Why would the Cambridge Student Union not want a women’s campaign? Unlike most other universities Cambridge lacks a university-wide feminist society, due to the Student Union’s refusal to support it. Instead, Cambridge’s feminist efforts are fragmented across several inactive college societies, without enough members to survive. Seeking to fill this gap is Gender Agenda, Cambridge’s Women’s Campaign reborn, as a new, independently funded society.

Rosie Freeman, co-president and a former Women’s officer at Cambridge Student Union, first joined the Women’s Campaign in her first year, alongside Erin Maccabe, its treasurer. At the time, it consisted of just five members. It has since grown into the political and ambitious feminist society it is today, with Madeleine Baber, who initially worked separately on the Gender Agenda Zine joining as Arts and Publicity Officer and Co-President respectively, and Lauren Sayers joining as Events Coordinator last year. They recently won the Best Specialist Publication in the SouthEast Region at the Student Publication Awards.

When asked how she would define feminism, Elise said, “There are fluctuations and debates on what it means, so giving a coherent definition is difficult.” Their constitution has expanded to campaign against patriarchy in all its forms. “We enjoy the idea that it can be more than just a women’s club, and try to make it as inclusive as possible,” they said. They want it to be “a space where men can also submit their work if they want to,” producing “a malleable reflection of what students want [to be] represented.” Rosie also stressed that their role needs to “facilitate discussion and criticism of ourselves […] we need to be comfortable with other people challenging us.”

We discussed the prevalence of misogyny at Cambridge, a university built on patriarchal foundations, from the gendered academic award gap to the harassment of women at St John’s on the 10th anniversary of admitting women. Rosie recalled being told to “use a more masculine voice” in a supervision, continuing, “I was unaware of it [misogyny at Cambridge] all in my first year […] being a women’s officer really makes you realise the issues at play and the necessity of student activism.” The Women’s Campaign archives illuminate the parallels 40 years on as the same issues repeat themselves.

“being a women’s officer really makes you realise the issues at play and the necessity of student activism”

Rosie explained that the Women’s Campaign was created “with the aim to be representative and inclusive […] within the centrally organised SU.” The SU’s decision to “kick them out” and dissolve campaigns has forced Gender Agenda to undergo a massive transformation.

The financial impact of this divorce has been significant, leaving WomCam in debt and unable to fund travel for valuable guest speakers, relying on a limited £350 grant per term, despite false reassurances that they would continue to receive the same amount of money as they had under the SU. Madeleine said, “For a society that has existed within their walls since the 1980s, to then refer to us as a start-up, felt like a massive disrespect.”

Given just one month to rewrite an entire constitution, fund the zine, make a bank account and find a senior treasurer in order to facilitate the rebirth of the society, individual members have been left £200 out of pocket. The SU made themselves essentially unreachable, confirming their decision to decline WomCam’s funding just before they took holiday leave.

Elise explained that the SU “fundamentally misunderstood the concept of support, we would like to be collaborative, to debate and discuss this and come up with compromises,” but even after Elise and Rosie visited the SU for an in-person discussion, they were told to just “email any questions.”

Discussing the SU’s decision, Rosie said that by “outsourcing representation liberation and by moving it outside of the SU,” they were “no longer accountable for the fact it does not exist.” There is a strong sense of institutional inertia, and Lauren said, “No student sees it [the SU] as a body of representation… it is completely faceless.” Elise added, “Cambridge thrives on the allure of progression […] you don’t want to change, you just want to look like you’re changing.”

“Cambridge thrives on the allure of progression […] you don’t want to change, you just want to look like you’re changing”

Not only this, but they are unable to access their own intellectual property, still waiting for a legal handover of their archives. Rosie said, “Our intention is to move this powerful archive from the 80s to the communal space of a library so that it can be used for personal dissertations and research projects.” She continued, “We are informed by history, by the strategies and the decisions that were made, and we don’t just exist in a contemporary vacuum.”

However, every cloud has a silver lining. Madeleine said, “We never fully liked that we weren’t allowed to be overtly political, now, it has become more than just a representative space for women, but an activist project.” Following a data breach, a governance review of the SU showed that “being in the charitable structure of the SU was restricting the possibility of student activism.” Rosie said that “an activist tries to unsettle the comfortable, and charity law really likes the comfortable.”

Under the SU, WomCam’s efforts were stifled, unable to appeal to political parties, alter graphics, logos or titles without trustee permission. After spending the summer making “a space for the SU to thrive and connect with their students better,” one of the only significant emails WomCam received was one requesting that they change the logo on a guide to Abortion Care in Cambridge “because it didn’t go with the branding of the SU.”

“anyone in Cambridge can come to us and say they want to put on this event and we get loads of messages every week asking us to support events, campaigns and discussions and we will”

To succeed, Gender Agenda now needs the help of the student body. Through initiatives like the Feminist Files podcast, annual general meetings, the Reclaim the Night March and Vigil, Reclaim The Club nights, poetry workshops, film screenings and Zine Art Nights, they seek to create space for students to contribute.

This has included a number of partnerships with other campaigns, forming a broader network of activism to help bring about meaningful change. This has included work with STAR, a student action for refugees group and the End Sexual Violence Campaign. The latter saw them compiling an easily accessible resource on college assault policies for anyone in a position of distress. Madeleine said Gender Agenda takes campaigns such as this “under our wing […] they support us and we support them.”

Providing a platform for feminism-related events in Cambridge, they run panels, such as their upcoming collaboration with the Cambridge Psychology Society, and aim for a termly debate, their upcoming one on debating “this house believes the family is an instrument of the patriarchy.” Lauren explained, “It’s not me who has decided to put on these events; anyone in Cambridge can come to us and say they want to put on this event and we get loads of messages every week asking us to support events, campaigns and discussions and we will.”

Therefore, in terms of funding, Lauren said, “It’s not just us who get the money, it’s every student who wants to be involved.” Their committee is constantly expanding, with a welfare officer and outreach and representation officer added in recent months. Madeleine said, “We are at a critical conjecture, beginning a new chapter, and so we want people to be able to ask to be a part of it.” Rosie said, “Feminism is about collectivism, not individualism, and facilitating student activism beyond the committee itself.”

Rosie concluded, “I’d love for people to reach out after this article because the more people we have, the more power we have as a campaign.” Madeleine said, “After attending our free events, we really rely on the support the students give back to us by attending our launch party and buying our zine.” One of Gender Agenda’s goals is to extend their outreach programme, to ideally include a women’s officer at each college. In Rosie’s words, “ambition is central to activism.”