Women Faculty Members Champion Women’s History Month Amid COVID-19 in Virtual Lyceum

Guest Contributor, Madeline Hummel

“A Woman’s Place is in the Revolution,” was a virtual Lyceum event held on Tuesday, Mar. 9, that celebrated Women’s History Month.

Dr. Shelley Koch, Dr. Sarah Fisher, and Dr. Kelly Bremmer helped to lead the event emphasizing the impact of COVID-19 on women and families.

Dr. Koch spoke of minimum wage, an issue that has recently been receiving revitalized attention.

“Women make up many within the population of underpaid workers,” Dr. Koch said. She stated that the minimum wage hasn’t changed since 2009, and any recent endeavors to raise it had “just been killed with the COVID-19 relief bill in Congress.”

“This is horrible treatment to those we are trusting to care for others,” Dr. Koch went on.

Dr. Bremner discussed the experiences she had at the start of the pandemic.

“My brain was dead the first week,” Dr. Bremner stated. “I couldn’t believe the circumstances we were under and how difficult this time really was.”

Dr. Bremner then broadened her discussion on the topic of COVID-19 in relation to those who cared for families at the onset of the pandemic.

“Nobody was nominally in charge during this crisis,” Dr. Bremner said, “especially not for essential workers and others with no work from home options, forced to go to work and leave their kids behind.”

Dr. Fisher began her perspective by displaying statistical data in relation to COVID-19’s impact on gender-based violence.

“In the context of COVID-19,” Dr. Fisher explained, “research has shown an increase in domestic violence against women because people are stuck at home with their abusers.”

Dr. Fisher also expanded on this topic of increased violence, describing how it is not a limited issue.

“Globally,” she said, “folks have also examined violence against Dalit women in India, and against transgender women of color in the United States.”

Dr. Fisher then expressed that more statistics suggest how women face continued mistreatment not only in the workplace, or related to COVID-19, but throughout everyday society, too.