Women's Day aims to empower women

Women's issues took precedence over Spring Fling for many students yesterday as events of the first-ever Penn Women's Day occupied the afternoon and evening. The majority of these events took place on College Green. The Penn Women's Alliance, the University's chapter of the National Organization of Women, the Women's Center and the Women's Studies program co-sponsored the events, which were organized by three PWA members. "PWA is primarily in charge of publishing Voyage Out [a literary journal]," explained College senior Leah Klerr, one of the organizers. "But we wanted to do something else this year." Klerr also noted that the group "wanted to empower women." She explained that PWA members wanted to bring together various resources regarding women's interests -- resources that cannot usually be found in one place. Klerr explained that the day was held in the center of campus to "bring things to a public space," so the resources offered would be available to people who would not normally search for them. The group set up a table on Locust Walk offering various pamphlets concerning women's health, sexuality, and political issues, some of which were specifically designed for Women's Day. Klerr explained that another goal of the events was to make students aware that there are active women's organizations on campus. Klerr, along with College sophomores Melissa Goldstein and Karina Sliwinski, had been planning Penn Women's Day since the beginning of March. Without person-to-person networking however, Klerr said, the first Penn Women's Day could not have occurred. Afternoon events on College Green focused on topics ranging from women's sexuality, sexual health and body image to career development, networking and dieting. Theater Phoenix -- "a small lesbian theater company in Philadelphia," according to company member Robyn Barr Gorman -- performed two skits during the day. And Penn Dining Services nutritionist and School of Nursing lecturer Marion Birdsall concluded the afternoon events with a workshop entitled "Improving Your Quality of Life through Nutrition." According to Birdsall, the discussion focused "on the nutrients that are of special interest to women," as well as on other nutrition and health related topics of importance to women. Women's Day events continued last night with a presentation on harassment issues at the Greenfield Intercultural Center, a faculty and graduate student panel discussion on "Women in Academia: Challenging and Redefining the Boundaries" and a women's coffee hour. Klerr explained that she and her co-organizers will try to make Women's Day an annual event, but in order to avoid conflicts with future Spring Flings, they hope to "do it earlier next year." Goldstein said she believed that "as a whole [the day] has been a success." She also noted that the groups behind the event found people very receptive to some parts of the day, especially the information table. "I've never seen something so big put on by Penn women," said College and Wharton sophomore Karen Liu, as she observed the event.