Women's Research Institute of Nevada Newsletter
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Newsletters Women's Research Institute of Nevada Fall 2007 Women's Research Institute of Nevada Newsletter Joanne Goodwin University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Women's Research Institute of Nevada Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/wrin_news Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Goodwin, Joanne and Women's Research Institute of Nevada, "Women's Research Institute of Nevada Newsletter" (2007). Newsletters. 5. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/wrin_news/5 This Newsletter is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Newsletter in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Newsletter has been accepted for inclusion in Newsletters by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fall 2007 Improving the lives of women in our state through research and education NEW Leadership Reaches Fifth Year Director’s Message by Joanne Goodwin WRIN continues to We had the most competitive year has expanded beyond race and move forward building of NEW Leadership applications sex to include categories such as our research and this fifth year and a great program social and economic class, religion, outreach programs. thanks to the program management sexuality, and able-ness. In addition, of Crystal Jackson, the oversight of globalization and significant This year the Governor Caryll Dziedziak, and the logistics of populations of non-native U.S. included WRIN in his budget as Nicole Anderson and staff. Inside you students have created “new priorities a statewide program. In the prior will read more about this year’s leaders for funding and other resources.” three sessions we never made it this as well as two important conferences far despite our statewide programs we helped bring to UNLV this fall. Second, the institution’s president and research. Nevertheless, as the holds significant power in legislature cut money out of the establishing and maintaining governor’s budget, WRIN was cut. diversity initiatives. While multiple National Council explores Our friends in the legislature did some sites for leadership on diversity fancy footwork to ensure our ongoing Diversity in Higher exist within higher education, it is support and we are happy to report Education essential that the message come from that we are funded for two more years. the highest levels. We have wide support, but a special Over the last forty years, historic thanks goes to Assemblywomen efforts to expand access to higher Third, the study found that McClain, Koivisto, and Allen. We education have been implemented, interdisciplinary research programs will keep working with all of our but with mixed results. More women provide special sites for diversity supporters to finally achieve our place fill the ranks of undergraduates across education outside of the formal in the state budget as a statewide groups, yet women continue to be hierarchy. Specifically, they provide a program. underrepresented in the hard sciences place to provide support, mentoring and technology. Women also remain and enrichment for diversity goals. WRIN’s publications list (see back scarce as full professors and in higher To read the entire report go to http:// page) continues to grow with the administration. With support from www.ncrw.org/research/diversity.htm. addition of our first published oral the Ford Foundation, the National history Claudine Williams: a Life Council for Research on Women in Gaming. Two oral histories are undertook a study of eight campuses nearing completion and we welcome to explore the impact of leadership on the addition of Suzanne Becker who diversity in higher education. (WRIN will be conducting long-awaited is an institutional affiliate of the In This Issue interviews for us this fall. NCRW). Report on Diversity ....................pg 1-2 One of WRIN’s oldest projects, Research Briefs ...........................pg 2-3 The study revealed significant biographies of women in southern NEW Leadership Nevada ..............pg 4 Nevada, has gone public on our developments in educational website (http://wrin.unlv.edu). Angela efforts surrounding diversity. Alumnae Internship .......................pg 5 Moor put the finishing touches on First, institutions vary in their Upcoming Events ..........................pg 6 this research effort with final editing definition of diversity. The local this spring. We hope students and the and historical context significantly public at large will take advantage of shape an institution’s diversity the resource. plans. The meaning of diversity Research Briefs Nevada’s ERA Campaign: Anti-ERA movement to save the moral Dorothy’s decades of activism in Nevada Lessons for Future Activists fabric of the community. Likewise, at the presents an example of dignified persis- Nevada legislature, powerful legislative tence for social justice. Her childhood The Equal Rights Amendment leaders of the Mormon faith successfully years in Philadelphia during the Great has proved to be one of the most halted ERA hearings session after session Depression left her with an appreciation contentiously debated proposed until the amendments ratification time for the strength of family and community additions to the U.S. Constitution. First limit expired in 1982. caring of each other during harsh times. introduced to Congress in 1923, the Dorothy recalls her high school years at amendment languished for forty-nine In hindsight, the grassroots efforts the South Philadelphia School for Girls years before finally being sent out to the of Pro-ERA activists were hardly a with great love. Here she experienced states for ratification in March 1972. match for the efficient mobilization of committed Church members. However, the richness of a diverse student popula- tion, where the girls acknowledged the Nevada remains one of the fifteen by investigating this failed campaign, religious, racial, and economic differ- states that refused to ratify the ERA, Dziedziak hopes to provide instructive ences of their peers with the acceptance leading to its ultimate defeat in 1982. lessons for future activists. of friends. WRIN’s Assistant Director and History If you lived in Nevada during this period Department PhD Candidate, Caryll Dorothy graduated in 1946 and marriage Dziedziak, is writing about Nevada’s and were involved in this campaign, we want to hear from you. Please call and family soon followed. However, in ERA campaign as the subject of her 1960, the sudden death of her husband, doctoral dissertation. Her research has our office or email Caryll Dziedziak at: [email protected]. Ralph Weinstein, left her with four shown that, as elsewhere across the young daughters to care for. Dorothy nation, the ERA Campaign in Nevada believed that education was the means of fell victim to powerful rhetoric that security for her family. She subsequently transformed the understanding of the enrolled at Temple University and spent amendment from a call for legal equality the next few years completing her B.S. in into an attack on traditional notions of Education. womanhood and family. In 1964, Dorothy and her new husband, While polls consistently showed that Paul Eisenberg, moved with their girls to a majority of citizens favored this Las Vegas to begin a new life together. amendment, Dziedziak’s research has Caryll Dziedziak (L) with ERA activists Dorothy quickly became involved in shown that a decade of obstructionist (L-R): Renee Diamond, Harriett Trudell, Renee Rampton. the League of Women voters and spent tactics at the Nevada legislature, coupled the next decade addressing such issues with an incredibly forceful counterattack as: environmental pollution, fair hous- by the Mormon Church membership led Dorothy Eisenberg: ing, and city/county consolidation. As to the amendment’s ultimate defeat. League President in the early 1970s, Champion Volunteer for Dorothy led the fight for integrating the By interviewing activists, researching Social Change Clark County schools. She quips that she newspaper databases, and exploring is from the last generation of “full-time archival materials, Dziedziak’s research The Las Vegas volunteers,” as her community involve- reveals a blurred divide between politics Women Oral History ment continued unabated for the next and religion in Nevada during this Project continues to few decades. period. While ERA activists bemoaned document the lives Church involvement in political of women whose In 1991, The Dorothy Eisenberg Ele- matters, Dziedziak argues that the lives add a rich mentary School was named in Dorothy’s Mormon Church skillfully justified their dimension to the honor as a tribute to her lifetime of ser- involvement by redefining the ERA history of the Las vice to our community. Indeed, her years from a political issue to one of a moral Vegas community. This past year, Caryll of dedication to the improvement of our 2 nature. Church leaders then mobilized Dziedziak had the pleasure of interviewing community have made Las Vegas a bet- their membership in an effective Dorothy Eisenberg. ter home for us today. Research Briefs New Publication