CT Girlcott to Kick Off Its Second Year with Press Conference Monday

CT Girlcott, a movement aimed at fighting gender injustice, will kick off its second year with a press conference on Monday, Sept. 9, at 11 a.m. at the Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Ave., Hartford.

Among the organizations that helped launch CT Girlcott last year were the University of Hartford's Women for Change and Women's Education and Leadership Fund (WELFund). Speakers at Monday's press conference will include Associate Professor of Psychology Mala Matacin and Marissa Lawrence, a UHart sophomore majoring in psychology with a minor in gender studies.

The goal of CT Girlcott is to raise awareness about the challenges and issues facing women in 2014: body image, objectification, violence, self-esteem, pay inequity, the epidemic of sexual assault, etc. Ultimately, it is about a girlcott (as opposed to “boycott”) of policies, attitudes and practices that allow gender injustice to continue.

Girlcott was launched last year by the Charter Oak Cultural Center, YWCA Hartford Region, The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Women for Change at the University of Hartford, CT Humanities, the Women’s Center at Trinity College, the University of St. Joseph, the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, the Ethel Walker School, the University of Hartford’s Women’s Education and Leadership Fund, and others. Hundreds of women of all ages and ethnicities participated.

From September through March, Girlcott planners will organize films, theatre, art exhibits, concerts and “Makeup Sex Groups” (groups of women meeting to explore the intimate relationship between themselves and the cosmetics they use) that examine all the things that continue to keep women from enjoying full equality with men, even in 2014. Girlcott culminates in March with women going make-­‐up free for the month and donating the money they would have spent on makeup to organizations that support women and girls in Connecticut and around the world.

Girlcott started here in Hartford and planners hope it will become an international initiative.

In addition to the University of Hartford's Matacin and Lawrence, speakers at Monday's press conference will include: State Senator Beth Bye; Cathy Malloy, CEO of The Greater Hartford Arts Council; Thea Montanez, former executive at The Hartford and founder of Montanez Consulting LLC; Deborah Ullman, CEO of YWCA Hartford Region; Donna Berman, executive director of Charter Oak Cultural Center; Katherine Kane, executive director of The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center; and students from Ethel Walker School, University of Hartford and Trinity College.

See the Facebook page for Monday's press conference.