Women's History Month 2026
Women’s History Month falls in March each year, taking place between 1-31 March 2026.
During this month we will be running events to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements and International Women’s Day. As a part of this, we celebrate Women’s History Month with a wide range of SU and University events.
We are currently organising our programme of events for Women's History Month 2026 and will update this webpage as events, timings and locations are confirmed. If you would like any further information about our planned programme of events for 2026, please email the Events team at events@essex.ac.uk.
Karaoke + Milk It: International Womens Month Special
Monday 2 March, 9pm - 2am
SU Bar
Do you love a good sing-along? Maybe you've got the best cha-cha slide and want to show it off? Or do you and your besties know all the words to the Grease Mega Mix and need to belt it at the top of your lungs?
Banner Making: Women's Day March
Thursday 5 March, 12pm - 4pm
The Atrium
Come along to the Atrium on Thursday and make your own female empowerment banner for our march together on Friday!
Sub Titles Over
Thursday 5 March, 7pm
Lakeside Theatre
First of October 2017. Three am. A knock on the door. Everyone is holding their breath inside their sleeping bag, crammed in this boiling hot polling station.
Just hours away from the referendum for Catalan independence, deemed illegal by the Spanish government, two young anti-fascist activists hold hands in the dark, waiting for the Spanish police to arrive at any minute…
‘ – ¡Vamos a quemar esto con todos vosotros dentro!’
Did you hear that? Just a friendly cop nudging them to wake up…
This award-winning one-woman-show explores how translation and subtitles can be used to manipulate monolingual communities through the media, especially when creating the hegemonic narrative surrounding foreign affairs in non-English-speaking countries.
Performed fully in Catalan, with English captions.
Womens's Day March
Friday 6 March, 11.45am - 1.00pm
Meet at SU reception on Square 4
Have your voice heard and march with us to advocate for women’s rights. Collect your banner or choose one the community made yesterday! Join us in making the world a better and safer place for all women.
International Women’s Day Basketball Doubleheader
Saturday 7 March, 2.30pm - 9pm
Essex Sport Arena
Join us at the Essex Sport Arena for a special International Women’s Day Weekend Basketball Doubleheader, celebrating women in sport with an exciting afternoon and evening of top-level basketball and entertainment.
Women's Volleyball Social Session
Sunday 8 March, 12pm - 2pm
Essex Sport Arena
Delivered by the Essex Rebels Women’s Volleyball Team. Join the team and the Tribe for a relaxed and welcoming afternoon on court and off it.
International Women's Day Volleyball Doubleheader
Sunday 8 March, 2pm - 4pm
Essex Sport Arena
Join us for the final home games of the season as our Essex Rebels Men’s and Women’s Volleyball teams battle for a place in the Super League Volleyball Final 4 in London.
Women, Power, and the Spaces We Inhabit
Monday 9 March, 1pm - 3pm
LTB 3 and Online - Click here to join
A journey through architecture, gender, and agency.
How does space quietly organise power and how does it affect women? I will guide you through a historical journey to the post-war to uncover history lessons that have shaped our past and still affect our present. This talk explores how architecture shapes women’s labour, visibility, and emotional worlds. Blending art history, social history, and lived experience, Solange guides audiences through a powerful reflection on how buildings encode gender — and how reclaiming space becomes an act of resistance.
A provocative, embodied evening about home, care, and who spaces are really built for.
IWOMEN: Friends International Women's Group
Wednesday 11 March, 5.00pm - 6.30pm
Faith Centre, 3.305 Square 2
Come celebrate International Women's Day with the women of Friends International at our fortnightly women's group! Free hot drinks and snacks will be provided. All women are welcome
Get Ready together: Womens History Month
Wednesday 11 March, 7pm - 9pm
The Atrium
Girls, get ready together before FED! Bring your makeup, your hairspray and your besties and get ready together!
Even if you're not a fan of FED, help the other girls get ready, share make up tips, get your nails done and all that good stuff.
'You feel like a second class citizen’: intimate citizenship, reproductive justice, and UK family bordering policies with Dr Gwyneth Lonergan, Northumbria University
Thursday 12 March, 4pm - 5pm
Online - Click here to join
This paper considers the relationship between reproductive justice and intimate citizenship, through an exploration of the way in which family bordering processes impact migrant women’s experiences of pregnancy and new motherhood. The heterosexual nuclear family is both a site in which the nation-state is literally reproduced, and also, through which gendered and racialised hierarchies of belonging and citizenship are legitimated (Peterson 2021; Turner 2020). The codification of the heterosexual nuclear family as the ‘correct’ model was critical to the establishment of the gendered public/private divide central to liberal citizenship (Pateman 1989). Similarly, claims that this model of the family was ‘superior’ figured centrally in the racialisation of colonised and enslaved persons, and the concomitant association of Britishness with whiteness. These discourses construct a particular ‘ideal’ racialised, gendered, and heteronormative model of intimate citizenship. Family bordering processes both reflect and enforce this model, disciplining migrant family forms and practices. Drawing on qualitative research with migrant mothers, I demonstrate that these processes, and the underpinning model of citizenship, have material consequences for migrants’ experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. Indeed, while national maternity policy emphasises the importance of ‘family’ for a healthy and safe pregnancy and birth, bordering processes serve to limit (some) pregnant migrants’ access to familial support, with consequences for these migrants’ emotional and physical wellbeing, as well as their sense of belonging and experience of intimate citizenship. These harms are unevenly distributed, particularly affecting those migrants whose family forms and practices do not conform to the white, heteronormative, norm.
Self Defence Class
Friday 13 March,7pm - 9pm
Studio 1, Essex Sport Arena
Learn self defence with the Blades Judo club as part of Womens history Month. Designed to empower, educate and build confidence in a fun and supportive space!
Taking Up Space: Women, Bodies, and Inner Power
Tuesday 17 March, 1pm - 3pm
LTB 5 and Online - Click here to join
What does it mean to be a woman in public space? Who gets to take up room, to be seen, to feel at home in their own body?
In this accessible, story-led talk, Solange introduces the work of Marina Abramović through themes every woman recognises: visibility, boundaries, vulnerability, and inner strength. Rather than focusing on shock or controversy, this evening explores how Abramović used presence and courage to ask powerful questions about womanhood, connection, and self-worth.
Night Time Run (Or Walk) Girls Run Club
Wednesday 18 March, 6pm - 7pm
Meet outside SU Reception
Reclaim the night with the first EVER Girls Run (or Walk!) Club. We will be running (or walking!) together around the local area (route to be announced on the night)
Two 2.5km loops for the runners, feel free to bow out after just one loop if you wish, and a 2.5km route for the walkers - taking between 25-45 minutes in total.
Open to ALL abilities!
No one gets left behind!
The Intersection of Gender, Race and Beauty – Dr Tameka Ellington
Monday 23 March, 2pm - 4pm
Online - Click here to join
This proposal consists of a partnership with Dr. Tameka and the University of Essex Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Dr. Tameka will present an empowering presentation from her book entitled; “The Intersection of Gender, Race and Beauty. ” The presentation will cover the following objectives/topics: Decolonizing Beauty Standards The Impacts of Colorism and Texturism Self-love in a Misogynoir World
Sip & Paint: Body Positivity
Tuesday 24 March, 7pm - 9pm
SU Bar
Hey girls!
Come together in SU Bar for a Womens History Month Sip and Paint!
Your ticket includes one free drink on arrival and all the painting materials you need.
Yoko Ono Radical Tenderness and the Art of Quiet Revolution
Thursday 26 March, 1pm - 3pm
NTC 3.05 and Online - click here to join
Often misunderstood and underestimated, Yoko Ono is one of the most quietly radical artists of our time. Long before mindfulness became mainstream, her work invited people to slow down, listen, imagine, and participate — offering softness as a form of strength.
In this talk, Solange explores Ono’s art through themes every woman recognises: care, collaboration, invisibility, and emotional labour. Together we’ll look at how Ono used gentleness, instruction, and imagination to challenge power structures — and why women’s quiet creative work is so often overlooked.
Girls Night In!
Friday 27 March, 6pm - 9pm
The Atrium
Girls, its time for a girly night in! Come in your PJS or dress up - We don't mind!
Get ready to play some games, sing some karaoke and have a proper GIRLS NIGHT IN.
Events running for all of March
Women's History Month Display
Visit our Colchester campus library to discover our Women's History Month book displays.
