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Woman Right's Advocate Alumna Speaks at MU Women's Center

KBIA file photo
KBIA
KBIA file photo

 

Students learned just how much egalitarian progress MU has made since the 1970s yesterday. Woman’s right advocate Jeannette Pai-Espinosa spoke Thursday at the MU women’s center, which hadn’t even been built when she was a student. 

Pai-Espinosa was one of the main advocates for the Women’s center's establishment. She was president of the Association of Women and Students, an organization that used to work parallel to MSA. It has been overtaken by other organizations since. During her term, the association worked to build momentum around issues such as campus safety.

“We needed lights on campus around the quad,” said Pai-Espinosa, “yes, there was a time when it was pitched black walking home. There was a lot of sexual assault.”

She explained how the association gave a night time tour of the quad to the administration to show how badly the lights were needed. The tour ended when the Chancellor was almost hit by a cyclist that didn’t see him walking in the dark. The next day there were blueprints for lighting the campus.

During Pai-Espinosa's term, the association also talked about getting access to fertility resources on campus, such as birth control, and the need for a women’s center. She said it felt surreal sitting in the Women's Center today.

While Pai-Espinosa is proud of the progress Mizzou has made, she said she is horrified by the level of sexism that still exists. She cites current cases like the Ray Rice domestic violence case as evidence.

“The worst part about it was not that it happened, but that people were surprised.”

To fight sexism today, Pai-Espinosa says students need to come together.

“It sounds like a simple thing, but the division between race, class, everything are still deep.”

She says women are taught to be competitors when really they need to empower each other. She encouraged listeners to focus not on the problems that they individually face but to focus on problems that affect us all.

“Several small movements don’t have the same impact as one large one. If we pool all our resources, we can make serious change.”

Currently, Jeannette Pai-Espinosa is president of the National Crittenton Foundation, a nonprofit that supports women of all ages, especially those in vulnerable situations. Pai-Espinosa is also vice chair of the National Foster Care Coalition, a member of the Advisory Board for the National Girls Institute and a member of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Project for Girls. She resides in Portland, Oregon with her husband. 

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