Candidate for the position of Womens Officer

NINA BO

VOTE NINA BO FOR WOMXNS OFFICER

Hello, I’m Nina. I’m a second-year undergrad in International Relations and Development Studies. In my free time, I play in the SOAS samba band Sambatage. I have previously worked intensively with womxn’s and gender issues, for example by co-founding and implementing a version of the Enough is Enough campaign in several national organizations in Denmark, where I am from. If chosen as your womxn’s officer, I would divide my focus into three areas, that I feel are crucial and are not being highlighted enough by other officer roles.

INTERSECTIONALITY

Everyday sexism manifests itself in many forms, and is exacerbated by multiple layers of oppression experienced differently by everyone. I would like to implement an intersectional approach to deal with and ultimately prevent these individual instances of sexism that are enabled by our institution and wider norms by:

Working with other officers, such as the Tans* and Gender Identity officer, and the People of Color officer, to ensure an inclusive approach to anti-discrimination, so that everyone feels represented within the union.
Working with and expanding Enough Is Enough and the Anti-Bias workshops for Faculty, to deal with importantly overt harassment and consent, but also problems such as within the class rooms where womxn and other groups are talked over, overlooked completely, or purposefully disregarded. Not only should womxn and other students be heard louder when speaking up for themselves, but they are preventing such instances should be a collective action through greater awareness.

ACCOUNTABILITY

As has been witnessed and finally highlighted this academic year, when instances of harassment and sexual violence occur, SOAS is not being held accountable for reported cases by students. As womxn’s officer I will work on holding SOAS accountable in ways that the SU has previously failed us before, by:

Responding to the Account for This SOAS campaign by continuing to host open forums for students to organize to let representatives from the SU and Administration know their grievances.
As a continuation of this response, I will try to engage with the guidelines that the administration has set up for dealing with reports in order to make it more inclusive and not least accountable.
I will continue with monitoring the new report system implemented by the SU and SOAS this year to ensure that it improves transparency, efficiency and action in reporting while still ensuring the possibility of anonymity.
Ensuring that counselling and greater welfare services are equipped to adequately and directly deal with harm related to harassment and sexual violence for all students.

STUDENT INTERMEDIARY

As the womxn’s officer I would be the official liaison for the NUS Women’s Campaign and would leverage this link to ensure national support for the initiatives as SOAS that actually deal directly deal with the issues that especially womxn face, while also engaging with national initiatives such as the Women’s strike.
Lastly, one of the most important parts of being your womxns’ officer is being a point of contact for womxn and whoever else feels that I am capable of dealing with their issue. It would be an honor to be entrusted with the task of being the intermediary link for students to be able to deal with the SU and the wider institution.

I hope you will do me the honor of letting me be your womxns officer.
xo Nina Bo