Spotlight interview: Women's and Gender Equity Center

SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: WOMEN’S AND GENDER EQUITY CENTER

BY NATALIE COMFORT

Courtney Leos is a program assistant who is going on her third year of working at the Women’s and Gender Equity Center, a resource center located on the second floor of the Student Success Center. I sat down with her to talk about the center’s purpose, resources, events and her own personal experiences as a doula.

Natalie Comfort: Tell me about the Women’s and Gender Equity Center and what you do here.

Courtney Leos: We are under the Division of Student Affairs. The center is a place to build community. We have events. We also are considered a resource center: we have the computer labs, printing, a fridge, a microwave, snacks and the lend-and-learn library. You can come in here: it’s whatever vibe you are looking for. You can come in, hang out and play games, you can come in here and do homework. I’ve done classes here.

We also host events and programs pretty often. They are rooted in our four values: advocacy, community building, education, and self-empowerment. For me, this is my first year working on campus; the other two years were virtual. It’s really a place to build community and meet new people. For events, we have the Women’s Collective; they hold events every month. We have the Heart-to-Heart; we have the Rising Speaker Series; those are community-building events for women of color on campus. Other campus organizations will meet here as well. We also hold space for pregnant and parenting students, so we have programs for that. There is a breast milk fridge.

NC: That’s so helpful.

CL: Right.

NC: That’s awesome. I know you were in charge of the menstrual product drive, what was one of your favorite events and the impact that it had?

CL: Last year, one of our program assistants, Anjali, did a Healing our Hearts program. It was a collage and journaling event. It was so much fun. There were a bunch of people I didn’t know. We all sat together and were talking, just ripping out our pages, making our collage. It was a good community-building exercise and a way to destress during midterms or finals. It stuck with me so I have so many collage journals now. I loved the menstrual product drive because the campus community really came together. It was during a time when I was in shambles, early in the semester, and it was just so fulfilling to see the impact. We worked hard on that.

We had two events around reproductive justice. One was with Dr. Loretta Ross, one of the pioneers of reproductive justice, so that was amazing. We had another one, an abortion teaching, about the Texas abortion restrictions at the time. This was before Roe v. Wade got overturned. That was probably the most collaborative event I had worked on. We had professors from the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department and everyone came together and made something happen. It was very educational. Right now, I am working on programs for April, which is sexual assault awareness month.

NC: On a daily basis, what’s the primary reason you see students coming in?

CL: It’s a nice space to be in. You can do your homework; there are tables so you can just hang out. We have a lot of students that will come in pretty often. You get to learn more about them. The Women’s Collective hosted a movie night in November. We were all sitting in the office watching the movie, eating snacks, and it was so cute.

Everyone thinks that this is just the women’s center, but it is Women’s and Gender Equity Center, so anyone is welcome to come here. I emphasize that since we do events that are gender-inclusive and accessible to everyone. We just make it so everyone feels welcome. But yeah, a lot of people don’t know that we are here, and that we have the things that we have access to. Something that helps is that one of the WGSS 101 classes did a scavenger hunt last year and all 40 of their students had to come through here. We want everyone to know that we are here and what we offer.

NC: Can I ask how you became a doula? It’s unique in comparison to midwives, you are really with them throughout the whole process, more so than doctors.

CL: Oh yeah, for sure. I had a job in sex education. I was a social media and community manager for a digital sex education platform. I’ve been curious about pregnancy and labor and delivery. I’ve been an auntie since I was 11 or 12; I’ve been around kids my whole life. I have a bunch of younger cousins. I was in the room when they popped my older sister’s water before. I didn’t know what was going to happen, since I’d only seen it in the movies. So when it wasn’t just water… I was like… wait what just happened. I remember being fascinated with the changes in my sister’s body when she was pregnant. I knew I wanted to go into health education.

Then I learned about reproductive justice and how pregnancies are not an easy thing. It can be super traumatic. I think everyone should have an empowering birthing experience. I have kind of put it on pause because I don’t intend to make money from it. I just want to give everyone an opportunity to have an empowering labor and delivery experience. Having a child is such a big thing. It looks different for everybody, but it should be special and you shouldn’t have to worry about basic things going wrong. Like you said, some doctors just come in to deliver the baby and that’s it.

NC: They are not always a part of the whole process: physically, emotionally, all these different elements.

NC: So your specific role is a program assistant, can you explain what that means? Do you focus mainly on organizing events?

CL: So, we are all required to create one program a semester so you curate your program. You get your budget; you plan it; you get what you need; you reserve a space; you make the flyer; you post the flyer; you spread the word and then you host your event. It’s really exciting, and we support each other in the office.

NC: That’s great everyone wants to add onto each other.

CL: Another cool thing is that all the student assistants have different backgrounds, majors and areas of expertise. But with each event we all come together and make magic. My major is WGSS so a lot of my events are around gender equity, reproductive justice, and content around those lines. But I am also a doula, so I’ve done events for pregnant and parenting students. There are a lot of personalities and different interests, but everybody works together. Even when you have your event, you are always supported by others.

NC: All these events get to build a community that you wouldn’t necessarily have. They have clubs and organizations for your major, but not always for everyone.

CL: Yes, coming out of COVID-19, that was so important. If I would have graduated when I was supposed to last year, I wouldn’t have had these in-person experiences.

NC: A new opportunity you didn’t foresee.

CL: I am so happy I did that.