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Everyone Invited to Celebrate Women's History Month
by Yonatan Arnold
March is Women's History month, and the Mars Hill College Women's Study program has put together a number of events to celebrate.
The events are aimed at everyone, says Laurie Pedersen, coordinator and director of women's studies. "We are not just interested in women. We are interested in all those issues of inequity that affect everybody in society."
Some events have all ready occurred, but don't think you have missed them all.
Monday, March 24: Sociologist Amy D'Unger, from the School of History, Technology, and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will discuss her study of the involuntary sterilization program in Georgia from 1937 to 1970. Georgia was not the only state involved. Unger will talk about the victims of the program, and about issues of gender, race, and resistance. The presentation will take place at 7 p.m. in the Ramsey Center at Renfro Library.
Tuesday, March 25: A panel of professionals will discuss capital punishment. Panelists will include Defense Lawyer Sean Devereaux and District Attorney for Buncombe County Ron Moore. The discussion will be moderated by George Peery, recently retired professor of political science. Some people are in favor of the death penalty, and some are not. Students can come in and ask questions and get answers at 7 p.m. in Belk Auditorium. This is a time to discuss the issue before Sister Helen Prejean's visit on Thursday, April 3.
Thursday April 3: Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and founder of the Death Penalty Discourse Center in New Orleans, will speak at 7 p.m. in Moore Auditorium.
"She's a strong woman, a woman of great conviction who learned about an issue, and came to her conclusion that this was wrong for a variety of reasons . . ." says Pedersen. Sister Helen is a woman who did what was right in her eyes and has now made it a life's mission to educate the public about the death penalty
Sister Helen's book was made into the motion picture Dead Man Walking that was shown on March 4 as one of the events of the month. "It is a powerful movie," says Pedersen. The views of the victim's family and the criminal's family are both shown in the film. The visit of Sister Helen, says Pedersen, shows how powerful a woman can be in taking on a hot issue such as this.
Thursday April 10: Concluding Women's History Month is the event called "Take Back the Night," which aims to raise awareness of sexual assault.
"On college campuses across the United States, one in four women will be sexually assaulted during their time as college students," says Pedersen. Of the total being sexually assaulted, most are women, but some are men.
The day will start with a presentation during the Student Government Association meeting at 10 a.m. in Belk Auditorium. The meeting is "accessible to everybody" and anyone is welcome to come, says Pedersen.
In the afternoon, the public and community are again welcome as a panel discusses the issues that surround sexual assault. One of the issues is that "when a woman says no, she means no," says Pedersen. Men also will be invited to give their perspectives.
The day will end with a rally on the campus Quad. People can share stories about people they know or themselves being sexually assaulted. The rally will end with a march around campus. People can sing and shout as they walk to get the message out.
"We are going to make it clear that we will not tolerate sexual assault on this campus, and that this is something not acceptable in our community," says Pedersen.
Library Display: A Women's History Month display in the library examines the many time eras in which women have influenced society. Many women writers and doers are represented.
Pedersen says Women's History Month is here "so that we recognize the contributions and so that we recognize the oppression -- so we can see how far we have come, and so we can see that we still have got a ways to go."
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