By Megan Grossi
On March 6th, 2017 the Student Involvement and Activities office paired with the Women’s Center to hold the 11th annual Women’s Conference of Salem State. A wide array of students and faculty attended to hear both the marvelous speaker and three strong panelists. Men and women of all races, ethnicities, and identities were able to get something out of this year’s conference – the theme being HERstory, focusing on the impact that women in history all over the world have had on us.
President Patricia Meservey spoke at the start of the conference. She was thrilled to see everybody come together for women’s sake. Her introductory speech focused on the country’s need at this time for strong leaders, leaders into whom we must grow as the next generation. She warned us to beware of bad leadership; if charisma drives us to trust a person and follow them into battle, then we must remain conscientious of when that charisma becomes trickery, leading us to failure. A good leader maintains charisma for good and “is transparent, shares information, and acts on sound information.” It is important, now more than ever, to “step forward, speak up, and take action” in opposition to injustices in the world. It is the job of the leaders to fight for those who cannot, for as President Meservey stated, “Your success will be our collective success.”
Immediately following President Meservey’s opening remarks, was the conference’s guest speaker, President Obama’s former personal aide Ferial Govashiri. She came to share her story in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8th, the theme of which this year is “Be Bold for Change.” It was truly unique to hear her story of boldness and perseverance. As a young woman she knew that she had to get involved somehow and contribute to something greater than herself.
Govashiri, lent her hand in the mayoral race in Garden Grove in Orange County, California. Her candidate lost. But despite that, she loved the feeling of running a campaign and stayed at it locally until 2007 when Senator Barack Obama declared that he was running for President. Having heard his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 Govashiri was inspired to pack up her life, move to Iowa, and help this man win however she could. It was grueling, and even after his victory, Govashiri told us, nobody on his campaign team had any guarantee of a job. She was lucky enough to get a position with National Security, a position that had her traveling around the world; working with the President even got her overseas to Iran, the country of her parents, somewhere she otherwise would never have seen.
The most impressive story Govashiri told on Monday was of her time in Saudi Arabia. As an America woman, she never felt compelled to cover herself up; but as a Middle Eastern-looking woman, being in Saudi she would be yelled at by men for being disrespectful and shameful. She was called out when walking alone, and her male colleagues would be yelled at on her behalf. During all of her trips to Saudi Arabia with President Obama, Saudi officials would never even acknowledge her existence – they wouldn’t even look her in the eye. Finally, though, on her last trip they all actually shook her hand and told her what a pleasure it had been to work with her for all these years. It was one of the happiest moments in her time at the White House.
After Govashiri finished, panelists Dr. Lisa McBride, Dr. Hope Watt-Bucci, and Professor January O’Neil were asked questions about when they found their voices and how hard it was to get to this point in their life. Overall it was an impressive and invigorating experience to witness and hear the stories of these amazing women.
Red Skies Magazine 