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Center for Women,
Gender & Sexuality
55th Anniversary Gala Celebration
55 years of trailblazing for women
Join us on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 for a celebration honoring the Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality’s 55-year commitment to advocacy and creating an inclusive campus community, featuring Jean Kilbourne—an internationally recognized pioneer in examining the image of women in advertising and a 2015 National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee.
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Screening of the movie Lilly
2pm at Robert F. Stoico / FIRSTFED Charitable Grand Reading Room
Claire T. Carney Library
Jean Kilbourne will deliver an introduction to “Lilly”, a powerful film based on the true story of Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama tire factory supervisor whose goal is to lift her family into the middle class.
Free. Co-sponsored by the departments of Health & Society and Women & Gender Studies.
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Gala celebration
5pm at Marketplace
A cocktail reception followed by dinner and keynote address by Jean Kilbourne on the significance of women trailblazers and the importance of recognizing women’s contributions throughout history. Proceeds will support programming in the Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality.
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About Jean Kilbourne
Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and for her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. In the late 1960s, she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy to prevent these problems. She is president of the National Women's Hall of Fame and was inducted in 2015. Her documentary series, Killing Us Softly, explores the gender stereotypes in advertising, and is one of the most popular educational films of all time.
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About CWGS
Founded in 1970 as the Women’s Referral Center, the Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality (CWGS) is the second-oldest collegiate women’s center in the country. What began as a grassroots hub for reproductive rights advocacy has grown into a campus leader for equity, inclusion, and student support. Today, CWGS champions the voices of women and all genders, and serves as a vital resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer students. For 55 years, the Center has combined activism, education, and community building to advance justice and create a more inclusive university.