Spring Break
'Ecofeminism' fosters much discussion
John Bailey
Issue date: 3/23/09 Section: Focus
The UConn women's studies program hosted the 21st Annual Conference on Women and Gender this past weekend. Presenters, scholars and students from across the U.S. flocked to Storrs for two heavily-booked days of earnest discussion, curious inquiry and affirming solidarity.
This year's conference was subtitled "Ecofeminism in a Transnational World," highlighting the growing importance of gender in a world increasingly concerned with international ecological concerns.
"Paying attention to women makes us smarter," said Clark University feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe, who gave the conference's keynote address on Friday. "Feminist questions make us more realistic."
Enloe's keynote address aptly set the investigative tone for the weekend: no social, political or scientific aspect of the world exists apart from gender. Both academia and society at large seem bent on ignoring gender's constant role in our most persistent global problems, said Enloe.
"Wars don't just happen in a nongendered political history or time," said Enloe who emphasized that wars cause intense suffering to women in particular.
Enloe spoke about the devastating effects of war on Iraqi women, as joblessness caused by conflict forces them into prostitution. She also discussed the unsung sacrifices of American women who find their sons and husbands yoked into service by the U.S. military.
"[These costs are] not going to be in anybody's budget," Enlow said. "This is not going to be in any history."
And as the staggering variety of undergraduate, graduate and professional presentations throughout the weekend showed, gender is an equally essential - if sometimes hidden - facet of the everyday college life.
"[Gender] is relevant to anyone who's a UConn student," said Marika David, an 8th-semester political science and chemistry double major. "As I've grown up, [war] has been the background for my youth - I've had friends in Iraq. And gender's always an issue at work - the creation of brothels, whether women are safe at night."
This year's conference was subtitled "Ecofeminism in a Transnational World," highlighting the growing importance of gender in a world increasingly concerned with international ecological concerns.
"Paying attention to women makes us smarter," said Clark University feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe, who gave the conference's keynote address on Friday. "Feminist questions make us more realistic."
Enloe's keynote address aptly set the investigative tone for the weekend: no social, political or scientific aspect of the world exists apart from gender. Both academia and society at large seem bent on ignoring gender's constant role in our most persistent global problems, said Enloe.
"Wars don't just happen in a nongendered political history or time," said Enloe who emphasized that wars cause intense suffering to women in particular.
Enloe spoke about the devastating effects of war on Iraqi women, as joblessness caused by conflict forces them into prostitution. She also discussed the unsung sacrifices of American women who find their sons and husbands yoked into service by the U.S. military.
"[These costs are] not going to be in anybody's budget," Enlow said. "This is not going to be in any history."
And as the staggering variety of undergraduate, graduate and professional presentations throughout the weekend showed, gender is an equally essential - if sometimes hidden - facet of the everyday college life.
"[Gender] is relevant to anyone who's a UConn student," said Marika David, an 8th-semester political science and chemistry double major. "As I've grown up, [war] has been the background for my youth - I've had friends in Iraq. And gender's always an issue at work - the creation of brothels, whether women are safe at night."
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