The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) club began several years ago and was briefly dismantled, due to lack of members. The organization was reconstructed a few years later when a group of women from the Women and Gender Sexuality Studies program reinstated it. FMLA meetings take place on a weekly basis and tackle topics such as feminism and social justice.
“We do a lot of tabling to raise awareness. We also had an event deconstructing feminism displayed in the quad for about a week, where people talked about or wrote down why they were feminists or what feminism meant to them,” FMLA President Janice Sikon said.
The FMLA club has collaborated with the Women’s Center in the past for events like the Vagina Monologues and helping to hand out pamphlets to students. A decrease in events have taken place in the last couple of years due to a reduction in members.
“We do a lot more supporting when we have lower membership, and then more of our own events when we have higher membership,” Sikon stated.
At organization meetings, members discuss topics such as LGBT discrimination, abortion and reproductive rights, anti-domestic violence, and intersectional feminism. The FMLA also works with other institutions in the community like the Dayton Women's Rights Alliance, and St. Vincent de Paul shelter.
“A core focus of our group is intersectionality, which is a term from Gender Studies. It’s about recognizing that, for instance, all women don't have the same problems or goals, so it's kind of trying to work in different directions. I would say that our core goal and value is being intersectional,” Sikon shared.
Sikon also believes that what helps make the club stand out is the focus on “learning about diversity and accepting and celebrating diversity.”
