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Spring 2008
Events
UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday, April 2nd
Dr. Nirmala Erevelles- "Embattled
Bodies and the Terror of
Invisibility: Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Disability in Global Contexts
Haley Center 1454,
2:00pm
Co-sponsored with the College of Education
Friday, April 4th
Brown bag- "Cheers
and Jeers: Female Faculty Speak Out"
Comer 109, 12:00pm
Monday, April 14th
Amanda Vaughan, Alabama
community activist, mother- "Bootstraps and Glass Ceilings: The
Poverty Gap and Education in Alabama"
FOY 217, 12:30pm
ABSTRACT
PART OF MY BOOTSTRAP IS MISSING!: WHY ALABAMA’S POOR WOMEN CAN’T
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF UNPRECEDENTED TECHNICAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Despite a national economic slowdown, Alabama still has more good-paying,
technical job opportunities than ever before in its history. But will
the women who head the majority of Alabama’s poorest households
rise with the tide? Women dramatically outnumber men in postsecondary
and undergraduate institutions in Alabama. Women are moving ahead,
but are the women with the greatest economic burdens able to move?
There are many short-term training programs across the state that
could move women into jobs quickly to support their families, but they
need to have at least 8th grade level skills to succeed. Too many poor
women simply can’t get their foot in the door. Do we understand
the current disconnects that prevent poor women from taking advantage
of emerging opportunities? More than half of Alabamians over age 15
lack basic literacy skills. A comprehensive focus on bringing adult
women back into education and training is needed to help women access
opportunities and to keep Alabama’s workforce growing at a rate
that will continue to attract desirable industry.
Adult education and literacy are not glamorous topics. There is no
quick, cheap, or all-volunteer route to help a 25-year old woman with
two children and third-grade reading skills become job-market ready.
But if we don’t create a pathway, while job opportunities are
growing, we can predict that she will likely be unemployed or underemployed
for a lifetime, and the outcomes for her children will be bleak as
well.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that women are still less than eager to
pursue training in technical fields that have been traditionally dominated
by men. Though robotics and technology mean that growing industries
do not rely on brawn, but rather on skill, women in Alabama still seem
hesitant.
Advocates for women in poverty must connect the dots, demand measures
in education and workforce training that will help achieve goals rather
than hide problems, and put adult education and literacy on the front
burner.
We are culturally comfortable with the notion of focusing on the economic
status of women on the international development front as the leverage
point for eliminating poverty. But we are less comfortable with focusing
specifically on women here at home. Smart advocacy for women today
requires leadership that moves away from the need for theoretical and
political alignment toward pragmatic, common ground solutions with
unlikely partners in business, politics, industry, government and workforce
development arenas. If Alabama’s poor women can grab hold of
emerging job opportunities, they will take their children and communities
with them. Without advocacy to overcome educational gaps and committed
public outreach campaigns to reach them, this wave of economic opportunity
will simply wash over Alabama’s poorest women.
Friday, April 18th
Safe Zone Training with
Nia Hadel
Registration required
contact Laura Obert lco0001@auburn.edu
Cosponsored by Spectrum
Alliance, AGSA, Women's Studies, and College of Education Diversity
Committee
Eagles Nests, 10:00-4:00
Tuesday, April 22nd
Julie Cruikshank: Presidential
Symposium Lecture
It is co-sponsored by the
Human Odyssey program, the Women's Studies program and WISE (Women
in Science and Engineering)
Lowder 125A, 3:30
- 5:00
Monday, January 14th
Women's Studies Awards Luncheon
AUHCC Ballroom B, 11:45am
Tuesday, January 15th
Dr. Carrie Baker- "Sex
trafficking in America:
Recent Developments in Law and
Society" Foy Union Room 208, 12:00pm
Thursday-Friday, February 14-16th
SEASECs Conference
co-sponsored by Women's Studies Program
AUHCC
Monday, February
25th
Aimee Liu- "Gaining: the Truth
about Life after Eating Disorders"
Auburn
Eating Disorders Association
Haley Center 2370, 6:30pm
Wednesday, February 27th
Rose Afriyie of NOW- "Love Your
Body"
Foy 208, 12:15pm
Wednesday, February 27th
Production of "Ain't I a Woman!"
CORE ENSEMBLE TO PERFORM MUSIC THEATRE PIECE ON GROUNDBREAKING AFRICAN
AMERICAN
WOMEN AT AUBURN UNIVERSITY
Tellfair Peet
Theater,
7:30pm
Thursday, February 28th
Dr. Mary Cameron- "Speaking of Difference
and Healing: Women Ayurvedic Doctors in Nepal and Modernizing Health
Care Development"
Haley Center 3195, 4:00pm
Monday, March
4th
Susan Neill of the Atlanta History Center
"Gone with the Girdle: Women's Clothing
and Emancipation"
Foy Union 213, 12:30pm
Wednesday, April 2nd
Dr. Nirmala Erevalles- "Embattled Bodies
and the Terror of
Invisibility: Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Disability in Global
Contexts
Haley Center Rm. 1454, 2:00pm
Co-sponsored with the College of Education
Friday, April 4th
Brown bag- "Cheers and
Jeers: Female Faculty Speak Out"
Comer 109, 12:00pm
Monday, April 14th
Amanda Vaughn, community activist, mother-
"The Poverty Gap and Education in Alabama"
FOY 217, 12:30pm
Friday, April 18th
Safe Zone Training with
Nia Hadel
Registration required
contact Laura Obert lco0001@auburn.edu
Cosponsored by Spectrum,
AGSA, Women's Studies, and College of Education Diversity Committee
Eagles Nests, 10:00-4:00
Tuesday, April 22nd
Julie Cruikshank: Presidential
Symposium Lecture
It is co-sponsored
by the Human Odyssey program, the Women's Studies program and WISE
(Women in Science and Engineering)
Lowder 125A, 3:30 -
5:00
All Women’s Studies events are
free and open to the public. For information, please call 844-6647
or 844-1974. |