When girls are young, Cinderella tells them “dreams really do come true.” As we get older, that philosophy changes and we learn that life isn’t actually a fairytale. You have to work hard in order to ...
Women have made great strides towards social, political and economic equality in the past decades, but where do we stand in terms of sexual equality? Humans are sexual creatures who all want to explor...
“So it says on your record that you have a history with an eating disorder.”
“Yes,” I sputtered. I know it’s true, but no matter how many times the nurse practitioners read it to me at Barnard Colleg...
Warning: This piece contains material about sexual assault that may be upsetting to some readers.
Sexual assault wasn’t a problem on my radar until it happened to me. But two and a half years ago, I ...
As I look back at my first semester of college, I’ve come to realize that I made the perfect decision for me. It’s comforting that after a year of college application hell that I got into and actually...
I clearly did not wake up like this. There is liquid eyeliner on my eyes to create this cat eye, there is bronzer on my cheekbones to create the illusion that I have been in the sunlight, and there is...
Universities have a responsibility to protect students from violence, discrimination, harassment, and assault. When something violent happens to students on or off campus, universities have a responsi...
The term incorporated is often used to describe an organization or business that has become legalized and made official. People can become incorporated as well, as in the cases of celebrities putting ...
Throughout the last few weeks, I have been introduced to a powerful movement called feminism. I have never been as inspired and motivated to use my voice than I am right now. The more that I have been...
Football seems to be the sport that excludes women the most. In this day in age we have women's leagues for softball, baseball, and the WNBA, but football always had men in the spotlight being cheere...
Debora Spar is the president of Barnard College, a women’s undergraduate college affiliated with Columbia University. Since her arrival at the College, Spar has been a vocal proponent of women’s educa...
Last weekend I attended a conference at Roger Williams University titled "The ERA in the 21st Century." The conference brought together accomplished scholars, national activists, and twenty-something ...
It started with a Facebook post. Last summer, a Facebook friend posed the question: "If you would teach your daughter about protection, then why wouldn't you teach your son about respect?"After I read...
I thought the toughest adjustment when it came to starting college would be the workload, or self discipline, or missing my friends and family. I was prepared for those challenges. What I didn’t expec...
Last week, Barnard College/Columbia University’s V-Day organization announced that this year's production of Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues will feature a cast entirely composed of self-iden...
The feminist fight is one that the general public tends to sweep under the carpet.
In other words, the feminist movement is often overlooked as a useless fight. Far too many people believe that the w...
At some point in their school careers, almost every girl I know has encountered some trouble with a dress code: her skirt was too short, her pants were too tight, or her straps were too thin. Though d...
The tricky thing about friends with benefits is that the lines you painstakingly set up get blurred so quickly; before you know it, there are no longer any lines discerning black from white -- it is a...
I recently watched the documentary film "Girl Rising" with my high school (of about 80 students) and subsequently helped to lead a forum to discuss it. The movie artistically illustrates the stories o...
Next Fall, I’ll be enrolling in my first year of college. I'll be a freshman - a concept that's giving me pause not just because I'm questioning the existentialist quality of being a freshman, but bec...
My senior year of college, two of my roommates and I watched Teen Mom CONSTANTLY. I liked to pretend I wasn’t watching it, but the conversation usually went something like this:
Becka (standing in ...
I would jump at any opportunity to participate in another workshop with Rachel Simmons, who is someone I've admired since her first book, Odd Girl Out, came out back in 2002. I got the opportunity to ...
My name is Michayla Owens. I’m sixteen years old, and I attend Columbia High School in Mississippi. I was fifteen when I was sexually assaulted by two boys at my high school.
The sexual assault took ...
I recently got an email from Dylan Lambi-Raine, who wrote: "I'm a feminista, Genders Studies and Social Work student. I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and am interested in sharing a video that a grou...
What is with this unnecessary need to shame, bully, and stereotype teen mothers in an attempt to decrease teen pregnancy? Teen pregnancy prevention campaigns DO NOT have to be at the expense of a teen...