UW-Eau Claire opens its Intersectional Women’s Center

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - UW-Eau Claire created the Intersectional Women’s Center to help make sure everyone has a place to feel supported and welcome.

Rose-Marie Avin, Chair of the Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexualities Studies at UW-Eau Claire said the planning for this space started in 2020. A group of students saw the need for a place people on campus could come together, learn about issues affecting their lives and advocate for changes at the university. Now, two years later, the center is open.

“I think of this as a space where individuals who have similar experiences, but maybe think they’re alone or don’t have that chance to sort of talk through those experiences with others, can come here or learn more language of feminism and give name to the similarities in their own experiences,” Sarita Mizin, Interim Faculty Direct of the Intersectional Women’s Center said.

The center is a flexible space that can be used in a variety of ways to help serve students.

“They can come and study,” Avin said. “They can come and have meetings. They can come out and watch movies. They can come participate in programming.”

The center is a place Mizin said is vital to have on campus.

“I think it’s an essential resource,” Mizin said. “Women of color and QTPOC, meaning queer, trans and persons of color, have been on this campus and are here to stay and will continue, hopefully, coming to this campus.”

But for these students to stay, Mizin said they need to feel welcome, and this center serves as one way to do that.

“It’s very empowering for you to come to this space, to know that there are people that you can discuss your issues, problems with them, and then they’ll go in to support you,” Avin said.

Mizin said she thinks this center will benefit the entire university.

“When you center the embers of your community that are most vulnerable, when you target education and work towards those individuals, everyone in the community learns and benefits,” Mizin said. “That’s really the strategy we are taking with this center.

Both Mizin and Avin said they are excited to see the role this center plays on campus. The Intersectional Women’s Center will also provide programming in collaboration with other campus groups to discuss topics affecting the community.

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