Speakers, films, poetry readings, award ceremonies and conferences are all on the March agenda as part of a celebration of Women’s History Month.

Karen Smith, director of the Ethnic and Gender Studies Program, coordinated the events for Women’s History Month and also for Black History Month in February.

“Black History month and Women’s History month are important because we need to be reminded of our history and these are recent additions to the United States calendar,” Smith said. “They came in post civil rights movements and post women’s liberation movement.”

She said that it is important not to forget those who changed history.

“Time goes by, it’s been 50 years since the student involvement aspect to the civil rights movement,” Smith said. “People who are in college now don’t know anything about that.

“They know there was Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks, but the actual story I think kind of gets lost and so that’s why we’re kind of trying to keep it alive with having these kinds of events. The same with women’s history. Even though a lot of the events are not actually about history, it’s a way of recognizing women’s accomplishments, achievements, struggles.”

The Women’s History Month Reception at 3:30 p.m. March 5 at the Sauder Alumni Center will host an award ceremony for Leslie Lewis, former professor at Emporia State and founder of the Ethnic and Gender Studies program.

“She’s going to be receiving the Ruth Schillinger Award which we give every year to a woman who has served the women of Emporia State,” Smith said, “And she certainly did by establishing that program.”

Lewis remembered the first Ruth Schillinger award that was given.

“We gave Ruth Schillinger the first award and I have a very distinct memory of that so it’s quite an honor to be thinking about her and her legacy and that award in the context of what the Ethnic and Gender Studies program has done for Emporia State University,” Lewis said.

After eight years of working for ESU, Lewis left in 1999 to teach at the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York, and is currently the Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College. She will return to Emporia to receive the award and to give a lecture on the value of liberal arts education at 7 p.m. March 4 in the Kanza Room.

The next event, on March 6, is an all-day conference for middle school girls. It will feature various women speakers with careers in math or science as well as workshops such as “You can do WHAT with Paper!” which is about chemistry and a biology session titled “Chocolate, Past, Present, and Tasty.”

“Women are under-represented in a lot of science and math careers so we just think it’s important for these young women to realize the opportunities that are before them and to plan accordingly to keep working on math and science and see what it can lead to in their future,” said Elizabeth Yanik, professor of mathematics, who helped coordinate the event.

The event will give the girls an opportunity that some presenters said they never had.

“A lot of the women who present, they ended up in math or science but they say ‘I really wish I’d had an opportunity like this,’” Yanik said. “So a lot of women give up their time thinking that it’s a good thing for young women today to see.”

Yanik said that the month overall is a chance for people to reflect of the advancements that women have made.

“I just think it’s a nice time to stop and consider a lot of the important contributions that women have made to society and to this country and I think that’s becoming more well known but certainly in the past.”

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