Contact: Nan Johnson (716) 275-8799 June 15, 1998
FORUM 98 SETS A COURSE FOR WOMEN INTO THE 21st CENTURY
What has advocacy for women accomplished since the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, and what remains yet to be done?
Prominent leaders will address these questions during Forum 98, a rare opportunity to make this July's 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Convention relevant in the next century. Forum 98 will bring together many of the nation's eminent women in government, business, education, the media, and community organizations to assess the status of women's rights and recommend priorities for the coming decades. Co-sponsored by the University of Rochester and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the event takes place July 13 to 16 in Geneva, Rochester, and Seneca Falls in upstate New York.
At the heart of Forum 98 is the National Consultation July 13 to 15 at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva. This "think tank"-like 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.
Complementing the work of the National Consultation, the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute on Women's Health has convened leading health professionals, advocates, researchers, and policy specialists to deliberate issues of women's health and questions of access, options, ethics, the environment, public policy, and education. Blackwell, the first woman to be awarded a medical degree in the western hemisphere, is an alumna of Geneva Medical College, today Hobart College.
On Conference Day at the University of Rochester, July 15, prominent women scholars will lead 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 greater equality of opportunity. Simultaneously scheduled sessions will discuss the findings of the Blackwell Institute on Women's Health and public policy and legislative initiatives.
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During 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 Dr. 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 adopted at the 1848 Women's Rights Convention.
Forum 98 is cosponsored by the University of Rochester and Hobart and William Smith Colleges with major funding from the Ford Foundation, ITT Industries, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, the State of New York, the Greater Rochester Visitors Association, Pfizer, philanthropist Helen Hunt, the Wolk Foundation, Finger Lakes Press, the Hurlbut Foundation, Searle Charitable Trust, Rochester Area Community Foundation, and numerous other benefactors.
The University of Rochester is a private research university including the Susan B. Anthony University Center, the College, Medical Center, Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, and Warner School of Education. Hobart and William Smith Colleges are coordinate liberal arts institutions for men and women with an historical commitment to women's education.
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 (716) 275-8799.
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