Tuesday, March 1
Women’s Herstory Month Kickoff Luncheon
Rose Hill Campus: 12:30 – 2:30 p.m.; McGinley 234 and 235
Lincoln Center Campus: 12:30 – 2 p.m.; Atrium
Sponsored by OMA 

Friday, March 4
Violence Against Migrant Women: An Overview
Webinar: 6 p.m.
Sponsored by Her Migrant Hub

Friday, March 4
Women’s Herstory Month Movie Night
Rose Hill Campus: 7 – 9:30 p.m.; Keating 3rd
Lincoln Center Campus: 6 – 8:30 p.m.; SL LL 11D
Sponsored by OMA

Friday, March 8
International Women’s Day with WFUV
Tune in on WFUV, 90.7: 6 a.m. – Midnight
Sponsored by WFUV

Friday, March 8
Fourth Annual Symposium Women’s Issues in 2022 and What You Can Do With Your JD
Live Broadcast via Zoom Webinar: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Sponsored by Fordham Law Women

Thursday, March 10
Women’s Stories of Resiliency & Empowerment
Rose Hill Campus: 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.; McGinley Center, CC 311
Sponsored by Campus Ministry & Pedro Arrupe Volunteers

Friday, March 25
Art Fair Exhibition
Rose Hill Campus: 4 – 8 p.m McGinley Ballroom
Sponsored by OMA 

Sunday, March 27
The Lit. Bar Excursion
131 Alexander Ave, Bronx
Sponsored by OMA

Wednesday, March 31
End of Month Celebration: Women’s History Trivia Night
Rose Hill Campus: 5:30 – 7 p.m.; Keating, 3rd floor
Lincoln Center Campus: 5 – 7 p.m.; South Lodge
Sponsored by OMA

“We’re gathered to celebrate the women who made the county what it is—they who lived with faith and worked with hope and made love a reality here in the borough, [even]when they did not believe in the borough,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said to a crowd of more than 100 in Keating Hall. “They took to heart the motto of the Bronx: Ne cede malis. Never give in to evil.”

The event, hosted by the Bronx Borough President’s Office, featured five women from different walks of life: Alessandra Biaggi, LAW ’12, New York state senator; Nathalia Fernandez, assemblywoman for the 80th District; Karines Reyes, assemblywoman for the 87th District; Sunny Hostin, ABC News senior legal correspondent and co-host of The View who moderated the panel discussion; and Deputy Bronx Borough President Marricka Scott-McFadden, who served as emcee of the night.

What they all have in common are their ties to the Bronx. Hostin was born and bred in the South Bronx. Biaggi, whose senatorial district includes portions of the Bronx, is the granddaughter of Italian immigrants who lived in Hunts Point. Fernandez’s father and mother immigrated to the Bronx from their native Cuba and Columbia, respectively. And although Reyes and Scott-McFadden aren’t Bronx natives, they have made the borough their home.

“I am originally from Georgia. I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in the Bronx,” Scott-McFadden said to laughter from the audience.  

A Woman’s Perspective in Politics

The panel spoke about the need for women legislators who can vouch for the importance of women’s reproductive health, universal childcare, and reducing maternal mortality in New York state.

“When I hear men stand up and matter-of-factly talk about a woman’s body and how things happen in operating rooms that don’t really happen—because I’ve been in operating rooms; it’s my profession—and hear all these people that don’t have a medical background sway how legislation affects us … it’s scary,” said Reyes, who’s worked as a registered nurse in Montefiore Medical Center’s oncology ward. “It’s important to have more women at the table. But [also]more professionals with different backgrounds.”

Another issue that women face is a lack of childcare, said Biaggi. Although today’s U.S. mothers are spending more time in the workforce than in the ’60s, they’re also spending more time on childcare.

“What we would like to see—and this is why our voices are so important and why it’s so important that we’re in the room—is childcare everywhere,” Biaggi said. “When you have children, they don’t disappear just because you’ve gone to work.” A few women in the audience expressed their agreement.

The panelists also discussed a disturbing trend affecting mothers in New York state—the rising rate of deaths in the delivery room. The rate of maternal deaths in the state rose from 13.2 per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 25 per 100,000 live births in 2015.

“The women who are dying in this state … they’re educated. They’re lawyers, they’re doctors, they’re teachers, they’re nurses. They’re literally your neighbors, and they’re dying at higher rates than they’ve ever died before,” Biaggi said. “And the women who are mainly dying are women of color.”

“It happened to Serena Williams,” Hostin chimed in. “She almost died because they [the doctors]weren’t listening to her.”

“And it’s Serena Williams. Like … what? How can this be?” Biaggi said, searching the eyes of the audience. “We have a real problem with women’s voices [not]being heard.”

A Personal Fight for Equal Pay

The five women also discussed the gender pay gap in the U.S. On average, female workers earned around 80 cents for every dollar a man made in 2018.

Hostin recalled the day she was signed onto The View. When she received her deal sheet from her male agent, she was ecstatic. “When I say I’m a kid from the South Bronx projects … I had never seen money like that,” she said. “I was dancing around.”

Then her cell phone buzzed. It was Sherri Shepherd, a previous co-host on The View. Shepherd revealed to Hostin her personal pay history from a decade ago. It turned out, said Hostin, that Shepherd was offered more money than her successor.

“[It’s only because] she opened up and shared with me her deal history and her salary that I now have the deal that I have,” said Hostin, who renegotiated her deal sheet with her agent. “And I shared that deal with everybody that came after me.”

It was a lesson Fernandez could relate to. She remembered working in a team where she was the only woman. Two months into the job, she discovered she was making less than all her male colleagues. She was told she was paid less because she was a new employee. But eventually, she said, she received a pay raise to match the men’s salaries.

Speak up when you see discrepancies, Fernandez said—be brave enough to demand your worth.

Leaving a Legacy in the Bronx

At the end of the night, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. presented each panelist with a citation of merit and thanked them for their service to the Bronx community. He asked the audience to give a round of applause for the women who work with him every day. And, in a candid speech, he spoke about the women who have shaped him into who he is today. 

Diaz Jr. grew up in a maternal community of abuelitas and mothers in the Bronx, whom he called “the force of the household.” Eventually, he met a woman who became his wife, Hilda Gerena Diaz—the person who became the family breadwinner while he ran for office.

“Even though I lost that first race, she’s the one who paid the bills in our house,” he said to thunderous applause and whistles from the crowd.

He added that the Bronx—home to more women than men—is also the birthplace of women like Jennifer Lopez, Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“In this borough, when you give a woman the opportunity, she will conquer her craft,” Diaz Jr. said. “And she will conquer the world.”

“We give birth to the world and we feed the world,” McDonald said. “What can’t we do?”

McDonald’s anecdote was among the many shared at the second annual Women at Fordham Luncheon on March 13, which hosted a panel of four Fordham faculty, staff, and administrators who spoke about their lived experiences as women. The event, held in honor of Women’s History Month, was a collaboration between Fordham’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, the chief diversity officer, career services, the Women’s Herstory Month committee, and the Fordham Advocates Cultural Enrichment Series committee.

The two-hour program began with a short video starring Fordham students who spoke on-camera about the women who inspire them the most, from a mother who battled cancer to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The video segued into a live conversation among the four panelists—McDonald, assistant professor of military science in Fordham’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program; Christie-Belle Garcia, assistant dean for student support and success; Maria Aponte, assistant director of diversity and global inclusion; and Carol Gibney, associate director of campus ministry for spiritual and pastoral ministries and Rose Hill director of spiritual life and leadership—about whom they admire most.

For the four women, it was a unanimous answer—their mothers.

Odes to Their Mothers

The women who raised the panelists came from varied backgrounds and experiences: a foster parent who cared for 21 children, an orphan who became the first in her family to attend college, a woman without a high school diploma who helped found the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and a Puerto Rican factory worker who gave her daughter a valuable lesson before she died.

“I only had my mom in my life until I was 16 years old,” Aponte said. “I didn’t get dolls when I was a little girl—I got books. She always used to sign them for me: ‘To my daughter, Maria. From your mother, Rosa Maria.’”

“When she knew she was going to die, she wanted to plant as much as she could in my brain as a kid,” Aponte recalled. “She’s the reason why I have an education today.”

Garcia said her mother taught her that homemaking and childrearing are not the sole responsibilities of women—and told her to find a partner who knew that, too. The elder Garcia divided the household chores equally among her children. Her daughters and her son had to sweep the floor, set the table, and wash the dishes.

“So much of the culture has been that we just give, give, give until our cup is empty. How do we create a new conversation … a new narrative around that?” Garcia asked.

Reflecting on Their Lived Experiences: Life in the ’60s, Loneliness, and Discrimination

Gibney grew up in the Bronx in the 1960s—back when the Berlin Wall was being built, when black men and women were fighting for equal rights, when women were still struggling to forge identities of their own.

“Growing up as a woman, I was still holding on to that illusion that television tried to portray: a stay-at-home [mom],” Gibney said.

She watched those walls break down in real time. In her thirties, she went back to school for formal education. But although women have made significant strides since then, Gibney said, there are still disparities in pay and power—something McDonald could relate to.

McDonald, a captain in the U.S. Army who has served in three continents, recalled the day a male colleague insulted her in front of their unit. They were at a staff meeting in Germany, where McDonald had a specific seat. When she reached her chair, a sergeant major told her not to sit there. Instead, he asked her to get another man.

“What do you mean, go get this man, when I’m in charge here?” McDonald recalled thinking. She also remembered her rage.

“I’m here and I’m not leaving,” McDonald told him. “If you don’t like it, you can leave. But I’m here.”

A Circle of Women

The four Fordham women also spoke about the power of female friendship. Six months ago, Gibney’s daughter died. In the days following her death, the women in Gibney’s life—the “real housewives of Yonkers,” she called them—stayed by her side.

The day of the luncheon, Gibney said, was actually her daughter’s birthday.

“[This morning], I went to—ironically and serendipitously—the woman who brought her into the world, my GYN,” Gibney said. “We held hands, and we cried and laughed.”

“This woman doesn’t only deliver babies. She delivers a lot more that.”

It was a sentiment that Aponte understood. For a few minutes, she relived the 20 years she had worked on the clerical side of the corporate world.

“I was always the token, light-skinned, black Latina woman that made the office look pretty,” Aponte said. “I was good enough to unpack the xerox machine boxes, put the supplies in the closet, answer the phone, and be dismissed.” An executive she once worked for thought the same thing.

“He had the nerve to say, ‘Wow, you’re black and you’re intelligent and you’re so smart for a woman,’” Aponte said. But she swallowed her anger. She had bills to pay.

What kept her sane were her friends who also worked as secretaries. They’d unwind over drinks at Houlihan’s and trade stories about their work woes, Aponte said.

Today, many of those women are college-educated, married, and have grandchildren of their own. Some of them have passed on. But a few of them have remained her closest friends for over 30 years.

“That’s the power of what Carol was saying,” said Aponte, who is now an award-winning author, community arts activist, and founder of a non-profit organization. “Having a circle of women that reinforce for you what you need.”

But at the end of the day, said Gibney, each and every woman is extraordinary.

“We have much more power than we give ourselves credit for,” Gibney said. “Every one of us is powerful beyond our wildest imaginations.”

Q: Who is Crystal Eastman?
A: She is one of the most conspicuous reformers in America—an original co-author of the Equal Rights Amendment and a co-founder of antiwar groups like the Women’s Peace Party, which became the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She co-organized the National Civil Liberties Bureau, which eventually became the American Civil Liberties Union. She and her brother Max Eastman also co-founded the socialist magazine, The Liberator. And yet, even though she left several institutional legacies, she’s relatively obscure today.

Q. Why do you think her story was lost in popular memory?
Eastman has been largely lost to us because of what we now call her “intersectionality.” She believed you can’t fix one social problem without fixing the others.  She targeted exploitation in the class system, sexism, militarism, and war as linked and mutually reinforcing social maladies.  What’s more, she wanted to be a mother even more than to have a career. She was one of a very few prominent movement women who tried to balance work and family at this time.

Yet her life and her work generally asked her choose: one single-issue campaign, one vision of a better world, and one identity—either activist or mother.  It was her effort to marry multiple identities that I think led to her marginalization in organizations she’d helped to found and movements she’d helped to lead.

Q: Describe her worldview.
A: Eastman lived through World War I and believed a world federation could be achieved—a “United States of the world”—that would transcend national boundaries and international rivalries, ensuring democracy, equality, and human rights to everyone, as well a bringing an end to poverty and war. There were a lot of organizations in the early 20th century that had utopian strains. At the time it wasn’t unusual to think that nations could work together.

However, when the progressives weren’t able to lead the other nations toward a negotiated peace before World War I, Eastman became disillusioned. The Russian Revolution led her to new hopes for world democracy as well as an almost immediate peace treaty between Russia and Germany. She became increasingly radicalized. Following her original vision—democracy, equality, world peace—after 1917 she moved further to the Left. She was one of only a few anti-war activists who continued to protest the world war after U.S. intervention. She supported conscientious objectors in their resistance to the draft, and continued to speak and write and organize against U.S. policy and participation. It was government suppression of these efforts that led to the founding of the ACLU.

Q. Did she embrace communism and revolution?
A. Like many on the Left, Eastman supported the Russian Revolution, and she did so with characteristic enthusiasm. The newsletter of Eastman’s Woman’s Peace Party probably articulated her point of view when it greeted the revolution “with mad, glad joy.” But Eastman never abandoned her intersectional perspective and multi-issue allegiances. In a two-part series she wrote for the Liberator from inside Communist Hungary, she celebrates the abolition of private property while she also bemoans the hypocrisy and human cost of revolution. Despite her support for Revolutionary transformation, she struggled with what she termed the dilemma of the “pacifist revolutionary,” – that is, she viewed Revolutionary action as a Leftist as well as a pacifist and feminist. And she admitted she had no real answer for how to bring these positions into alignment.

Q. What was The Liberator magazine like?
A. Crystal and Max founded The Liberator in 1918 as a successor to The Masses, a socialist magazine that was suppressed by the federal government. As The Masses editor, Max and several other editors were tried twice for treason. Although they were never convicted, both trials resulted in hung juries. By the time the cases were resolved, the magazine was finished. Similarly, The Liberator was meant to track revolutions around the world, but it was also a literary and artistic magazine that published the radical artists and thinkers of the day—John Reed, e.e. cummings, Dorothy Day.

Q. What would she think of today’s progressive movements in New York City and beyond?
Eastman’s ideas remain so relevant that she speaks to readers across a century. She would see all the progress we have made—progress for the working class, for women, for gay rights, and for racial equality. But at the same time there is still rancid racism and homophobia. Some of the basics like wage equality for women are still an issue. We have made enormous strides that make me as hopeful as Crystal, but I think she’d agree we still have a ways to go.