(L-R): Kathleen Dowley, Coordinator of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; Donna Goodman of the MidHudson WORD organization (Women Organized to Resist and Defend); and Ilgu Ozler, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations and Mid-Hudson Amnesty International Chapter; attended the International Women’s Day event on March 6.

Faculty from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences showed their support for women everywhere by attending the International Women’s Day celebration on March 6 in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium.

The meeting called for an end to violence against women:  in the home, on the street and in all public and private spaces; reproductive justice for all women, including full access to contraception, abortion, health care and child care; full equality for women in all areas of society; a living wage for all, equity in the workplace, with paid family leave; an end to racism, sexism, anti-LGBT bigotry, sexual harassment at work and the commercialization of women in mass media.

Speakers included Ilgu Ozler, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations and chair of the Mid-Hudson Valley Amnesty chapter; Donna Goodman, a UUP delegate, coordinator of the Mid-Hudson WORD chapter, and an editor of the Activist Newsletter; Daniella Monticciolo, member of the New Paltz Feminist Collective on campus; Urban Lyrics (a campus slam poetry group); Himali Pandya of Grace Smith House (a women’s and children’s shelter); Lydia Johnson, of UUP Stony Brook and president of the Long Island chapter of CLUW; and Leah Obias of Damayan, an activist organization of Filipina domestic workers.

The event celebrated the many advances women have won through struggle and signaled the hard work necessary to eliminate the remaining obstacles to full female equality. It was sponsored by the Mid-Hudson chapter of WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend), the Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of Amnesty International, and the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter.