NONE Class projects tackle 'womanism', international community concerns by Tara S. Donahue Challenging the way students think about the world and empowering them to make a difference were Alison Piepmeier's goals when she assigned her Images of Women class to design and implement activism projects.
Students learn that sexism and racism still exist and that they live in an inequitable world.
These realizations can be disheartening. By doing activism projects, students, both male and female, can begin moving beyond their discouragement or their outrage into analysis and action. They gain hands-on experience intervening in their world outside the classroom to make changes. Targeting sorority girls, McDaniel and Monckton spent an evening visiting sorority houses to promote the event and handed out surveys asking the young women why they dressed up each day. According to McDaniel, many surveys said the reason for their clothing choice was because they felt pressure by their peers, it made themselves feel better and they wanted to impress guys.