This story contains discussions of eating disorders. 

The month of March marks Women’s History Month in the United States — a time period designated to celebrating the often unrecognized contributions of women to all aspects of society.

For the past 10 years at the University of Utah, an annual Women’s Week has been organized during the month to highlight and facilitate important discussions on the experiences of women, centered around a theme.

Women’s Week 2022 at the U took place from March 14 to 18 and was centered around the theme “Shift. Strive. Thrive.” The theme draws on the struggles women may have faced during the pandemic, resulting in a need for healing, self-care and growth.

Several events were planned for the week, varying from themed discussions with panelists, to workshops, massage sessions and virtual yoga.

“The ‘She’ Suite”: Women and Leadership Opportunities

One virtual event was “The ‘She’ Suite,” a discussion about the unique challenges and experiences of women in C-level positions — the highest-ranking positions in an organization.

The panelists included Mary Beckerle, the CEO of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Beatryx Washington, the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of O.C. Tanner, Nicholina Womack, CEO and founder of FutureINDesign, and Catherine Wong, the COO of Domo.

Sara Jones, the CEO of InclusionPro, moderated the discussion. 

An introduction was given by Pamela Bishop, the director of marketing and communications for the office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the U. In her introduction, Bishop set up the importance of the panel discussion by pointing out the gender equity issues that exist in such leadership positions.

“According to the most recent report by the Utah Women in Leadership project, it found that Utah companies generally have lower female representation in leadership positions compared to the nation, particularly its CEO and corporate boards,” Bishop said. “Some reports show that as many as four times as many women than men have left the workforce for the first year of the pandemic, most often because women took on a bigger share of the domestic responsibilities.”

During the discussion, Beckerle shared a memorable moment in her career as a scientist that demonstrated how she may be perceived differently by others in her field due to her gender. 

“This very senior man who was a member of the National Academy and a very distinguished senior colleague came up to me and started talking with me, and I was so excited because I thought he was going to ask me about my science and my talk — instead he said something like, ‘So great having you here … we used to come to these conferences and there was never anyone to dance with,’” Beckerle said. “I was crushed. I was shocked.” 

Despite the shock, Beckerle says she was able to engage with the man and turn it into a learning experience, being honest about how she felt and pointing out why what he said was wrong. 

“If something comes up like that, which it will, think about confronting and educating and that kind of a spirit,” Beckerle said. 

The panelists shared the feelings they had early on in their careers about doubting whether they belonged in a certain space due to their identities. 

“It’s hard to become what you can’t see, and sometimes if you don’t see people who look like you … it’s hard to envision, ‘How does that work?’” Wong said. 

Womack shared the view that marginalized people, including women, make natural entrepreneurs due to their fighting spirit and need to be resourceful in a society that was not built for them to succeed. 

“If you want to find the most gritty, resilient entrepreneurs, go to the places where people are the most underrepresented, where society wasn’t built in mind for them,” Womack said. 

Towards the end of the discussion, the panelists were invited to answer questions from those watching live. One question that came up was about how to deal with an inner voice that insists on not being good enough or qualified enough for a position.

Womack shared her challenges with this feeling as a woman who grew up poor in a violent household and then became a single mother at 19. She said what helped her overcome this feeling was realizing her experiences made her uniquely equipped to do the work she does. 

“I had every single barrier against me … at one point I just had to realize that … what I am passionate about has a need somewhere — there is a need somewhere for whatever you are passionate about, of the community you represent, of the gender you represent,” Womack said. “There is always a gap that needs to be filled … all the barriers that you have had … is actually a skill and a strength and will be able to solve a solution somewhere, you just have to lean into it and find it.” 

Washington pointed out that she has only faced this question of capability from young women, but never from a man. She encourages young women to match the confidence of their male counterparts. 

“If a woman looks at a job description and there are 10 things that that employer is looking for, we want to be great at all 10 of those things before we even think about applying,” Washington said. “A man will look at that same requirement and say ‘I can meet 5 of those, I’ll learn the rest.'”

The panelists also highlighted the importance of holding the door open for other women to follow after they achieved their positions of leadership. Beckerle said if accusations of bias come up when women do this, the best course of action is to own it. 

“We have to take responsibility for sponsoring top talent and including women,” Beckerle said. “I think we just have to accept that sometimes there may be some heat for that, but if you are true to your values and you are attracting and supporting and advancing really talented people, it’ll all be fine. I feel like I owe that to future women.”

“Thriving in Your Own Body”: The Pressure Women Face

Another panel held during the week was “Reframing the Conversation: Thriving in Your Own Body,” held in person at the Hinckley Caucus Room and available to join virtually.

The panelists included T Anthony, a non-binary trans-feminine individual majoring in musical theatre at the U, Alyssha Dairsow-Garfield, the founder of the non-profit organization Curly Me! which empowers young Black girls to embrace their natural hair and Kelsie Jepsen, a body acceptance coach who helps people overcome negative body image issues and fatphobia.

The panel was moderated by Lexie Kite, who received a Ph.D. from the U in the study of female body image and co-authored the book “More Than a Body: Your Body is an Instrument, Not an Ornament.”

The three panelists shared their unique experiences at various intersections of “woman” and how that influences the work they do. 

Dairsow-Garfield said she never intended to stay in Utah for more than a couple of years, but was prompted to stay after witnessing the great need in the community for the work she does. Not only were young Black girls being influenced to dislike their hair and being adultified — seen as older than they actually are — but there was nobody there to step in with positive reinforcement. 

“When you find out from parents that their daughters don’t like their hair as young as three … or as young as five, they’re adultified … they’re not protected,” Dairsow-Garfield said. “Body positivity is us teaching our girls to make sure that they understand their own selves, their own hair … if you want to wear it in an afro like this, that should be okay and society should accept that.” 

Anthony said they grew up in a small town in Kentucky, and it was in college that they found the freedom to explore their gender expression. 

“Through inclusive spaces on campus, through friends who didn’t even ask questions … I was able to come into my gender identity,” Anthony said. “It’s interesting for me to exist as a nonbinary person … and then as a trans-feminine individual … it’s like feeling so attached to that binary but then also internally feeling so completely not wanting to be forced into that position.” 

Anthony said what has helped them in their journey of body acceptance is forms of body expression such as yoga, and building acceptance from within. 

“I feel like transformation starts inside and then comes out,” Anthony said. 

Jepsen, who grew up in Utah, said she struggled with body image issues and developed an eating disorder at a young age. When her friend passed away from similar issues, it served as a harsh wake-up call to the way she was mistreating her body. 

“With a couple girls in my neighborhood, we would not eat together, we would call each other if we got hungry, we would exercise incessantly — unfortunately that led one of them to die, and it was horrible and life changing,” Jepsen said. “I realized, ‘Oh, I have to eat to live.’ And so I did, and of course that resulted in weight gain as it should have, but everybody in my life commented on it.” 

Jepsen said after struggling with body image issues for years, she sought out therapy, and this was the first time she heard the term ‘fatphobic.’ Being unable to find any programs specifically designed to dismantle fatphobia led Jepsen to the work she does today.

“My definition of fatphobia is the fear of fatness on ourselves, coupled with the systemic hatred of fat bodies,” Jepsen said. “It’s not my fault that I had those narratives, but I did internalize that.” 

Jepsen said that overcoming fatphobia means detaching the word “fat” from negative connotations. 

“I identify as fat, and that in and of itself is radical body acceptance,” Jepsen said. “When we can take back that word which is typically associated with ‘ugly, lazy, gross,’ all of these negative things, and I can say this is just a neutral descriptor. I am white, I have long, light brown hair, I am a woman, I’m fat. That is just me … there’s nothing bad about that, it just is.” 

Jepsen related this concept of neutrality to the way people should view their bodies, an alternative to the popular notion of body positivity.

“I am not a fan of the body positivity movement because it is mostly white women that are thin telling each other they’re not fat,” Jepsen said. “You can’t really go from ‘I hate my body’ to ‘I love my body,’ that is the same thing, you are still in that world of objectification … so I use a body neutral approach … it doesn’t matter if I don’t like how I look, I still am worthy of existing and existing safely.” 

A point which connected the unique stories of all three panelists was the cost of beauty. 

Dairsow-Garfield discussed the damage and expenses that come with Black girls and women trying to force their hair to be straight. 

“The cost to get your hair braided every two months, or ‘I’ll leave it in for three,’ and the damage that does to your hair … I’ve heard countless stories, and it’s like, ‘Well, why aren’t girls feeling comfortable with their natural hair?'” Dairsow-Garfield said. “I think that’s the bigger question: [when girls straighten their hair], why? Is it because you just want this style? Or is it because ‘if I don’t have it, I’m not beautiful, I’m not going to be accepted?’”  

Anthony shared their experience of feeling pressure to remove their natural body hair when they transitioned to a feminine gender identity because of the beauty standards for women, even though it was painful for them. 

“I hated my body hair when I came into my feminine ideal because it’s like, no one will take me seriously as a woman, as a feminine individual,” Anthony said. “It costs to be a woman, it costs to experience femininity … it’s absolutely ridiculous that I had to put myself through pain, have rashes on my body.” 

Jepsen pointed out that there is an emotional as well as literal and physical cost for women to fit into beauty ideals. 

“There’s like the literal cost, but there’s also the cost of, ‘Can my life be about more than shrinking myself?’” Jepsen said. “What could we do if we didn’t waste so much money, time and energy hating our own bodies and buying products to shift our bodies?” 

Kite reinforced this point and explained how women are put under immense pressure to constantly live up to the rigid ideals of beauty set forth for them. 

“The collective burden that is required for people who identify as female is great … these are ways that women are asked to take on a massive, expensive, painful burden,” Kite said.  “A portion of our lives and our consciousness has to be dedicated to how we appear.”

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