Contact: Maridith Geuder
From the White House to grassroots politics, the power of women to meet contemporary challenges is the focus of a March 27 event at Mississippi State.
The "Women and Power" forum will take place 7-9 p.m. in the university's Colvard Union ballroom. Admission is free to all.
The program will feature women who have made a difference at the national, state and local level, said Meg Murray, director of the MSU Women's Studies Program, the forum's principal sponsor.
"Our goal is to educate the audience about how women use their power to advance worthwhile causes, including the human rights of women, children and other oppressed groups," Murray said.
The topic was inspired by a desire of Women's Studies committee members to explore the unique opportunities offered women in power, problems they confront and methods for dealing with them and other issues, Murray added.
A question-and-answer period will follow the presentations by:
--Mary Finch Hoyt, press secretary to former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Her subject, "Politics, Press and a First Lady," will examine what it was like to work in the East Wing with a social activist who became only the third first lady in American history to be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
--Clyda S. Rent, president emerita of Mississippi University for Women and the first female chief executive (1989-2001) of a Mississippi institution of higher learning. Rent, now a sociology professor and research fellow at MSU's Social Science Research Center, will discuss the importance of "A Woman's Look."
--Helen Taylor, founder and chief executive officer of Starkville's Brickfire Project that includes three child care centers, two tutorial sites, a technology center, and self-sufficiency services for Starkville Housing Authority residents. In "The Power of Compassion," Taylor will tell about her passion for promoting programs that benefit Mississippi's children.
--Janet Rafferty, a Phi Beta Kappa faculty member in anthropology and North American archaeology at MSU and state chair of the Green Party, a grassroots organization focusing on environmental and social justice issues. Rafferty will discuss her role as a leader at the local level in protesting a possible war with Iraq in "Organizing Against War and Other Horrors."
Hoyt has served as bureau chief of Ladies Home Journal magazine, as well as press secretary to the wives of United States Senators George McGovern and Edmund Muskie. In addition to her most recent book, "East Wing: Politics, the Press, and a First Lady," she has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Weekend, among other national publications.
Rent serves on the advisory board of the National Women's Hall of Fame and has served on the Southern Growth Policies Board and Commission on Colleges for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1993, she was named by Working Woman magazine among the nation's 10 most admired women managers.
Taylor has administered nationally competitive federal Housing and Urban Development grants and has been honored by HUD for opening the first computer learning center in public housing. She was appointed by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to the Southern Educational Institute on Early Childhood and serves as president of Voices for Children, a statewide organization for child care providers.
An MSU faculty member since 1977, Rafferty conducts archaeological research primarily in the Southeast and has published widely. She is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, American Anthropological Association and Society for Historical Archaeology.
The forum will be moderated by Daniel Melder, president of the MSU College Democrats, with questions and answers moderated by political science associate professor Diane E. Wall.
For more information about the program, telephone Murray at (662) 325-2358.