Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) is a club for feminists ran by feminists. The club currently has 75 registered members and has been a student organization on campus for 17 years. FMLA affiliates with the Feminist Majority Foundation which is the largest nonprofit in the United States dedicated to gender equality issues.
Megan McLafferty is a junior public health major with a nonprofit management minor and president of FMLA. This is McLafferty’s third year with FLMA as she has served as secretary the past two years.
“Our goals on campus are basically three things: We create a community for feminists on campus to share opinions and discuss issues they care about,” McLafferty said. “We work to advance gender equality and feminism on campus at SRU. We try to support the efforts of other diversity, equality and inclusion organizations on campus and together furthers the goal of creating a more welcoming, accessible and equitable campus.”
FMLA meets every two weeks to discuss topics related to feminism, domestic violence, gender equality and more. The club chooses topics by sending out a poll to all members of the club and then vote on the topics to discuss at their biweekly meetings.
“Most recently, we talked about the ‘not like other girls’ phase’ and internalized misogyny,” McLafferty said. “Our next discussion is going to be on white fragility. The discussion after that is going to be about the expectation of women to have kids and why it is harmful for women who can’t have kids or don’t want kids.”
FMLA partners with a variety of different organizations on campus to host events. FMLA partnered with the Honors College and the Women’s Center to hold a bake sale for women and children in Afghanistan and raised $122. The organization also partnered with the Student Non-Profit Alliance to bring Dress for Success to SRU.
On Thursday, FMLA is holding their biggest event of the year, Take Back the Night. Take Back the Night is a campus rally against sexual assault and domestic violence. The event will be held from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the SGA Pavilion in The Quad.
“Take Back the Night includes a candlelight vigil for all survivors and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. We march across campus. We also do a t-shirt fundraiser, and all the money goes to VOICe [Victim Outreach Intervention Center] because we like to donate to them at least once a year and support their efforts in the community,” McLafferty said.
Students do not need to be a member of the club to join bi-weekly discussions or events. FMLA works to create an open, respectful and inclusive environment for any student who want to attend.
“A lot of people can be turned off by our name at first,” McLafferty said. “Many people associate feminism with this idea that we all hate men and that we do not allow men in our club. We have several guys show up every meeting and we love them.”
FMLA is currently looking to add three e-board positions to the club. Students who are interested in joining FMLA at SRU can find more information through CORE. Students can also reach out to FMLA at fmla@sru.edu.
