Women's movement focus of Mississippi State history forum

"Rebirth of the Women's Movement" is the theme of the Nov. 14-16 public program sponsored by the History Department, with support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, College of Arts and Sciences, and campus Women's Studies Program.

In addition to examining various aspects of the movement, the forum will review related events in the 1950s and early 1960s. A special focus will be given to the movement in the South.

As is traditional, the forum will conclude with a panel discussion involving the featured speakers and other guests. Sen. Amy Tuck of Starkville will serve as moderator.

Leading this year's forum are historians William Chafe of Duke University, Jane DeHart of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Susan Hartmann of Ohio State University. Chafe is author of The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Political and Economic Roles, 1920-1970; DeHart (with D.G. Mathews), Sex, Gender and the Politics of the ERA: A State of the Nation; and Hartmann, From Margin to Mainstream: American Women and Politics since 1960.

The forum begins with a feature-length film and a video, both in the Colvard Union small auditorium. The film, An Unmarried Woman, begins at 7 p.m. on the 14th. The video, She's Nobody's Baby, gets under way at 2:30 p.m. on the 15th.

All remaining sessions will be held in Simrall Auditorium. Chafe's address at 7:30 p.m. on the 15th will provide a background on the women's movement. At 10 a.m. on the 16th, Hartmann examines the movement's rebirth; at 2:30 p.m., DeHart discusses the movement in the South. The concluding panel discussion at 7:30 looks at the movement's continuing impact.

For additional information, call Dr. Richard W. Fanning at 325-3604.