Womyn's Herstory Week highlights women's needs

From women's health to body image, the Oregon State student task force looks for ways to empower and inform

Schellene Pils

The Daily Barometer

The OSU student task force is hosting Womyn's Herstory Week, an event that it hopes will empower and inform both women and men.

"I was trying to have a theme for every day" about issues that affect women, said Ioana Jurcovan, task force director and coordinator of the events.

All events for the week are free and open to anyone interested in learning more about women's issues.

Jurcovan said that she hopes the events, which focus on both men and women, will be interesting for both groups and that members of both sexes will attend.

What sometimes happens is that people who are knowledgeable about the issues will attend the meetings, she said. The task force would like to see people attend who have not been exposed to these ideas.

Tuesday's discussions focused on how women are viewed in religion.

Vida Ellins, a member of the Baha'i faith auxiliary board, opened the discussion with examples of the way women are seen in the Baha'i faith and then asked the audience to share their experiences with faith.

Today's events will focus on body image.

Mariette Brouwers, who works with support groups at University Counseling and Psychological Services, will be speaking on eating disorders.

"It should be interesting and very powerful," Jurcovan said.

Brouwers' discussion will begin at 4 p.m. in 208 Memorial Union.

A documentary/film titled "The Ad and The Ego" will be played this evening. The video discusses advertisements and how they affect society and women.

The movie quotes a variety of experts from diverse backgrounds and gives several examples of advertisements and how they are used to portray the ideal for women in society, Jurcovan said.

"I think it's a very good movie and that many people will have a lot to learn from it," she said.

The movie will be shown at 7 p.m. in the MU Lounge.

Women's health issues will be the focus of the discussions to be held Thursday.

Janet Lee of the Women's Center will head the first discussion, "Celebrating Periods."

Lee will talk about the complex and conflicting feelings that most girls have about their first periods, Jurcovan said, adding that, "We don't really talk about periods because it's kind of taboo."

Lee's discussion will begin at noon at the Women's Center.

Margo Denason from the Valley AIDS information network will discuss "What Every Woman Should Know About AIDS" at 1 p.m. in the MU.

The lecture will draw from Denason's personal experience with women who have AIDS.

Rounding out Womyn's Herstory Week will be "International Womyn's Day," Friday at 3 p.m. in MU 206. Three international students will speak from personal experience on the "roles of women in their society," Jurcovan said. For example, one speaker is from Finland where the current president is a woman. Another student is from Nigeria where women live in a more restrictive society than men.

Jurcovan is currently looking for an Asian exchange student to fill the role of the third speaker.

I'm trying to show the variety of ways women are viewed in international society today, she said.

All events are free and open to the public.