What’s Wrong with Women’s Rights? The Meaning, Challenges, and Lived Experiences of Feminism - A Woman’s History Program
This program explores the ongoing story of women’s rights—past, present, and future, and the emergence and theories of feminism as a self-defined social construct. We will examine the theory of feminism from diverse female perspectives alongside key historical movements that shaped women’s social, political, and legal status.
Together we will trace pivotal moments: English and American activism of the 1800s, the suffrage fights of the 1920s, the resurgence of feminism in the 1970s, the backlash of the 1980s, and the growing inclusion of women of color and other marginalized groups in the movement.
We will also look closely at today’s challenges, including:
Current reproductive restrictions - new federal action and state restrictions on women’s reproductive autonomy and freedom of choice.
Failure to register the Equal Rights Amendment - finally ratified by the required 38th state, Virginia in 2020- into the law of the land as the 27th Amendment to the Bill of Rights
Continuing battles for practical equality: equal pay for equal work, adequate child care, shares family responsibilities, women’s inclusion into the sciences and traditionally male-dominated professions like engineering, military services, and technology
Half of the program will be exploring participant experience, challenges, and dialogue across differences. Our process balances rich content with dialogue. Participants will have space to reflect, share stories, and consider how positionality and intersectionality shape women’s experiences across generations, cultures, and identities. We will also engage in conversations about strategies for making change—personal, organizational, and societal—through authentic living, collaboration, and effective activism.
Women of color and LGBTQ2 (two-spirit) registrants encouraged.
This is a 3-part series taking place 10/4 9:30am, 10/18 9:30am, 11/1 9:30am
Minimum class size: 6, Maximum class size: 18
Please RSVP using the link below.