What We Do

04.01.19-Lasallian-Women-and-Gender-Conference-Student-Activism-and-Advocacy-McDonald-069.jpgWe are a student-led community focused on advocacy around experiences related to gender, sexual identity and gender-based violence.

We are a collaborative space where faculty and staff work closely with and are guided by student leaders. We foster faculty and student scholarship on Lasallian values and themes related to women, gender, embodiment, and sexuality.

Why a Women and Gender Resource Center?

Why do we need a Center especially for women? Why don’t we have a men’s Center?

We get asked these questions all the time. We are a Gender Resource Center; we are open to all people of all genders and orientations; we are here to support you in your own journey as an embodied being in a gendered society.

Our focus is on gender equity, for all students, of all genders, orientations, and races. Our goal is to work with students, to support the visions of gender justice that students offer us. We advocate especially for women and gender marginalized students because gender is an oppressive social system, and those who are oppressed by gendered norms, structures, and practices, will tend to be those who are women, non-binary, or of other non-normative gender expressions.

Because we are a Gender Center, we are a Men’s Center, too; we are here to develop tools for claiming our bodies and experiences in a gendered world. All of our projects and programming is developed collaboratively with students and student groups: if there are resources you want to see on Manhattan’s campus, come and talk to us about what you want to see.

Programs

  • The Pride Center: LGBTQIA+ Advocacy

    Image from the Pride Center

    We work with the Pride Center on LGBTQIA+ advocacy issues for students, faculty, employees, and alumni who identify as LGBTQ+, and our allies. Please visit the Pride Center webpage.

  • Women's Week

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    Each year, in March, we coordinate campus-wide programming around women’s and gender issues. Women’s Week 2024 is March 4-8; culminating with International Women's Day on March 8. Please reach out to us if you have an idea for a Women’s Week event or project. 

  • Take Back the Night

    woman with dark hair and glasses speaks with enthusiasm into a microphone at podium
    Take Back the Night, now in its 9th year at Manhattan University, is a student-coordinated event that raises awareness about gender-based violence and supports survivors. The Take Back The Night Committee meets throughout the year to brainstorm practices that support survivors. Reach out to participate in planning, or join us for Take Back The Night on March 6, 2024.

  • The Clothesline Project

    t shirts hanging on clothesline

    The Clothesline Project builds campus awareness of sexual and gender-based violence by inviting survivors to create t-shirts that reflect their experience, or honor another’s experience, of sexual or gender-based violence. By creating space for survivors to name their own experience, and displaying these shirts on a clothesline in the Quad, we raise community awareness about the pervasiveness and the effects of sexual and gender-based violence.

  • Love in the Dark

    Do you have questions about healthy sexuality? Join us for frank conversations about healthy relationships, gender, and sexuality.

  • Faithfully Feminist

    Do you sometimes wonder how to reconcile your faith and your feminism? Do you wonder if your feminism has room for faith – or vice versa? Join us for regular conversations about the tensions of faith and feminism – and for open Chaplain Hours in the Center with Dr. Stephanie Powell, every Thursday afternoon from 12:45 - 1:45 p.m.

  • GrARTitude

    A student-organized art session that centers on different creative projects with an emphasis on gratitude and reflection. No experience is necessary. We bring the paper and pens, you bring yourself. Take time to de-stress and take care.

  • Slow Burn

    One of the ways women face inequities at work -- particularly, women who work in fields where women are under-represented -- has to do with how they carry extra burdens at home, particularly through motherhood, romantic relationships, and other forms of caregiving. Join us for the first in a series of talks about balancing work, love, and life.

  • Women and the Vote

    As we prepare for the 2024 election join us for panels and programs on how women’s political activism has changed America, and on the issues affecting women and gender minorities today.

  • The WGRC Summer Research Fellowship

    We support ongoing student research on themes related to gender, sexuality, and embodiment with a summer research program designed to foster scholarship, collaboration, and activism.

    Submit your application to The WGRC Summer Research Fellowship by Friday, March 22, 2024.

  • MetooMondays

    #MeToo Mondays is a student-led support group for survivors of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence. The objective of this program is to use self-expression to reflect on how these experiences shape our lives, and learn how to integrate them in a healthy way, with the encouragement of other survivors’ support and solidarity.