Wonder Women

Inquiry lies at the heart of a liberal arts education. In the College of Arts and Sciences, we emphasize critical thinking, which involves questioning assumptions about the issues affecting humankind.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we honor the pioneering women who questioned the status quo and paved the way for significant changes to benefit humanity. These brave individuals confronted societal restrictions and led movements to advance the rights of women and communities of color. 

Early Champions

The creation of Women's History Month itself is rich with stories of pioneering women and has roots here in California.This month, we pay tribute to other pioneers throughout history and across the United States who strived to enrich women’s economic and educational opportunities. In the mid-1800s, they also sought to empower women through the right to vote, and early proponents included Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and  Adelina "Nina" Otero Warren. Truth expressed support for women’s suffrage, and the need to include black women in the movement, in her riveting “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech made at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851. Her words encapsulated the yearning for autonomy some women felt in that era, and her speech resonated with the convention’s attendees.

More than a century later another generation of women continued Truth’s quest for women’s equality. For example as co-founder of Ms. magazine, Gloria Steinem became a bulwark of feminism in the 1970s, frequently lecturing across the nation and speaking to media outlets to espouse women’s rights. Like her 19th Century counterparts, Steinem saw the economic disadvantages women continued to experience. Up until 1974, a woman could not legally have a credit card or sign a mortgage unless her husband or father served as co-signer. Steinem worked to eradicate these injustices through her tireless endorsement of legislation furthering women’s rights.

Steinem’s friend and contemporary Dolores Huerta pursued women’s liberation and social justice for migrant farm workers in the U.S. Huerta worked closely with the Mexican-American labor leader César Chávez, and together, they launched the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. Huerta continued to lobby for migrants’ rights the following decade and played a pivotal role in getting them workplace protections through the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This act gave California farm workers the right to collectively organize and bargain for enhanced working conditions and higher wages. 

Much of Huerta’s activities echo advocacy efforts for today’s essential workers, many of whom are women, who have experienced challenging conditions on-the-job prior to and throughout the pandemic. Huerta, Steinem, and Truth highlighted vital issues involving women’s independence and workers’ rights, which subsequently revealed uncomfortable truths that represented impetus for change. There are ongoing struggles for women’s rights in the U.S. and abroad, and they include but are not limited to ensuring equal economic opportunities, educational equity, and an end to gender-based violence.

Sheroes in Academia

The College and its faculty remain dedicated to exploring — and seeking solutions to — the uncomfortable truths that impact society and its inhabitants. We continually address issues via thoughtful inquiry in and outside the classroom, peer-reviewed research, and publishing in academic and professional journals. The uncomfortable truths the women’s equality and migrants’ rights movements uncovered serve as topics for study and further examination in higher education. In our roles as scholars in the liberal arts and sciences, we aim to advance our individual and collective knowledge in the hope of making a more equitable world.

Listed below are some of the College’s faculty members making advancements and aspiring for change through their respective fields of study.

• Lisa Dahill, Ph.D. – Dr. Dahill attained a $40,000 grant from the Louisville Institute to work on her book, "Rewilding Life Together: Bonhoeffer, Spirituality, and Interspecies Community,” during her sabbatical year from 2021-2022. 

• Julia Lambert Fogg, Ph.D. – Leadership Foundations welcomed the Rev. Dr. Fogg as the second speaker in their six-part series on “Traditioned Innovation,” where she spoke about seeing scripture in new ways.    

• Sophia Khadraoui-Fortune, Ph.D. –Assistant Professor Khadraoui-Fortune recently organized and presented a workshop, “Social Media to Further Connections and Communication in Remote Teaching,” at CALICO (Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium), an international organization devoted to research and development of technology in second language acquisition.

• Molly George, Ph.D. – Along with Jamshid Damooei, Ph.D., (School of Management) and Leslie Abell, Ph.D., from California State University Channel Islands, Dr. George received a grant from the Ventura Council of Governments to support an evaluation study titled, “When Home is Not A Safe Haven: Acute Needs Assessment of the Ventura County Family Justice Center in the Time of COVID-19.” 

• Louise Kelly, Ph.D. – Dr. Kelly, Exercise Science alumni and colleagues from the athletics department published their paper, "Comparison of Direct Entry and Face to Face Delivery of the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) Symptoms," in JAE 2021, 10:01.

• Jessica Lavariega Monforti, Ph.D. – With Menlo College Professor Melissa R. Michelson, Dr. Monforti published “Elusive Inclusion: Persistent Challenges Facing Women of Color in Political Science,” which appears in Political Science Now.

• Colleen Windham-Hughes, Ph.D., M.Div. – Representatives of The United Methodist Church and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published the results of its latest round of dialogue in the form of a two-part publication, which includes “Catholics and United Methodists Together: shared prayers and resources.” Dr. Windham-Hughes participated in this project which involved more than five years of dialogue. Half the participants were women. 

Challenging Norms for Equity  

Forward thinkers like Truth, Steinem, Huerta, and countless others forged new paths and made contributions for the greater good. We laud them for their bold actions that bettered the health and welfare of others, in particular historically marginalized groups. Their commitment to equal rights for all inspires us in the College and those in the wider world to continue to challenge presumed norms to create a more just society.

Learn more about Women’s History Month via this National Women’s History Museum toolkit.