Thousands will celebrate women's rights

University to co-host historical commemoration

Reprising its pivotal role in the women's movement earlier in this century, the University next month will be a key player in Forum 98, the nation's central celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Convention.

Thousands are expected to attend the commemoration, which will be held July 13-16 in Rochester, Geneva, and Seneca Falls.

Nan Johnson, director of the Susan B. Anthony University Center, is co-chair of Forum 98 with Sheila Bennett of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The focus of national attention, Forum 98 will look at the progress women have made--and the work that remains--since the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the 1848 convention. Many of the country's eminent women in government, business, education, the media, and community organizations will gather to assess the status of women's rights and recommend priorities for the coming decades.

The event is co-sponsored by the University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, with funding from numerous other benefactors.

At the heart of Forum 98 is the National Consultation July 13-15 at Hobart and William Smith. This "think tank" retreat of invited national leaders will explore the roles and challenges of women as workers, as parents and partners, and as leaders in community and civic life.

Conference Day at the University, July 15, will feature workshops on the current status and needs of women in the workplace, families, and community leadership, and the role of education in enabling women to achieve equality of opportunity.

The Blackwell Institute will convene at Rochester the same day. Health experts, advocates, researchers, and policy specialists will talk about women's health and questions of access, options, ethics, the environment, public policy, and education. Blackwell was the first woman to be awarded a medical degree in the western hemisphere and was an alumna of Geneva Medical College, today Hobart College.

The University also will host Public Session Day July 16. Participants in the National Consultation and the Blackwell Institute will report their recommendations and agenda items for the next century. Speakers include U.S. District Judge Constance Baker Motley, former U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello, United Farm Workers co-founder and president Dolores Huerta, former U.S. Social Security commissioner Shirley Chater, president of the National Women's Political Caucus Anita Perez Ferguson, and director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership Charlotte Bunch.

Representatives of Forum 98 will travel to Seneca Falls on July 17 to join other leaders in reaffirming their recommitment to the Declaration of Sentiments.

"The Declaration, patterned after the Declaration of Independence, declared the legal and social disabilities under which women lived in 19th-century America," Johnson said. "Today, as we look forward to a new millennium, it is time to see how far we have come, to look hard at our present-day status, and to determine what is still to be fought for--and won."

Further information, including a registration form for Conference Day and Public Session Day, is available on the Forum 98 website at www.forum98.org, and by calling the Susan B. Anthony University Center at 275-8799.