Panelists Discuss the Meaning of Feminism

A panel of 10 representatives from different student groups agreed that there is no one definition of feminism at a “Meet the Feminists” event Saturday afternoon.

The panel, organized by feminist undergraduate group the Radcliffe Union of Students, was followed by a campus feminism fair that featured more than 15 undergraduate organizations.

A panel of women reflect on Harvard’s experience of Third Wave/modern feminism. The panel took place on Saturday afternoon and was followed by a feminism fair featuring multiple women organizations on campus. By George J Lok

Caroline Light, director of undergraduate studies for Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, moderated the panel discussion, which included speakers from the Organization of Asian American Sisters in Service, Science Club for Girls, and Women in Business, among other groups that self-identified as feminist.

Kara J. W. Lessin ’16, campus and community relations chair for the Radcliffe Union of Students, said she conceived of the event as a means of facilitating communication between these student groups.

“Just having conversations is the most important thing,” Lessin said. “There are so many different identities, and I think that having separate spaces for those is really important, but collaboration is the main thing, and that’s what Harvard is about.”

Lessin said she was interested in learning about reasons for disagreement between groups who share common interests.

“As far as I know, in my memory, this is the first time that we’ve kind of actively tried to have a discussion that crosses all of these different boundaries and tried to get at the heart of where we intersect and where we diverge,” she said.

Light opened the discussion by asking the panel for their definitions of feminism. The panelists’ responses represented their personal definitions, and they varied greatly across the 10 speakers.

Kim E. Reimold ’16, co-director of Science Club for Girls, said the focus for her group was less on philosophy and more on practical goals. Science Club for Girls is an organization that works to demonstrate and foster leadership skills and promote continued studies of science and technology among young girls, according to its website.

“It's hard to communicate to little girls what feminism is, so we focus on talking about ‘girl stuff’ and being with them as mentors,” Reimold said.

Kirin Gupta '16, co-director of the Harvard College International Women’s Rights Collective, said she thought of feminism as “the struggle for liberation from the way that power is structured through the construction of gender.”

Given the event’s timing, which coincided with Junior Parents' Weekend, the audience included parents as well as students.