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STOP/ Women's Concerns Sponsor Forum on Global Gender Perspectives

Date 3/13/1997 12:00 AM | Topic: News

In honor of Women's History Month, Students Taking on Prejudice (STOP) and Women's Concerns will be sponsoring a forum on global perspectives on gender on Sunday, March 16 at 8 p.m. in Farwell Lounge. A panel of students and faculty will speak of their experiences studying or living abroad.



Speakers will include Professor Richard Simon Hanson, who will discuss his experiences in Israel; Professor Uwe Rudolph, director of international programs, senior Carla Loecke, who has studied in Latin America; senior Laura Wangsness, who has studied in Tanzania; and junior Evaristo Sanga, an international student from Tanzania.



Each speaker will give a short presentation about his or her experience abroad with particular emphasis on how gender roles affected his or her experience. According to junior Carrie Brooker, president of Women 's Concerns, STOP and Women's Concerns tried to find both speakers who have lived in foreign countries and those who have only visited, in order to get a good "insider/outsider perspective."



Junior Becky McCammon, president of STOP, said forum attendees should expect to hear about gender roles in different countries and how they compare to gender roles at Luther and in the United States.



After the speakers present, the floor will be opened for discussion.



Brooker said organizers hope to guide discussion towards discovering how gender is represented in the media and how class differences relate to gender roles. According to McCammon, "We are hoping the forum will raise awareness about how binding gender roles can be."



This forum is supported by funds from the Lily Grant, which was awarded to Luther to improve the climate for diversity on campus, especially through special events programming. STOP has previously received Lily Grant funds to conduct two forums on race, but according to McCammon, "we wanted to expand the range of activities to include gender."



As McCammon pointed out, the faculty and students on the panel will not by any means have all the answers, but they will be able to relay their observations and generate discussion. The goal of the forum is to use the panel of speakers as a sounding board. Students will gain a perspective on global gender roles in order to increase awareness of those in our own society.

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Sarah J. Hahn
Chips Staff Writer

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