Welcome to Oxford University! Here at the Feminist society, we are dedicated to creating a fundamentally intersectional space that addresses intersecting unequal power relationships, including economic, environmental, social, sexual, racial, generational, and ethnic discrimination.
The feminist society is relatively new at Oxford, with our incoming committee being only the 4th to ever exist. This may come as a surprise to most considering how Oxford loves to talk about about its history of feminist activists who have studied here, and the movements that they have gone on to lead once graduating. Due to the Feminist society being so new and upcoming, we don’t have a long history of really grand presidents drinks, and we can’t offer you free water bottles and tote bags at every event (although keep a look out in future for society merch). What we do have, however, is a really large community of people who are some of the most interesting, kind, and passionate individuals that you will ever have the pleasure of coming across during your degree.
At its core, the feminist society is all about community. We believe that everyone should feel free and comfortable to express themselves and their experiences in a space where they will be listened to and have the opportunity to listen to others. Most importantly, we feel that FemSoc should be a space to learn, to grow your beliefs by having them be challenged, to challenge the views of others, and to leave our events learning something you didn’t know before from someone you didn’t know before. This encompasses the ideals behind our most successful and longest running event – liberation and liquor. Once every other week people across the university from different walks of life and with different lived experiences come together and debate a feminist topic. In the past, we have had topics ranging from feminist porn, to cancel culture, to the role of white women in feminism; we try to bring something engaging and hopefully thought-provoking every single week.
We also try to collaborate with other societies, from picnics in the park with the Oxford Women in Law Society to Beer and Bickering events with the Oxford University Labour Club.
So, what can you expect from us in the future? Well, we have plans for even bigger events this year, such as panels and speaker events (I’d love to tell you more, but you’ll have to sign up for our mailing list to find out). We’re boasting more collaborations, more consistent liberation and liquors (did someone say once a week?) , more heated discussion topics, and more opportunities to learn. We’re also trying to make our membership feel like more of a community, so expect some socials ranging from potential pub crawls to movie nights, and potentially some super cool and super useful merch. This year we really want to increase our visibility across the university. Ideally, we’d love to be a force to be reckoned with, but our highest priority is to provide a community for people to turn to in their hours of need and to celebrate with when things are going well.