Women at Christ's
News for Christ's Women:
- After a brief hiatus the Lady Margaret Society is back and last year's committee held several successful events including a pudding party and hosted some distinguished female speakers. A new committee has just been elected and there is a dinner in the first week of Easter Term 2009. The President is Charlotte Verrill (clv26); please contact Charlotte if you have any questions about the society or helping out.
- Check out the Lady Margaret Society facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=12058457539&ref=ts
- There is now a Women's Welfare Box in the toilets under the library; help yourselves!
In 2008 Christ's College celebrated the 30th anniversary of female admissions!
Although women are statistically still in a minority at Christ’s, they make up a very active, dynamic section of college, so the statistical discrepancy can be easy to forget. For example, the last four JCR presidents have all been women!
Some of the most successful sports teams in college are women’s teams (see Sports), and the major sports in college all have female teams. Several other sports including netball, hockey and lacrosse have mixed teams, reflecting Christ’s inclusive attitude to extra-curricular activities. There is practically no area of college life in which women do not play a major role.
As such, the college is keen to celebrate the presence of women at Christ’s and events such as the Lady Margaret’s Dinner demonstrate this. As part of the college’s constant efforts to improve access, the question of women’s access is very important to Christ’s. The college has also set up a Working Group to address such questions as women’s academic performance in exams. If you have any ideas about issues such as these, please do not hesitate to contact the Women’s Officer (see Contact the JCR).
Your Women’s Officer
The JCR tries to look after the welfare of the female students through the Women’s Officer. This year, she is Anna Carden, a first year Linguist studying Arabic and French. She represents the women of Christ's on the JCR, in college and university-wide. She is always available to talk confidentially to any woman in college, and can help by providing unbiased advice or taking the problem to the appropriate college authority if necessary.
On a more practical note, she has supplies of sanitary products, condoms, pregnancy tests and attack alarms which she can put in your pigeon hole if you ask. She can also reimburse you 2/3rds of the cost of any taxi journeys you make on your own or in pairs - just put the receipts in her pigeon hole.
Upcoming Events
To be announced.
Useful links
Some of the most common problems that young women at any university face include discrimination & harassment, work stress & mental health issues, sexual health and personal safety. Your Women’s Officer is glad to discuss any of the above with you, but here are some links to other sources of help available to you. There are also links to relevant campaigns, which you may be interested in.
Cambridge University Student’s Union Women’s Union
www.womens.cusu.cam.ac.uk
This site contains details of university-wide women’s events and campaigns.
Cambridge University Counselling Service
www.counselling.cam.ac.uk
This is a free service offered by the university, which can provide counselling appointments and support groups for individuals. The site also offers lots of useful advice and information on a wide variety of problems.
Welfare support
www.linkline.org.uk
Linkline provides telephone support 7pm – 7am on 01223 367575
www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/welfare/
You can also contact our college welfare officer (link to Cat’s email) for advice or support on any welfare issue.
Sexual Health
www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/welfare/beeline/
Beeline can also provide telephone support on (01223) 333179.
Eating Disorders
www.edauk.com
www.eating-disorders.org.uk
www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/eating
Violence against women
www.cambridgerapecrisis.co.uk/
Rape Crisis Centre (01223) 245888
www.victimsupport.org/vs_england_wales/index.php
Victim supportline 0845 30 30 900
www.womensaid.org.uk/
National domestic violence helpline 0808 2000 247