By Leslie Baer

Women came together at Buffalo State College this month to discuss women’s rights topics on International Women’s Day, which was held on March 8th. A conference was held in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall at Buffalo State College in honor of this day. Several discussions were held on topics concerning women’s rights in the United States as well as the rest of the world.

“The idea of unwaged labor was a key concept,” said Amitra Hodge, coordinator of the Women’s Studies program at BSC.

Joanna Kerr, executive director of the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. However, she became ill at the last minute and was unable to give her presentation. Isabel Marcus took her place and gave “a wonderful last minute keynote address,” said Dr. Hodge.

Dr. Marcus is a law professor at the University at Buffalo law school, as well as a founder and director of the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender at UB. She is also on the board of directors of the Network of East-West Women. To learn more about Dr. Marcus and her credentials, go to www.law.buffalo.edu/Faculty_And_Staff and click on her name.

Some of the other panelists at the conference included members of the BSC faculty. Frederick Floss and Susan Davis from the economics and finance departments discussed how courts value women’s household services and pay equity.

“I addressed the issue of achieving pay equity for women using the ‘comparable worth’ strategy, said Dr. Davis. Comparable worth is a way of comparing different jobs—such as a teacher and mechanic—to determine if pay discrimination exists.” Discussions were led by Maggie Wright on a specific example of a case in Buffalo; and Lauren Breen, clinical instructor of law with the UB Community Economic Development Clinic, who spoke about the challenge of child care finance.

Also, the documentary, “Who’s Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics” was discussed. Marilyn Waring is a professor in social policy and social work at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. She is also author of the book If Women Counted. According to www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog.who.html, “This film has inspired many people…to work on human-scale economic alternatives, local currency exchanges, and more humane ways of measuring the quality of life.”

Overall, the International Women’s Day Conference at BSC went well, according to Dr. Hodge.

“Representatives from Western New York organizations and agencies, students from ECC, Buffalo State College and UB attended,” she said. At least 105 were in attendance.

“The conference was very well-received. It touched on a number of very current issues for women, addressing them empirically, theoretically, and practically,” said Dr. Davis.