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Posted 12-20-99
Women of all ages will stand up and be counted on April 8, 2000 as they create an agenda for the new millennium. More than 1,000 women from all walks of life are expected to attend "Woman2000: Forging a Vision" at Case Western Reserve University and Severance Hall in Cleveland.
"The voice of Cleveland women will echo around the country as women unite to speak out on health, education, family, economics, public policy, and other issues," says Alberta Kelvie, chair of Woman2000 and president of CWRU's Flora Stone Mather Alumnae Association, which will sponsor the day-long event with support from corporate sponsor Medical Mutual of Ohio
Former U.S. Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-Colorado) will deliver the keynote address to open the symposium, which is designed for women age16 and older.
After caucusing in break-out sessions throughout the day, women will write an agenda for 2000 during a closing town meeting. The moderator will be Catherine Crier, legal news show host for Court TV and formerly with Fox News Channel's "The Crier Report."
The symposium will serve as a forum to provide leadership for new ideas and underscore the growing strength of women through time by bringing together people associated with and supportive of women's issues to share, learn, and foster knowledge vital to life in the next millenium.
"The Challenge of Change" comprises the heart of the symposium. In 22 break-out sessions throughout the day, women will explore topics on arts and education; mind, body, and spirit; women and economics; and women and public policy. Women from a variety of professional and personal roles will share their life experiences and knowledge with other women.
Among the panelists and moderators are:
Woman 2000 grew out of the Flora Stone Mather Alumnae Association's centennial celebration in 1988. The celebration was a national symposium on higher education for women, after which an entire issue of the American Behavioral Scientist was devoted to the publication of the symposium papers.
During the 1990s, the women of Mather College explored new directions for the organization and pledged support to help raise $1.5 million to establish a full-fledged women's center on the CWRU campus.
Historically, Cleveland has had an important role in shaping the future for women. In 1869, the city hosted the founding convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association, which merged in 1890 with the National Woman Suffrage Association led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Cleveland's great-grandmothers and grandmothers took to the streets to march for the vote, better working conditions, and child care issues. They were some of the first in the country to fight for legalized birth control and established the Maternal Health Organization, the forerunner of Planned Parenthood.
Included in the group of women working to better Cleveland was Flora Stone Mather. She was among Cleveland's leading turn-of-the-century philanthropists, who not only donated her vast inherited wealth to education (including the creation of Mather College) and more than 30 social service organizations, but assisted in the trenches alongside working mothers and others to help Cleveland women better themselves.
"The Year 2000 milestone offers an ideal future-thinking, thought-provoking opportunity on which to build," says Kelvie. "By actively working and planning for tomorrow will push the boundaries of discovery."
For more information on the Woman 2000 symposium, contact Kerry Pohly at 216-368-2133 or krpohly@yahoo.com or woman2000@po.cwru.edu.
Registration is $50, or $15 for students. Scholarships are available with support from the Cleveland Foundation, the Women's Community Foundation, and the Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank trustee.
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