Women's Week looks to reclaim 'feminism'

Women's groups at Penn are looking toward "the Feminist Future."

With that as the them, the Penn Consortium for Undergraduate Women hosts its third annual Women's Week starting today.

The program includes a variety of events, among them panel discussions, performances and movie screenings, and will be capped off by a keynote speech by women's rights activist Gloria Steinem.

Steinem is known for her role in starting the bimonthly Ms. Magazine and as a prolific feminist author.

"Women's Week is a way to celebrate the achievements of women and further the discussion of issues that women still face, as well as to promote and unite undergraduate women's groups on campus," consortium Chairwoman Lisa Rothfarb said.

Steinem's speech "is one big, exciting event that everyone can look forward to," Rothfarb added.

Other events include presentations of The Vagina Monologues -- a one-woman play about female attitudes toward sexuality -- a coffee-house benefit and a panel on body image.

"The events really have an incredible diversity and range this year, and they address a variety of topics," Rothfarb said.

There will be two performances of The Vagina Monologues, one today and another on Friday.

"Having two nights of the show at Irvine Auditorium really shows a full campus effort to stop violence against women, and hopefully the shows will be a catalyst for the overarching goal of Women's Week," College senior and show producer Caroline Rothstein said.

College senior Katie Kuhl, the show's director, shared similar feelings as to the show's role in Women's Week.

"The show is all about female empowerment, and it is great because many people who have not seen it before will be energized to get involved in other aspects [of Women's Week] and it will help pique interest in other events," Kuhl said.

The body-image panel will include representatives from the Dove corporation as well as officials from Penn's Counseling and Psychological Services and other experts in the field to discuss how ideas of body image and self esteem are changing and what role the media has played in this shift, according to Rothfarb.

Steinem was chosen as this year's keynote speaker to follow last year's choice of Naomi Wolf. Members of the consortium organized a list of "dream speakers" for the event, including Steinem and author Toni Morrison.

"Having [Steinem] here is huge, and I'm personally very excited," Kuhl said.

According to Rothfarb, this year's theme directly relates to Steinem's presence at the event.

The Penn Consortium for Undergraduate Women "is usually reluctant to take on political issues, but when it comes down to [Steinem], it really seemed like a bold statement and related to her well," Rothfarb said. "We decided we wanted to embrace the word ['feminist,' which] has gotten a lot of negative publicity in recent years; we wanted to reclaim it."

The consortium was formed two years ago as an umbrella group for all of the undergraduate women's groups, according to Rothfarb. There are over 20 groups included in the consortium.

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