2003 Theme:  "THE SECOND WAVE OF FEMINISM:  THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE AND BEYOND"
MARCH 3-7, 2003

 The San Antonio College Women's History Week Committee scheduled presentations that illustrated the struggles and achievements of individuals and groups who participated in the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2003 Women's History Week also featured a film festival focusing on films made by and about women. All films were free and were open to SAC students, faculty, and staff. All other presentations were open to the public as well as the SAC community.

Presentations and film screenings took place in the Visual Arts and Technology Center (VATC) Room 120, located at the corner of Dewey and Lewis Streets, across from the Fletcher Administration Center (FAC).


2003 SCHEDULE

Monday, March 3, 2003

9:00 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. VATC 120

Women's History Week Coffee. This reception is open to all. The coffee will be followed by the first Women's History Week 2003 presentation.

10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Women with Global Feminist Goals and Life Commitment to Them: School Sisters of Notre Dame"

Introduced by Carol Ann Britt, Associate Professor of English, SAC 

Presented by Dr. Barbara Paleczny, SSND, Ph.D. (Trinity University), Dr. Ann Semel, SSND, Ph.D. (St. Mary's University), and Christine Garcia, M.A., alumna of SAC.

A worldwide general meeting of Catholic bishops in Rome in 1962-1965 was convened "to air out the church and shake off the dust of the empire."  Little did they realize when they asked religious women to renew, that they would take this invitation very seriously. Globally, hundreds of thousands of Sisters not only renewed, they have also become an international women's movement with lifelong commitment to transform structures in church and society, attitudes and structures that oppress those who are poor and excluded from the benefits of current systems, structures that are harmful to women, to children, to the environment, and therefore to men as well.

11:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Betty Friedan and Beyond: Feminist Cultural Critiques of White, Middle Class Womanhood, 1960-1971"

Introduced by Bob Gomez, Professor of History, SAC

Presented by Denise Bauer, Ph.D., Coordinator of Women's Studies, SUNY New Paltz

The publication of Betty Friedan's bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique (1963), is frequently cited as the start of a shift in mass consciousness that resulted in the Second Wave Women's Movement.  But there were numerous other cultural and aesthetic critiques of white middle class womanhood both before and after 1963 that significantly contributed to and had a profound impact on the emergence of contemporary feminism, and in particular the feminist critique of white middle class womanhood.  This presentation will 
explore how Betty Friedan's often quoted "the problem that has no name" was in fact fully explored through feminist art and culture from the early 1960s through the early 1970s.

7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. VATC 120

"Framing the Issues: Women, Gender, and Editorial Cartooning"

Introduced by Eileen Oliver, Assistant Professor, Learning Resource Center, SAC

Presented by Elaine K. Miller, Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, SUNY Brockport

Professor Miller will show excerpts from and lead a discussion on her two videos on gender imagery in editorial cartoons, "Running Mate: Gender and Politics in the Editorial Cartoons" and "Drawing Conclusions: Editorial Cartoonists Consider Hillary Rodham Clinton."  She will also discuss her video in progress, which focuses on the work of editorial cartoonist Etta Hulme of Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  A key focus of the first two videos is the way in which cartoonists worked with gender imagery in the specific cases of the 1984 election and Geraldine Ferraro's vice presidential campaign, and Hillary Rodham Clinton as First Lady.  The third video demonstrates how Etta Hulme's work offers a glimpse into a woman's "take on the world" with artistry and politics that are both admired and deeply respected by her fellow cartoonists. 


Tuesday, March 4

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. VATC 120

FILMS:  "Adelante Mujeres" and "The F-Word" 

Introduced by Rita Mayer, Associate Professor of English, SAC

"Adelante Mujeres" is a National Women's History Project video that
explores 500 years of Mexican-American women's history. "The F-Word" provides a provocative look at the power of the word "feminism" in the U.S.

9:25 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. VATC 120

FILM:  "Nu Shu: A Hidden Language in China" 

Introduced by Rita Mayer, Associate Professor of English, SAC

Peasant women in Hunan province developed a separate written language that went undiscovered for four centuries.  This film documents its only surviving reader and writer. (Subtitled).

10:50 a.m. to 12:05 a.m. VATC 120

FILMS: "Covered: The Hejab in Cairo, Egypt" and "Made in Thailand" 

Introduced by Judy Kovacs-Long, Assistant Professor, Counseling Center, SAC

"Covered" is a documentary exploring the re-institution of the veil in Egypt.  "Made in Thailand" documents the lives of Thai garment workers in their struggle to unionize in the context of multinational globalization.

12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. VATC 120

FILM: "The Righteous Babes" 

Introduced by Eileen Oliver, Assistant Professor, Learning Resource Center, SAC

Documentary filmmaker Pratibha Parmar explores how female rockers of the 90s, including Madonna and Di Franco, express feminism.


Wednesday, March 5, 2003

9:00 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Common Woman to Bookwoman: Herstories of the Last Feminist Bookstore in Texas"

Introduced by Celita DeArmond, Instructor, Learning Resource Center, SAC 

Presented by Kristen A. Hogan, Ph.D.Candidate, University of Texas at Austin

In the seventies many feminist bookstores opened around the nation; over the past five years over a third of those bookstores have closed. Ms. Hogan's presentation explores the history of the Austin bookstore BookWoman.  The bookstore was founded in 1975 as The Common Woman bookstore.  BookWoman's history reflects facets of the feminist bookstore movement as a whole:  it began as a collective and has struggles to exist as a "business" serving a purpose that involves intensely political practices.  The history of feminist bookstores remains a significant, if often untold, part of the second wave feminist movement. 

10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Then and Now: What We Were When"

Introduced by Judy Kovacs-Long, Assistant Professor, Counseling Center, SAC

Presented by Ginger Purdy, community activist and women's advocate;  Melissa Fletcher-Stoeltji, Columnist, San Antonio Express News;  Martha Bohrer, Education Specialist, South Texas Blood and Tissue Center; Mary Fletcher Owens, artist.

Local women's activist Ginger Purdy was a single mother of three daughters, Mary, Melissa, and Martha in the turbulent 60s and 70s -- the peak of the Second Wave of Frminism.  The Founder of Network Power Texas and the Women's Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Purdy has become a national leader, speaking out on women's issues and advocating for women across the country.  Her daughters have become successful in their own right and in their chosen fields.  This unique, strong, and powerful mother and her daughters will share their memories of what it was like growing up together and how those experiences shaped them and prepared them for what they have become.

11:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Memories of the Spirit of the First National Women's Conference in
November, 1977" 

Introduced by Judy Kovacs-Long, Assistant Professor, Counseling Center, SAC

Presented by Gloria Primera, Professor of Reading and Education, SAC and Pat Konstam, formerly with the San Antonio Express News

Professor Primera will share her memories of participation in the Women's Movement of the 1970s.  She carried the torch that came from Seneca Falls, New York, that was relayed over 2000 miles by over 2000 women to the First National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas.  Professor Primera will be joined by Pat Konstam, formerly with the San Antonio Express News.  Students are encouraged to attend this session to learn how the efforts of Ms. Primera, Pat Konstam, and their fellow activites have helped shape the lives of today's women.


Thursday, March 6

9:25 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. VATC 120

FILMS:  "Guerrillas in Our Midst" and "The Body of a Poet: A Tribute to Audre Lorde"

Introduced by Marleen Hoover, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts/Art History, SAC

The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of New York artists who have protested the exclusion of women in the Manhattan art world since the mid 80s.

"The Body of a Poet: A Tribute to Audre Lorde" celebrates the life of
African American lesbian poet Lorde by a group of English lesbian artists of color.

10:50 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. VATC 120

FILM: "My Heart is My Witness" 

Introduced by Carol Ann Britt, Associate Professor of English, SAC

This film shares interviews with women and men from Mali, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia exploring the status of women in Islam

12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. VATC 120

FILM: "Black Women On: The Light, Dark Thang"

Introduced by Rita Mayer, Associate Professor of English, SAC

This film explores how being too light or too dark affects African-American women.

1:40 p.m. to 2:55 p.m. VATC 120

FILM:  "Nu Shu: A Hidden Language in China" 

Introduced by Carol Ann Britt, Associate Professor of English, SAC

Peasant women in Hunan province developed a separate written language, which went undiscovered for four centuries.  This film documents its only surviving reader and writer.  (Subtitled).


Friday, March 7, 2003

9:00 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Women's Health and the Feminist Movement"

Introduced by Eileen Oliver, Assistant Professor, Learning Resource Center, SAC

Presented by Louise Burton, R.N., Associate Professor of Nursing Education, SAC

Men dominated women's health care decisions during the l960s and l970s because women had yet to attain professional positions in the health care arena and thus had little say in their own health care.  However, women drove two major health care issues of the time.  The sensational event involved elective abortion, the famous Roe v. Wade supreme Court case in 1973.  The quieter but no less important event was the courageaous stance taken by Dr. Frances Kelsey, a young pharmacologist, in preventing the approval of the drug thalidomide which caused major birth defects.  These stories reflect the influence of feminism on women's health care.

10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. VATC 120

"Women in School:  Then and Now"

Introduced by Judy Echeverria, Counselor, Women's Center, SAC

Presented by Roberta Ziegler, Reading Instructor, Palo Alto College

Professor Ziegler taught at Bee County College in the early 1980s when many Hispanic women were the first in their family to attend college. These pioneers had to overcame many obstacles posed by their parents and husbands but they persevered. Some things have not changed.  Today women still do more than men in dividing their energies between school and home. Professor Ziegler will discuss the results of student interviews of older women about their educational experiences concerning language problems, lack of family support, and acceptance in school and compare their experiences to today’s community college students.