Women's Rights

The struggle for women's rights has its roots in antiquity and its branches across the world. Yet despite the breadth of this concern, full citizenship for women is only decades old in the most enlightened countries, and these are by no means the norm. Even in the most liberal settings, women's equality is still a disputed and confusing matter.

Like all rights struggles, this one reveals clearly the connection between human nature and human rights. Throughout history, the argument against equality for women has been based on their alleged inferiority to men, whether on religious, biological, or simply pragmatic grounds. Defined as a helpmete, childbearer, or child-rearer, women were treated as intrinsically different from men and unable or unavailable to perform at the same level of excellence. So pervasive have such arguments been that many feminists object to any characterization of "woman's nature," convinced that there is no such common essence but merely essentialist fictions created to keep women from living fully and freely.

In our day, evolutionary psychologists have provided the latest vision of women's nature as one programmed for a monogamous relationship with a powerful, wealthy man. Natalie Angier, noted author and journalist, takes the "evopsychos" to task for their claims in her public lecture, "Woman—An Intimate Geography." Afterward, the Forum invites you to a Philadelphia site resonant for the women's rights advocates, the Friends Center and Meetinghouse, for a discussion between Ms. Angier and the experts in psychology and biology: Jeanne Marecek of Swarthmore College and Ingrid Waldron of Penn, followed by a reception and book-signing. Back on the Penn campus Professor Vicki Mahaffey of the English Department will then introduce films about one of the world's great female authors, Virginia Woolf, and the current status of women's rights across the world.

3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Dunlop Auditorium
3450 Hamilton Walk
(off 36th Street, 1/2
block south of Spruce)

Lief Lecture: Natalie Angier

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for the New York Times and author of
Woman—An Intimate Geography

Biologically, proclaims Natalie Angier in her new book, "women are not the runners-up; women are the original article!" In her view, it is time to lift the veil of secrecy from that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces, the female body. Ms. Angier examines what it means to be a woman, exploring the biology of being female both to celebrate what is right about the female body and to challenge popular theories about the innate differences between men and women.

5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Friends Center and Meetinghouse
1515 Cherry Street

Registration required
by Friday, 3/17;
register online

Public Discussion, Reception and Book-Signing

Natalie Angier in conversation with:

Jeanne Marecek, Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College and author of Making a Difference: Psychology and the Construction of Gender.
Wendy Steiner, Richard L. Fisher Professor of English and Director, Penn Humanities Forum, and author of the forthcoming book, The Trouble with Beauty.
Ingrid Waldron, Professor and Donna and Larry Shelley Term Chair in Women's Studies at Penn, and author of Environment and Population: Problems and Solutions.

Film Festival and Commentary

7:30 p.m.
Meyerson Hall, B-1
210 S. 34th Street

Introduction

Vicki Mahaffey, Professor of English, author of States of Desire: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and the Irish Experiment, and authority on Virginia Woolf.

7:30 p.m.
Meyerson Hall, B-1
210 S. 34th Street
and
10:00 p.m.
WHYY TV, Channel 12

Films

A Woman's Place
Produced by Maryland Public Television
This one-hour documentary tells the intimate stories of women from three countries who are fighting to balance the scales of power so that "a man's world" is also a woman's place. A woman's place historically has been prescribed by culture and custom, but recent laws are beginning to challenge old belief systems. Can new laws change old ways? This central question is explored in travels to rural South Africa, middle America, and Bombay, India, to meet women who put a face on the conflict between tradition and change.

8:30 p.m.
Meyerson Hall, B-1
210 S. 34th Street
and
11:00 p.m.
WHYY TV, Channel 12

The War Within: A Portrait of Virginia Woolf
Arthur Cantor Films
Called "an extraordinarily moving portrait of one of the giants of twentieth century literature" by the American Film Institute, this definitive one-hour documentary includes archival footage, paintings of the period, and haunting family photos of a Victorian childhood of both beauty and abuse. The film interweaves the personal story of Virginia Woolf's life and loves with the turbulent times she lived in. Rare documents, never before filmed, include the document in her handwriting used to establish the League of Nations, newly discovered letters to her beloved Vita Sackville-West, and the Gestapo list where she and her husband, Leonard, were marked for arrest.

Tuesday, 3/21		Women's Rights

		The struggle for women's rights has its roots in antiquity and its branches across the world. Yet despite the breadth of this concern, full citizenship for women is only decades old in the most enlightened countries, and these are by no means the norm. Even in the most liberal settings, women's equality is still a disputed and confusing matter. Like all rights struggles, this one reveals clearly the connection between human nature and human rights. Throughout history, the argument against equality for women has been based on their alleged inferiority to men, whether on religious, biological, or simply pragmatic grounds. Defined as a helpmete, childbearer, or child-rearer, women were treated as intrinsically different from men and unable or unavailable to perform at the same level of excellence. So pervasive have such arguments been that many feminists object to any characterization of "woman's nature," convinced that there is no such common essence but merely essentialist fictions created to keep women from living fully and freely. In our day, evolutionary psychologists have provided the latest vision of women's nature as one programmed for a monogamous relationship with a powerful, wealthy man. Natalie Angier, noted author and journalist, takes the "evopsychos" to task for their claims in her public lecture, "Woman—An Intimate Geography." Afterward, the Forum invites you to a Philadelphia site resonant for the women's rights advocates, the Friends Center and Meetinghouse, for a discussion between Ms. Angier and the experts in psychology and biology: Jeanne Marecek of Swarthmore College and Ingrid Waldron of Penn, followed by a reception and book-signing. Back on the Penn campus Professor Vicki Mahaffey of the English Department will then introduce films about one of the world's great female authors, Virginia Woolf, and the current status of women's rights across the world.


3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Dunlop Auditorium 3450 Hamilton Walk (off 36th Street, 1/2 block south of Spruce)		Lief Lecture: Natalie Angier
		Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for the New York Times and author of Woman—An Intimate Geography

		Biologically, proclaims Natalie Angier in her new book, "women are not the runners-up; women are the original article!" In her view, it is time to lift the veil of secrecy from that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces, the female body. Ms. Angier examines what it means to be a woman, exploring the biology of being female both to celebrate what is right about the female body and to challenge popular theories about the innate differences between men and women.

5:30 - 7:00 p.m. Friends Center and Meetinghouse 1515 Cherry Street Registration required by Friday, 3/17; register online		Public Discussion, Reception and Book-Signing

		Natalie Angier in conversation with:
		Jeanne Marecek, Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College and author of Making a Difference: Psychology and the Construction of Gender. Wendy Steiner, Richard L. Fisher Professor of English and Director, Penn Humanities Forum, and author of the forthcoming book, The Trouble with Beauty. Ingrid Waldron, Professor and Donna and Larry Shelley Term Chair in Women's Studies at Penn, and author of Environment and Population: Problems and Solutions.


		Film Festival and Commentary

7:30 p.m. Meyerson Hall, B-1 210 S. 34th Street		Introduction
7:30 p.m. Meyerson Hall, B-1 210 S. 34th Street		Vicki Mahaffey, Professor of English, author of States of Desire: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and the Irish Experiment, and authority on Virginia Woolf.

7:30 p.m. Meyerson Hall, B-1 210 S. 34th Street and 10:00 p.m. WHYY TV, Channel 12		Films
		A Woman's Place Produced by Maryland Public Television This one-hour documentary tells the intimate stories of women from three countries who are fighting to balance the scales of power so that "a man's world" is also a woman's place. A woman's place historically has been prescribed by culture and custom, but recent laws are beginning to challenge old belief systems. Can new laws change old ways? This central question is explored in travels to rural South Africa, middle America, and Bombay, India, to meet women who put a face on the conflict between tradition and change.

8:30 p.m. Meyerson Hall, B-1 210 S. 34th Street and 11:00 p.m. WHYY TV, Channel 12		The War Within: A Portrait of Virginia Woolf Arthur Cantor Films Called "an extraordinarily moving portrait of one of the giants of twentieth century literature" by the American Film Institute, this definitive one-hour documentary includes archival footage, paintings of the period, and haunting family photos of a Victorian childhood of both beauty and abuse. The film interweaves the personal story of Virginia Woolf's life and loves with the turbulent times she lived in. Rare documents, never before filmed, include the document in her handwriting used to establish the League of Nations, newly discovered letters to her beloved Vita Sackville-West, and the Gestapo list where she and her husband, Leonard, were marked for arrest.