Anthropology professor Jane Adams began SIUC’s celebration of Women’s History Month by providing visions of toiling women in the fields of nearby Union County, where she spent 14 years researching women’s lives.

She gave a reading from her book, Transformations of Rural Life, and led a discussion about the lives of women in the past.

Adams says life has changed since the time women worked mainly in the fields and in the home. Her presentation and other Women’s History Month events honor women’s changing roles and contributions to society.

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Older women in the past saw themselves as working but as invisible workers, she said. We now have opportunities to have careers and our work is valued.

After observing very diverse cultures around the world, renowned 1960s anthropologist Margaret Mead concluded, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Since Mead’s conclusions, women have stepped out of their oppressed roles in society and walked in the Mead’s footsteps, changing the course of history for the feminine gender.

Through numerous counts of travail, women succeeded in the recognition of citizenship in the United States 1998 marking the 150th anniversary of that movement.

The staggering changes for women that have come about over those seven generations have been in family life, religion, government, employment and education and have changed the face of society drastically.

Throughout 1998, the 150th anniversary of the Women’s Rights Movement is being celebrated across the nation with programs and events recognizing influential women that have made a difference for the good of women.

The Women’s Rights Movement marks July 13, 1848 as its birth. On that day, in upstate New York, Elizabeth Cady Stanton discussed the role of women with four of her friends and decided to carry out a specific, large-scale program to free women from tyranny placed upon them in a male society.

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Within two days, a convention titled, A convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman, brought together the overwrought women of Seneca Falls, N.Y.

In this convention, a Declaration of Sentiments was drafted, presenting justifications for freedom. The declaration described the standing of women at the time.

Married women were legally dead in the eyes of the law. Women were not allowed to vote. Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent that they could imprison or beat them with impunity. Women had to pay property taxes although they had no representation in the levying of these taxes. Women had no means to gain an education since no college or university would accept female students, with only a few exceptions. Women were also not allowed to participate in the affairs of church.

This declaration arrived only 70 years after the Revolutionary War and spelled out the status quo for European-American women in 1848 America. The times were more arduous for enslaved African-American women.

Today, it is obvious that women have made clear progress in the areas addressed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s revolutionary Declaration of Sentiments.

Because of this achievement, Adams said women have been given one of the greatest gifts possible when compared to their female ancestors.

Women don’t have to work the way that these women worked, she said. We now have time to use our minds.

Factoid:Other Women’s History Month events include:A panel discussion on the U.S. Ratification of the U.N.’s Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women is scheduled at 7 p.m. tonight in room 1059 of Life Science III.

The American Association of University Women’s Essay Contest Awards for local seventh- and eighth-grade young women is 7:30 p.m. March 17 at the Faculty House, 1000 S. Elizabeth St. Six of 30 essays on the topic The Woman In History I Most Admire will be read by award winners.

The AAUW also is sponsoring a $250 scholarship for graduate-level women. Entries should be submitted by March 20. For information call 549-3090 or 453-4530.

SIUC Women Writers/Artists is sponsoring a performance of Motherless Daughters as part of SIUC’s In Our Own Backyard Series. The two-hour performance is 6 p.m. March 23 in the University Museum Auditorium.

Professor Emeritus Elizabeth Eames will give the first Women’s History Month Honors Lecture at a reception featuring music, art and Women’s History Month Essay Awards during the Women’s History Month Closing Celebration, 5 to 8 p.m. March 30 at the Northwest Annex.

For information about Women’s History Month events, call Women’s Studies and Women’s Services at 453-5141 or 453-7606.