Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sally Ride, Amelia Earhart, Dr. Mae Jemison, and Condoleezza Rice; all women who have made a significant change in women’s suffrage history.

At Cerritos College, women like Linda Lacy, Debra Moore, Holly Bogdanovich, and Karen Welliver are responsible of making a change in the college’s history.

Art major Andrea Juarez said, “I think the women that have powerful positions at this school will make a mark in this college’s history. They are setting an example and paving the way for more women to run and take responsibility of roles that years ago, only men would obtain.”

Although March is women’s history month, some students believe that there should not only be one month of the year to celebrate the progression the women are making and everything they have suffered to be in the positions they are today.

Marcos Tuvar, psychology major, said, “I personally think that there should be a men’s history month but at the same time I think that women have gone through so much more suffering and pain throughout history than men have.”

What people fail to recognize or realize however, is the fact that the majority of the people running this school are in fact women.

The president of the college is Linda Lacy. The president of Faculty Senate is Debra Moore. The Director of Student Activities is Holly Bogdanovich. The basketball coach that had made history for Cerritos by being last year’s most winningest coach is Karen Welliver.

Although those are the most obvious leaders, Moore said that if you take a look at the deans as well as the rest of the employees of Cerritos College, they are in fact women.

These women are proof that not only our society, but our college, is making a great progression to accept and allow women to take such responsible roles.

Lacy believes that the college is setting an example for other colleges by proving that jobs and titles should not be given out because of gender or race but should be earned by the work that people do.

Lacy said, “I think now it’s so common for women to hold powerful positions in society that it’s come to a point that society has come to realize that race and gender shouldn’t be an issue. Someone should earn their title and their position by what they can do, what they have to offer, and the responsibility they are capable of handling.”

She thinks that she has not had to face hardships in her current position as president because people realize that she is capable of handling her position just as anyone else responsible enough would do so also.

Someone who has faced hardships, however not as a coach but as an athlete, is Welliver.

Back in 1976 when she was in Long Beach State’s women’s basketball team, her female teammates were forced to carpool or take their own cars to games, whereas the males would take a charter bus to the airport and fly to the games.

Welliver doesn’t take it personally though because, she said, it is different in athletics because competitiveness and being aggressive is in athletes’ blood.

“Thankfully, that has not been the situation here at Cerritos. I think the men in the athletics department as well as the women are all striving for the same goal and that’s to encourage students and help them achieve the goals they aspire.”

Although we have grown to be more accepting of women taking on more responsibilities, there are still people who think like business major Jose Ramirez and think that all women should be housewives.

He said, “Women should be at home cooking, cleaning, and watching the children. They have no business doing anything anywhere else. They are stupid if they even think they are capable of doing things as well as men can.”

Moore cared to disagree with that kind of thinking by saying that “one shouldn’t limit the talent or gift someone has by restricting them and putting imaginary lines that can’t be crossed. Everyone should be accepting of everyone else’s talents and whether or not they support them they should at least acknowledge that they can in fact be able to pursue such goals.”

Hoppe-Nagao agreed with Moore and said that to those who think that women should only be at home cooking and cleaning and being with their children, “Welcome to the 21st century.”

People should not have this preconceived notion that women are not allowed to things that men are also capable of doing. Women should be allowed to pursue anything they want regardless of whether or not you agree with it you should at least accept it.

Bogdanovich said, “I think society is continuously evolving and now I think we are to the point that there is no clear role of what men and women are suppose to do. The roles are now in a grey area because women are doing things men do and men are doing things women do.”

Regardless of what gender you are though, Welliver said that things shouldn’t be done halfway.

“If you are a man or a woman, if you are going to do something don’t do it halfway. Do it and do it with passion,” she said.