Women in History

Civil Rights Legend Dorothy Height Passes

Submitted by jmumbey on Thu, 04/22/2010 - 10:25am

WASHINGTON (April 20) – Dorothy Irene Height, long-time civil rights activist, chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and "godmother of the women's movement," died of natural causes 3:41 a.m. Tuesday, April 20, at Howard University Hospital, 27 days after her 98th birthday.

Webinar--When love goes wrong: Understanding the devastating impact of interpersonal violence

Submitted by jmumbey on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 12:20pm

Member Organization:

Wellesley Centers for Women

Date/Time:

05/19/2010

Online

Time: 12:00pm Eastern Standard Time

Presented by Amy Banks, M.D.; learn more.

Historic Meeting of Survivor-Activists on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

Submitted by jmumbey on Fri, 04/09/2010 - 4:50pm

On March 11-12, 2010, the Ms. Foundation for Women had the honor of convening an inspiring meeting on survivor-led activism on child sexual abuse prevention. In what was one of the first times survivors have been brought together to discuss child sexual abuse prevention in a social justice context, twelve activists discussed successes, challenges, and historic moments in their field. They established exciting shared visions and first steps for realizing them in this growing social justice movement.

Video URL:

Member Organization:

Ms. Foundation for Women

Sex, Sports and Ethics Roundtable

Submitted by jmumbey on Wed, 03/31/2010 - 3:05pm

Member Organization:

Women's Studies Program

Date/Time:

04/20/2010

Panelists include: Ara Wilson (Associate Professor in Women's Studies and Director of the program in the study of sexualities), Robyn Wiegman (Professor, Women's Studies and Literature), and Doriane Coleman (Duke Law School).

Location: Breedlove Room

Sponsored by the Kenan Institute and the Program in the Study of Sexualities.

*Refreshments will be served.

Medieval Empowerment: Female Mystics in the Middle Ages

Submitted by jmumbey on Wed, 03/31/2010 - 11:19am

Member Organization:

Women's Research Institute of Nevada

Date/Time:

04/07/2010

Presenter: *Kate Wintrol

Although Christian tradition assigned sharply defined roles to women, the medieval nun often attained a high level of achievement and authority. Within the convent, women had the opportunity to learn Latin, to study both classical and religious literature, perform administrative duties, and lead a valued life of prayer. The monastic environment also nurtured the writings of female mystics. Throughout the Middle Ages, several visionary women transgressed gender boundaries. In this talk, I will analyze the life and writings of such medieval mystics as Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, and Julian of Norwich and address the factors that enabled female mystics to succeed in such a restricted environment.

Know Your History: Jeannette Rankin

Submitted by Kyla Bender-Baird on Tue, 03/30/2010 - 12:09pm

By Kyla Bender-Baird

As most of you know, March is Women’s History Month--a month dedicated to remembering all those amazing female figures too often left out of history textbooks. Do you know who your foremothers are? One of NCRW’s member centers, the Women’s Media Center, has been featuring exclusives on notable women all month. This week’s feature on Jeannette Rankin brought me back to high school and my early days of feminist awakenings.

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Why Young Women Need Feminism (Editorial)

Teaser:

"All my life, I was told that men and women were equal—so equal, in fact, that it wasn't even worthy of discussion. Like most of my friends, I outpaced my brothers and many of my male peers by a landslide in school, and took on extracurricular activities by the handful. I'd had it ingrained in me that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to. And I did, without ever embracing the fabled F word, or even learning about it in school.

"So for all the talk about feminism as passe, mine wasn't a generation that rejected it for its militant, man-hating connotation—but because of its success. Women were equal—duh—so why did we need feminism?

"It's only recently that I, and women my age, have come to eat those words."

Source:

Newsweek

URL:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/235299?obref=obinsite

Date:

March 23, 2010

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Sexism at Work: Young Women, Newsweek, and Gender

Teaser:

In 1970, 46 women filed a landmark gender-discrimination case; their employer was NEWSWEEK. Forty years later, their contemporary counterparts question how much has actually changed.

Editorial:

Forty years after NEWSWEEK's women rose up, there's no denying our cohort of young women is unlike even the half-generation before us.

Yet the more we talked to our friends and colleagues, the more we heard the same stories of disillusionment, regardless of profession. No one would dare say today that "women don't write here," as the NEWSWEEK women were told 40 years ago. But men wrote all but six of NEWSWEEK's 49 cover stories last year—and two of those used the headline "The Thinking Man." In 1970, 25 percent of NEWSWEEK's editorial masthead was female; today that number is 39 percent. Better? Yes. But it's hardly equality. (Overall, 49 percent of the entire company, the business and editorial sides, is female.) "Contemporary young women enter the workplace full of enthusiasm, only to see their hopes dashed," says historian Barbara J. Berg. "Because for the first time they're slammed up against gender bias."

Source:

Newsweek

URL:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/235220/page/1

Date:

March 19, 2010

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

"Christine Jorgensen: Transsexuality and a Transnational Media Spectacle in the 1950s and 1960s": a lecture by Susan Stryker

Submitted by jmumbey on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 2:54pm

Member Organization:

Newcomb College Institute

Date/Time:

04/12/2010

Susan Stryker is Associate Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She earned her Ph.D. in United States History at UC Berkeley in 1992, and subsequently held a postdoctoral fellowship in Sexuality Studies at Stanford University, as well as distinguished visiting positions at Harvard University, UC Santa Cruz, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and Macquarie University in Sydney. She is the Emmy Award-winning director of Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, a public television documentary about a 1966 riot against police oppression by transgender prostitutes in San Francisco.

Angela Davis Honors Beverly Guy-Sheftall During NWSA Keynote Address

Submitted by jmumbey on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 4:05pm

Angela Y. Davis is known internationally for her ongoing work to combat all forms of oppression in the U.S. and abroad. She has been active as a student, teacher, writer, scholar, and activist/organizer. Davis served as the keynote speaker for the 2009 National Women's Studies Association's annual conference where she honored Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Ph.D., NWSA President & Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Womens Studies at Spelman College.

Video URL:

Member Organization:

National Women's Studies Association

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