In commemoration of the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States, Southeastern is hosting Grit & Grace: 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage, a one-day conference including individual research papers, panel discussions, round table discussions of works in progress, and poster presentations that address women’s issues and progress across the disciplines of history, English, communication, political science, and sociology.
Scheduled for March 5 on the third floor of the Student Union, the goal of the conference is to not only document the highs and lows of a social movement that took 72 years to achieve enfranchisement of women, but also to highlight social issues that threatened to upend it and which still fester today, including issues of race, class, and fear of inexorable demographic change.
The conference is part of the on-going Southeastern Centennial Women’s Suffrage Project (CWSP), a multi-faceted initiative that celebrates the history of the women’s suffrage movement both in Louisiana and as a whole in the United States. In addition to on-campus educational programming, CWSP has also organized a series of public offerings across the region that include lectures and panel discussions, a traveling exhibition, and an upcoming documentary.
The March 5 event will be the first in an annual conference series hosted by Southeastern, with each year’s multi-disciplinary program focusing on a different topic in women’s issues. An EqualiTEA reception will follow the conference sessions, during which a Woman of Achievement award will be presented to one highly-accomplished individual who has made an outstanding positive impact.
The conference is open to the public. For more information, please visit gritandgrace100.com.
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