Since enrolling here, I have slowly learned that Kenyon is not an activist campus, especially on the issue of feminism. Kenyon has developed neither a large-tent feminist group nor an environment in which feminist ideas are seriously discussed. And the only people suffering for it are Kenyon’s women who have atomized themselves out of any community network or support.

The Crozier Center for Women, Sisterhood and Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA) serve essential functions at Kenyon, and I don’t mean to discount the valuable work that they do. But Crozier is first and foremost a living space rather than a feminist power. As Sisterhood is designated for femme-identifying people of color, it cannot function as the umbrella organization I describe. And while the work PPGA has done is important and materially supports women at Kenyon, feminism does not begin and end with reproductive justice.

The feminist cause should be one of the most important on this campus, as it addresses the future of women in the legal, economic and social spheres of American life. Every single Kenyon student should be able to identify and articulate their stance on the feminist issue. There ought to be lively debate and a range of feminist ideas represented at Kenyon.

I suspect that a majority of women on this campus fall into a category of liberal feminism. There should be some organization explicitly advocating for this position, supporting women or engaging in rhetoric in Kenyon’s public discourse. There has not been a Collegian opinion article on a strictly feminist matter since 2021, and an opinion article has not used the word “feminism” since 2020 in an article titled “How young women are navigating a post-RBG America.” As I have been on staff at the Collegian for the past two years, I can confidently say that this deficit doesn’t reflect much on the Collegian itself but rather on a lack of student interest. 

We are far from a post-feminist world. Yet, with this campus’s blasé attitude toward the oppression of women, you may get the impression that there is no longer a need for feminism at Kenyon. But the campus is not lacking in misogynists or unequal barriers to entry for women. I have frequently seen female students spoken over by their male peers in my classes. In the past, students have documented the unsafe environment for women at parties on campus. If the average American man helps promote a pedophilic beauty standard, that cultural influence doesn’t stop at the gates of hell. It is ridiculous that none of this is often discussed in a public forum, especially within such a hypergraphic student population. Perhaps the College has just curated a wholly docile population of women.

For all the grandstanding claims you hear whenever the topic of feminism comes up in conversation here, feminist discussion tends to devolve into platitudes. A feminist discussion will often devolve into party politics, broadening the scope way beyond the liberation of women and yet funneling all distinct beliefs into one of two lackluster options.  

On the individual level, I have seen no mass female solidarity or network of support among women in my time on this campus. Sure, that network may exist within a group of friends or a sports team, but there is certainly not an innate sisterhood or respect among Kenyon women just for being women. 

 It is an open secret among women here that there are certain faculty members who create hostile environments for the women in their classes. A friend of mine had one of these professors and went to multiple female faculty members for advice on how to discuss the sexist environment of his class. She was told, in more words, to keep her head down and put it in the end-of-year class survey. 

If you have been feeling the same way as me, I would encourage you to engage with feminist groups on campus or found the all-encompassing group I describe.  Better yet, contact The Kenyon Collegian to put these thoughts out to the world. Women are a significant majority on this campus. It is time that our official forums reflect that.

Tadhg Sahutske ’27 is a history major from Detroit. She can be reached at sahutske1@kenyon.edu.