Marriage, babies... Why? notes on my studies in sociology of the family

From Turbulence to Transformation

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

3:00-5:00 p.m.

A SPECIAL EVENT WITH

Edith Cooper, Managing Director, Global Head of Human Capital Management, Goldman Sachs

Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues

Letty Chiwara, Manager, UNIFEM Cross Regional Programmes (invited)

Moderated by Jacki Zehner, Founding Partner, Circle Financial Group

Goldman Sachs Building - 32 Old Slip - 2nd Floor Auditorium Reservation required:rsvp@ncrw.org or call: (212) 785-7335 ext. 100

For security reasons, all attendees must RSVP by March 1st.

Sponsored by: 

Co-Sponsors: Americans for UNFPA
Center for Women in Government & Civil Society, SUNY Albany
Demos: a Network for Ideas & Action
Gender Studies Program, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Columbia University
New York Women Social Entrepreneurs
Paradigm Shift: New York City’s Feminist Community
U.S. National Committee for UNIFEM
The White House Project
Women’s Forum, Inc.
Women of Color Policy Network, NYU Wagner

What are the challenges and opportunities for advancing real and substantive social change that creates a better world for women and girls? Panelists will share their vision, strategies, and the action steps needed to promote more equitable and inclusive societies locally, nationally, and globally.

PLEASE RSVP VIA E-MAIL TO RSVP@NCRW.ORG OR CALL 212-785-7335 x.100

I attended this event on 2/23 and will post notes shortly!

ABOUT “THE PURITY MYTH”:

The United States is obsessed with virginity from the media to schools to government agencies. The Purity Myth is an important and timely critique of about why this is so, and why it’s problematic for girls and women. Analyzing cultural stereotypes and media messages, Jessica Valenti reveals the overt and hidden ways our society links a woman’s worth to her sexuality rather than to values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti takes on issues ranging from abstinence-only education to pornography and exposes the legal and social punishments that women who dare to have sex endure. Importantly, she also offers solutions that pave the way for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity, including a call to rethink male sexuality and reframe the idea of “losing it.” With Valenti’s usual balance of intelligence and wit, The Purity Myth presents a powerful and revolutionary argument that valuing girls and women for their sexuality needs to stop–and outlines a new vision for how it can happen.

I attended this event on 2/25 and I will post my notes shortly!

New York University will host a panel discussion on the changing ways families are negotiating work and gender issues on Thursday, February 25, 5 p.m. in NYU’s Jurow Lecture Hall, Silver Center (100 Washington Square East [at Washington Square East]). The event is free and open to the public. Subway Lines: 6 (Astor Place); A, B, C, D, E, F, V (West 4th Street); R, W (8th Street). Please call 212.998.8365 for more information.

Panelists will include NYU Sociologist Kathleen Gerson, whose findings on the topic are published in her most recent work, The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America (Oxford), as well as the following: Carol Gilligan, a professor at NYU’s School of Law; Dalton Conley, a professor of sociology and NYU’s dean for the social sciences; and Janet Gornick, a professor of political science and sociology at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. NYU Sociology Professor Lawrence Wu will moderate the session.

Rigid social and economic forces, not the absence of family values, threaten a vibrant family and work life for all Americans, Gerson concludes in The Unfinished Revolution. Gerson’s work also observes that while the current recession has produced significant economic uncertainty in the United States, underlying these circumstances are deep-seated social and cultural, as well as economic, shifts that have been building for decades.

Reporters interested in attending the lecture must contact James Devitt, Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu. For review copies, contact Justyna Zajac, Oxford University Press, at 212.743.8337 or Justyna.Zajac@oup.com.

This event is co-sponsored by NYU’s Department of Sociology, NYU’s College of Arts and Science, the NYU Humanities Forum, and Oxford University Press.