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Women's History Month, March 2013

Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination:
Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

 
IVCC's Women's History Month Celebration is made possible through the combined dedication of the Diversity Team, SAGE, GSA, College Democrats, the Student Government Association.

Women's History Month was introduced by the National Women's History Project with the goal of ensuring that information about the myriad ways women have changed America would be part of our children's education.

The National Women's History Month Project explains that in spite of the fact that "women's history is intertwined with the history shared with men, several factors—social, religious, economic, and biological—have worked to create a unique sphere of women's history. The stories of women’s achievements are integral to the fabric our history.  Learning about women’s tenacity, courage, and creativity throughout the centuries is a tremendous source of strength.  Until relatively recently, this sphere of women's history was overlooked and undervalued. Women’s achievements were often distorted, disdained, and denied. . . . knowing women’s stories provides essential role models for everyone. And role models are genuinely needed to face the extraordinary changes and unrelenting challenges of the 21st century."

For more information on Women's History Month, refer to the National Women's History Project at http://www.nwhp.org.

All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise specified.
IVCC's Women's History Month Calendar 2013 


Monday, March 18, 2013
Building C, Room 325, IVCC
12:00-1:00 PM

Brown Bag Lunch: In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway wrote "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places." Do you ever feel so broken or overwhelmed by your life experiences that hope is hard to come by? Amy Decker, a former IVCC Gender Studies student, will be explaining how women can look to women from biblical history to find strength for our current day.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Building C, Room 316, IVCC
12:00-1:15 PM and 2:00-3:15 PM

Brown Bag Lunch: Diary of an Eco-Outlaw: An Unreasonable Woman
Breaks the Law for Mother Earth

Diane Wilson is an eco-warrior in action. Winner of numerous awards, including a National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, Blue Planet Award, and the Bioneers Award, Wilson comes from a family of professional shrimpers. Beginning in the business at eight, by 24 she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Wilson insisted that the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay. Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and countless hunger strikes to raise awareness for environmental and human rights abuses, in addition to establishing CODEPINK, the Texas Jail Project, Texas Injured Workers, and Injured Workers National Network. She is the author Diary of an Eco Outlaw: An Unreasonable Woman Breaks the Law for Mother Earth and An Unreasonable Woman, books that she will be discussing and signing after her second presentation.

Thursday, March 21, 2013
Building C, Room 316, IVCC
12:00-1:00 PM

Brown Bag Lunch: Please join Professor Koshu Jagasia as she discusses an inspiring woman and a great role model, Ela Bhatt, the founder of SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association).

Monday, March 25, 2013
Building C, Room 316, IVCC
12:00-1:00 PM

Brown Bag Lunch: In the session "Beyond Lily Ledbetter: Why the Fair Pay Act Isn't Enough," Professor Amanda Cook Fesperman will discuss the history behind the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, what it achieved, and why women continue to face pay discrimination.  Hailed as a great step forward in the struggle for equal pay, and the first bill signed by President Obama in his first term, the Fair Pay Act addresses only one small aspect of equal pay. There is still much to be done.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Building C, Room 316
12:00-1:00 PM

Brown Bag Lunch: Professor Sue Caley-Opsal will speak to this year's theme when she explains why it is important to get more women into the fields of Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology, as well as her personal efforts, working with the National Science Foundation, to mentor girls in these areas in our local communities.

 

Friday, March 29, 2013
Building C, Room 316
12:00-1:00 PM

Brown Bag Lunch: In "Imagining Gender: The Fantastical Works of Jim Butcher, George R. R. Martin, and C. L. Wilson" Professor Kimberly M. Radek will discuss issues of sex roles and gender equity in fantasy fiction, as well as what recent findings of neuroscience suggest about how we become gendered beings and why the imagination is important for attaining equality.
 

 
Image from the National Women's History Project at www.nwhp.org
(Permission granted for use of NWHP logo)

Gender Studies Courses at IVCC