Amanda Brail – News Reporter –
Dr. Astric Eich-Krohm, one of the faculty advisors for the Sociology Club at Southern Connecticut State University, said that she wants to make students here more aware of the inequalities that still exist between the sexes.
“We still don’t have pay equality,” she said, “[and] we still don’t have equality under the law. We need to make people more aware of the fact that women are still not treated equal to men in a lot of aspects.”
The Sociology Club held a bake sale in the Engleman Rotunda on Wednesday, Mar. 13 in order to get the message out and raise awareness of inequalities.
Dr. Cassi Meinhoffer, also a faculty advisor to the club, explained that the club was charging 75 cents per baked good for the female students as opposed to one dollar per baked good for the male students.
“We thought it was really important to demonstrate the inequality between men and women to the students,” she said.
“It really demonstrates the inequalities between the sexes in black and white,” added club member Michelle Leeman. “When women go to the grocery store we have pay the same amount for something as a man, but we’re paid less and that’s really unfair.”
Eich-Krohm said that the club wanted to hold a bake sale in February in honor of black history month, but because of the snow they were not able make it happen.
Instead, they opted to hold a bake sale this month in honor of women’s history month – taken place throughout March.
Leeman said the club is also hosting a screening on Monday, Mar. 18 of the film “Very Young Girls” in order to raise awareness of sexual exploitation of young girls in this country.
Eich-Krohm gave most of the credit to the student members of the sociology club for coming up with the idea for the bake sale and for carrying it out.
The entire length of the table was covered in cookies, brownies, homemade baked goods, and some store bought, in order to get the message across to students and help the sociology club raise money for other events.
“All of the students brought something to sell,” she said. “We raised 290 dollars two years ago so we’re looking to raise somewhere around that number again.”
Eich-Krohm said that she wants to raise enough money to bring in a guest speaker to discuss social inequalities in the United States with students of Southern and to also hold other events for the club and through the club.
“Discussing these social inequalities with the students and making them aware is very important,” she said, “especially now with what’s going on with the proposed tuition hikes and the rally that the university is holding.”
Members of the Sociology club held a bake sale to raise money to support women’s history month throughout March.
She was referring to the Tuition Hike Rally that took place the same day as the bake sale in the academic quad protesting an 800 dollar raise in tuition for the state schools – Southern, Central, Eastern and Western – next semester.
Leeman said why she thinks it is important for the students of Southern to hold events like the bake sale and the rally in order to raise awareness.
“I hope that students realize the unfairness of the inequity,” she said. “I hope that the students who have to pay more at the bake sale realize that it’s a real issue and it really does affect everyone.”
