MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

How far have women come in politics?: a feminism forum at Sydney University on 22 March, 2010.

To mark the month of International Woman’s Day, Sydney Ideas, the University of Sydney’s international public lecture series, is bringing together a panel of leading international and Australian scholars and political scientists to discuss exactly how far women have come in politics. It promises to be a vigorous and very entertaining conversation, which will be chaired by broadcaster Lisa Forrest. Here are the details:

A panel of leading international political scientists, authors and Australian scholars will come together at the University of Sydney on Monday, March 22, 2010, to discuss exactly how far women have come in politics over the past 30 years.

To mark the month of International Woman’s Day, the panel, including Professor Mary Fainsod Katzenstein – an expert commentator on contemporary US politics – will compare the different approaches men and women take to politics, the impact women have had in shaping public policy and the political agenda over the past few decades and what role feminism plays in politics today.

In what promises to be a robust and entertaining discussion chaired by broadcaster Lisa Forest, the panel will reflect on the giant steps some women, including Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard, have made in politics but will also examine why the top job still remains elusive for women.

Participants include: Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, the Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies and Professor of Government at Cornell University who is an expert on feminism in the Catholic Church and US Military; Fiona Mackay, senior lecturer in politics and the director of the School and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Karen Beckwith, the Flora Stone Mather Professor in the Department of Political Science at Case Western University; Sue Goodwin, senior lecturer in policy studies at the Faculty of Education and Social Work in the University of Sydney; and social researcher and author (The World According to Y: Inside the New Adult Generation) Rebecca Huntley. This forum is an Arts Matters forum co-presented with the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Arts and Sydney University Arts Association.

Event details:
Why Feminism Matters: a forum at Sydney Ideas, the University of Sydney’s international public lecture series
Date and time: 6.30pm on Monday, 22 March, 2010.
Venue: Seymour Theatre Centre, Corner of City Road and Cleveland Street, University of Sydney
Bookings: Seymour Theatre Centre box office (02) 9351 7940 or book online now
Cost: $20/$15 concession.

Visit the Sydney Ideas website here.