Outside the Women and Gender Studies program’s Paint & Sip event on Sept. 18, a whiteboard with text in all caps read, “Come on in! All are welcome!” The WGS program’s first event of the year was an evening of art and community on campus, reminiscent of the WGS program’s commitment to exploring gender, race, class and sexuality.

Behind the organization and success of the event was Delaney Brackin, a senior studying English with a WGS concentration, and the student worker for both the WGS program and the English department. In her role, she helps create and market events, runs the program’s social media and follows along with the committee to different off-campus events. 

Art supplies, women empowerment-themed canvases, beverages and assorted snacks were provided.  

“I love the idea of a paint and sip. It’s something that’s been very popular on the internet,” Brackin said. “It made me really happy — the way I sort of advertised it was telling students you’re doing something creative that nobody’s making you do. It’s something you can do on your own for yourself.”

First-year Anya Thompson, who is studying education and mathematics, was intrigued by the event for its artistic nature. She “most definitely” sees herself attending further WGS events in the future and wants to learn more about the program. 

“Any type of art is such a good way to express yourself,” Thompson said. “Especially with all the emotions that you can have. There’s something for everyone, and everything is a form of expression.” 

Brackin wants students to walk away from the event with “hopefully fun art” and a stronger sense of involvement and belonging. 

“Just the knowledge that if [students] need somewhere to go in the future, that we have events coming up where you can just be yourself, do something for yourself,” Brackin said. “Celebrate the Women’s and Gender Studies program. It’s always a win.”

As WGS is a program that holds events like this as opposed to a student organization, Brackin says the WGS program does sit in “a little bit of a weird space.”

“We were part of the Student Activities Fair, but we had to partner with a club in order to show up,” Brackin said. 

Associate Professor of English Beth Younger said the WGS program is not a department since there is no minor or major, just a concentration. To be a WGS concentrator, you need 18 credit hours in approved classes, which all originate in an academic department like English, sociology, history, art and so on. 

To Younger, there does not seem to be a clear reason the WGS concentration is not available as a major or minor area of study, but the concentration program for this field originally started and “got funded years and years ago.”

Despite only being a concentration, Younger stresses the importance of keeping the WGS program available at Drake amidst other schools like the University of Iowa pushing to close departments of American Studies and Gender, and Women’s and Sexuality Studies. Younger and Brackin agree that rising political controversies contribute to the field — which focuses on the analysis of gender as a category — being undervalued and underfunded. 

“I don’t think that the University of Iowa is short on funding, and they just couldn’t keep [the WGS program] around anymore,” Brackin said. “I would assume it has a lot to do with the world we’re living in right now.” 

The WGS program webpage encourages students interested in the concentration to speak with their advisor and WGS program director Jeanette Tran. Otherwise, Brackin says the number one recommendation she has for those curious about getting more involved with the WGS program is to keep up with social media pages. 

“We want to build a very vibrant community for the WGS program by getting people together, however we can. And so I think events like this just help get everyone together,” Brackin said. 

In an age where Donald Trump’s presidential administration is adamantly opposed to concepts intrinsic to gender analysis and studies, like the concept that gender is a social construct, Younger said women and gender studies are more important now than ever.

“It’s something that we still have to raise awareness of — the fact that there’s still sexism and bias against women,” Younger said. “The way our culture kind of works is it harms men as well because men are constricted by patriarchal values that they have to be powerful and not show their emotions … It’s important because it’s a real-world thing.”