Community Engagement & Outreach

Women in Cambridge (WIC)
Women in Cambridge (WiC) is a monthly networking event sponsored by the Cambridge Women’s Commission, in partnership with a team of community members. What started as a MeetUp group in 2013 has turned into a networking group of over 600 members. Women who live, work, study or play in Cambridge come together every month at a local restaurant, gallery, retail store, non-profit and other interesting venues to share conversation and listen to a short presentation or discussion by a WiC member or community leader about her work or about programs she offers to the business community in Cambridge. Pictured above: WIC group photo by Melissa Blackall Photography. 

Women and Words!
The Commission’s quarterly discussion series seeks to provide the community with a forum to address dynamic, current, and wide-ranging feminist topics. Local speakers are invited to present and facilitate; past facilitators have included Tina Cassidy, author of Birth; the original and current contributors to the 40th anniversary edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves; and Jaclyn Friedman, author of What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex & Safety.

National Women’s History Month Celebration
National Women’s History Month, or the study of Women’s History as a discipline, was not established or even freely accepted thirty years ago. Women’s History Month actually began as Women’s History Week—as an addition to International Women’s Day on March 8. Since 1987, however, women’s history has been celebrated throughout the entire month of March. Each year the Women’s Commission, in partnership with the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project, honors the diversity of women and celebrates their accomplishments by developing a variety of programming, installations, and events in Cambridge that inform, educate, and inspire the public.

International Women’s Day Breakfast
International Women’s Day (March 8) is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. The date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, religious, and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. Simply put, International Women’s Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. Serving on the planning committee that brings the ever-popular International Women’s Day Breakfast to Boston-area women each year, the Commission helps determine a relevant topic and assists in securing leading experts to deliver keynote addresses and participate in panel discussions for the 150+ attendee event.