Student Organization Spotlight on the Chatham Feminist Coalition with H.R. Liotta

March marks Women’s History Month and thanks to Chatham’s enduring commitment to women’s leadership and gender equity, there are a bounty of ways to celebrate on campus. In honor of the occasion, we caught up with Chatham Feminist Coalition President H.R. Liotta, Arts Management ‘23 (she/her/hers) to learn more about the organization’s initiatives on campus, including ensuring that feminism represents and empowers everyone. Read on to learn more about the Chatham Feminist Coalition—

Chatham Feminist Coalition President, H.R. Liotta

Can you tell us a little bit about the Chatham Feminist Coalition and what your goals are on campus?

H.R. Liotta: The Chatham Feminist Coalition has been around for a while; it's a very old club on our campus, which makes sense because our college has a history of being a woman's college, and is now gender-inclusive. Since Chatham became gender-inclusive, we've been trying to promote not just the idea of feminism but of gender equity, [which means] being more inclusive of people who have marginalized gender identities like trans and non-binary people, those who have marginalized identities who might not identify as women but are discriminated against. More recently, we've been having a lot of conversations about how to be an equitable organization beyond gender equity, as in how to be more inclusive of people who have other marginalized identities, especially Black women and women of color. Feminism has historically excluded [women of color], trans women, and other women in the LGBTQ+ community.

In the Chatham Feminist Coalition, there are some queer people—I am a queer person, I identify as a lesbian—but we don't have a lot of women of color, partially because Chatham is a very white school. I think that our organization has also made a lot of women of color feel unwelcome. We strive to promote that feminism is for everybody, gender equity is for everybody. The point is to uplift people so that everyone is on the same level and isn't discriminated against based on their identity. We've been trying to make special efforts to be more inclusive and to uplift voices of people who have been historically left out of feminism and the gender equity movements. For example, we're planning a panel that is going to happen later this month. We're hoping to make it a series of panels, but the first is called Intersecting Lines, and it will be a panel on Black womanhood.

I'm in collaboration with the place where I work on campus to start a book club where we provide free books to people. It's focused on uplifting the voices of people that have been silenced historically. We’ll be reading books written primarily by women but women who are trans or women of color, because those are people that have not been listened to, especially within the movement of feminism.

Will you elaborate on why it's important to ask people what their pronouns are?

H.R.: I feel that it's a very basic human respect thing. You use pronouns and non-binary pronouns every day. If you don't know what gender somebody is, you'll sometimes use 'they' in a singular sense. It's not abnormal, it's just something that some people don't like. I do feel like in a lot of talks about diversity and inclusion, bigotry [against the queer community] is excused. It seems like it's generally accepted for a religious person to say something along the lines of, I don't accept you because of my religion. That is a form of discrimination. Refusing to accept somebody's identity is not okay. If part of your identity says that you have to reject part of someone else's identity, maybe you need to pull what you believe into question. That's how I personally feel about it. It's important to respect people’s pronouns because it is important to be kind to other people, and to want to make them feel safe. A very easy way to do that is having the respect for another person to call them by the name that they want to be called by and to use the pronouns that they feel suit them.

Chatham Feminist Coalition members at Drag Me to Hell

What types of events and initiatives do you like to host on campus?

H.R.: We've been trying to be much more educational this year. Last year, we did a lot of events that were really fun. Once we can do things in person again, I would love to get back to some of those but it's also important to hold on to the things we've done that are educational. That's a really important function of our club: to explain to people what gender equity means and to provide a platform for people who have been excluded from the movements of feminism and gender equity.

What skills have you honed while participating in this club?

H.R.: I have become much more confident as a leader, especially this semester. I was nervous about stepping into the role of president. Last semester, the former president said, You don't have to be nervous, you're good at this. At the beginning of this semester, I was still nervous, and I hit a point where I was like, I don't need to be nervous about this because I know that I'm capable.

I've learned so much about feminism. I’ve always cared very much about gender equity but there are new things that I’ve learned since coming to college. I learned a lot more about pronouns and gender identity than I had ever known before. I’ve met a lot of different people with different identities.

What would you say are the benefits of joining the Chatham Feminist Coalition?

H.R.: I love the club so much. We're trying very hard to make spaces that are safe for people and inclusive of everybody. I wish that we had more members of different gender identities. I've been considering shifting the name of the club or the focus of the club to be about gender equity and not just feminism. It's a great organization because we are able to have a drag show and raise money for charity. But we can also do events where we're able to help educate people about issues that they might not have known about before, and to give a space to people who have not had one, especially within the movement of feminism.

If a student is on the fence about joining, how would you recommend they learn more?

H.R.: They can come to any of our meetings. At the start of next semester, we participate in a student engagement fair where all of the student organizations set up on the quad and you get to meet people from the organizations. We'll probably be doing an event at the beginning of next semester to get people involved [in the organization].

What are you most looking forward to for the rest of the term (or next)?

H.R.: I am very excited about the panel that we have coming up. I am excited about the prospect of a book club. I work with the Eden Hall K-12 Sustainability Office. They do a lot of education around the areas of social justice and sustainability, which go hand in hand. [The book club is] something that I would love to spread out to more people in the community. I'm very excited about the idea of doing things that are just fun again. We had an event that was called Drag Me to Hell at Halloween. A lot of people came out, everyone had a great time, and we raised a decent amount of money for SistersPGH, a shelter for trans women in Pittsburgh. It was a really fun time and a great opportunity to help people in the community. I am excited to continue our work with equity.

Interested in learning more about the Chatham Feminist Coalition, Email H.R. Liotta.