfeeding efforts. Members of our community who use the lactation spaces are encouraged to reach out to CWGE@wcupa.edu with any questions, needs, or concerns.

This initiative is led by Ta'Jah Norman (she/her), Holland Morgan (they/them), and Dana Pratt (she/her).

Exploring Entanglements: What Does it Mean to be a Sexual Citizen?

This is a podcast devoted to exploring how we can keep each other safe and build respect for fulfilling relationships. Join our peer educator hosts every two weeks as they use the text Sexual Citizens by Dr. Jennifer Hirsch and Dr. Shamus Khan to understand where sex education needs to change and adapt to serve college students and their needs, with the ultimate goal of keeping everyone safe.

Visit the Exploring Entanglements page to listen to the latest episode!

This student led initiative was founded by Sasha Alvarado (she/her), Dana Pfeiffer (she/her), and Natalia Lebron (she/her).

The Book Club aims to diversify everyone’s bookshelves in a way that spans beyond just educational literature. We want to see trans representation on fantasy, Black representation in romance, and all other identities that span all other genres.

Through weekly Instagram live videos, we discuss books that give this representation, highlighting the authors that write them and the communities they reach. Our goal is not to tell you how to feel about a particular story, rather, we want to give the opportunity to see different faces and hear different voices in the books we choose to feature.

Some of these books have included; To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, and The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

This student led initiative was founded by Ali Kochik (she/her).

Join a Center for Women & Gender Equity peer educator for a deep dive into the ways feminists have influenced therapeutical environments of today with foundations in grassroots organizations and consciousness-raising groups. Offered weekly.

This student led initiative was founded by Dana Pfeiffer (she/her).

My name is Abriana Gonzalez and I am the proud founder of Womxn Illuminated.

Womxn Illuminated is a graduation project come to life. My time at West Chester University has been stuffed to the brim with amazing memories and race based hardship. Though I enjoyed my time at the school I found it can be very isolating being a womxn of color at a predominately white institution. I felt there weren’t a lot of people that looked like me in leadership positions and it felt odd to achieve. It felt like I was alone and stepping out of bounds by wanting something greater for myself. Womxn Illuminated stands as a platform for womxn of color like myself to find more representation, visibility, and leadership opportunities on and around West Chester University.

Womxn Illuminated means more than just a graduation project for me, this is my life. I got sick and tired of strangers coming up to me and trying to put me into a put once they found out my race. I was sick and tired of feeling ashamed and judged and not being believed once people found out I was a proud black woman. After one particularly rough racial encounter at school I vented to my friends and realized there wasn’t really anyone “in charge” I could talk about my issues to. I wanted to create a space--a platform--not just for black womxn, but for all womxn of color. I wanted the space I created to stand for something larger than itself; I wanted the space to exist free from internalized oppression and colorism and xenophobia--I wanted it to be safe for womxn of color where no one would ask, “so, what are you” and cling to the harmful ideologies of stereotypes. So I decided to do something about it.

Enter Womxn Illuminated:
https://phictionmaker7.wixsite.com/womxn-illuminated