Benjamin Center to cohost women’s suffrage centennial conference, April 21 & 22
Registration is now open for “Women in Politics: Past, Present & Future,” a conference commemorating the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State, which will begin on Friday, April 21, at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., and will continue on Saturday, April 22, at SUNY New Paltz.
The conference is a product of collaboration between the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives, local historically-focused organizations and a number of the College’s academic departments.
[Please follow this link to learn more and register]
The 2017 centennial of women’s right to vote in New York offers a unique opportunity to look back at this benchmark moment in our state’s history. “Women in Politics: Past, Present & Future” honors this history by opening an intergenerational dialogue about women’s political activism and the current state of the movement to advance women’s human and civil rights.
“By bringing together scholars with a variety of approaches and research specialties, this conference will contribute an understanding of past accomplishments with a clearer picture of present problems and our unfinished agenda for the future,” said Janis Benincasa, assistant director of the Benjamin Center.
Remarks and keynotes will be delivered by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, League of Women Voters Executive Director Wylecia Wiggs Harris, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Editor Allida Black and Black Feminist author and activist Barbara Smith.
The conference program has been developed to engage both specialist and general audiences. Panels will address subjects such as the historical movement to bring the vote to New York women, how women have engaged in social and political movements since their enfranchisement, and the representative roles women currently fulfill at the local, state and national levels.
The conference will also feature a presentation of the results of first statewide Women @ Work View on Women poll by its originator, Eve Waltermaurer, who serves as associate director of research & evaluation at The Benjamin Center.
“Women in Politics: Past, Present & Future,” is a collaborative effort involving The Benjamin Center, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the New York State League of Women Voters and the Rockefeller Institute of Government, with support from the College’s Department of History, Department of Political Science & International Relations, Department of Sociology and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
Tickets for Friday night at the FDR Library are limited; $75 includes a cocktail reception and dinner. Saturday-only registration is $35 and includes breakfast and lunch.
The Saturday proceedings will be live-streamed at ruralfreetv.com. A post-conference workshop will be held for K-12 teachers’ curricular development. Conference themes and outcomes will be documented in a future Benjamin Center publication.