As purple feminist fans waved in the blazing sun and the lyrics of Lianne La Havas’ “Unstoppable” blasted in the background Friday at the FEMFest Fair, hundreds of students, staff, faculty and Moscow comunity members came together to celebrate the 46th annual Women’s Equality Day.
The event, organized by the UI Women’s Center to commemorate the women’s suffrage movement and promote visibility of the center on campus, featured numerous tables from organizations across the community.
Amy Trujillo, co-chair of the Moscow Women’s Giving Circle, a group that’s given out over $215,000 to local causes over the past 11 years, said fairs like FEMFest help strengthen the community.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to get together and see all the different groups that are working on women’s issues and involving women in the issues of our time,” Trujillo said.
Trujillo said celebrating the women’s equality movement is important because she thinks many of today’s young women grow up and forget women didn’t always have the rights they do now.
“It’s incredible to have my daughter, who’s 11, talk to my grandmother and people of her generation, who said they couldn’t play full-court basketball when they were growing up,” Trujillo said.
Kris Freitag, 58, said she was in Idaho’s first state tournament for women’s basketball. While she wishes more progress had been made since, she said she’s hopeful the younger generation will continue to fight.
“Coming from the ‘70s to now, I mean you see “Mad Men” and it really was like that,” Freitag said. “Everyone’s mentality is different than it was then. And that’s really encouraging.”
Leontina Hormel, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, brought a trivia board to the fair, which allowed students to test their knowledge on historical landmarks for women and the LGBTQA community.
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Hormel said the enthusiasm and cheerfulness of the the students and community members making their way from table to table was exciting.
“I like to believe that one or two people will realize we’re a cheerful group instead of an angry group,” Hormel said. “That really the intent is good, despite what people’s impressions might be without meeting feminists and people who are aligned with feminist calls for action.”
Bekah MillerMacPhee, assistant director for programs at the Women’s Center, said she was happy with the turnout and the enthusiasm of the crowd.
“We’ve got great organizations with some great activities and a lot of people coming through, stopping by, getting popcorn, getting ice cream … It’s great,” MillerMacPhee said.
Women’s Center Director Lysa Salsbury took the mic before the fair reached its end and encouraged those unregistered to vote to do so with the League of Women Voters, which was tabling on the far side of the plaza.
“Please exercise your right to vote, use your voice,” she said. “It is so important, especially in these times, to make sure that you have a say in our country’s electoral process.”
To inspire fair-goers to visit as many tables as possible, pink FEMFest raffle tickets were handed out to everyone in attendance. The tickets contained 12 boxes, which could be filled with stickers provided by each table, if attendees stopped by.
The raffle tickets could be turned in for a shot at winning Vandal t-shirts, sunglasses, Frisbees, and more.
MillerMacPhee said celebrating the women’s suffrage movement, which fought for 72 years to earn the right to vote until finally triumphing with the passage of the Constitution’s 19th Amendment in 1920, means everything to her.
“I wouldn’t be able to do this job,” MillerMacPhee said. “I wouldn’t be able to vote, I wouldn’t have my own credit card if not for the women who fought for the rights that I enjoy today.”
Ian Hahn can be reached at [email protected].