University of St. Thomas

Rashme Seneviratne, Class of 2004

My one wish for UST women is to take at least one women's studies course. In our culture, both at UST and outside of UST, being a feminist has such a negative connotation and women tend to shy away from that label or even taking women's studies courses.

My women's studies courses at UST really helped shape my view of our culture--understanding the issues women face and even understanding and changing my own stereotypes of myself as a woman. After graduation, I was more cognizant of the stereotypes of women in the workplace (they may not be as overt as generations past, but they still exist). How each individual woman reacts to such issues is a personal choice, but having the basic understanding of why this was happening really helped me deal with such issues. As a future female attorney, there is the double-edged sword of being to aggressive and being labeled a "bitch" and not being aggressive enough and losing your case. It's a on-going battle, but I honestly believe the lessons I learned in my women's studies courses really helped me gain an inner strength to debunk these stereotypes and succeed on my own terms.

As a side note, I think women have taken our rights for granted. Our ancestors fought so valiantly for our rights--to work, to earn money for our work, to be stay-at-home mothers if we chose, to control our own bodies. And systematically, these rights our being chipped away and it breaks my heart that women aren't as involved in these issues as they need to be. We don't want future generations of women fighting massive battles when we could fight and win these minor battles.