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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1985)
Task force looks at issues facing University women By Julie Shippen Of Um» Emerald They meet once a week in small rooms around campus and they do a lot of talking about you behind your back. They especially like to talk about your problems — your needs, fears and wants. "They” are the Women’s Task Force, and they have made it their job to see that women are finding answers to the struggles associated with being a woman. Created in late November by ASUO President Julie Davis, the group is a blend of women from nearly every facet of the female population. Members come from major student groups on campus and represent an assort ment of academic interests and levels. Although the many perspec tives of these women often make for interesting debates on the issues, members believe the group’s broad background should help in its community outreach efforts. The group’s basic functions are to collect and disseminate information and to organize the yearly women’s symposium, which is sponsored by ASUO. "Mainly we're going to ad dress problems that women en counter in the University com munity,” says Lois Day. task force member and president of the Student Bar Association. The 11 particular areas the Lois Day group will be examining this year that concern women in clude: sexual harassment, com parable worth, women and economics, child care, and mental and physical violence against women. “We felt violence against women is the most pressing issue,” Day adds. The subject of alternative lifestyles will also be discussed and included with the other topics of the women's sym posium held each spring. The two-day event will feature films, speakers, self-defense demonstrations and workshops, Day says, and will culminate in a "Take Back the Night” march. ‘ ‘The purpose of the march is for women to walk together where they would never walk alone,” she says. A second symposium will be held later in mid-April and will examine the role of women in the workplace, Day adds. "We wanted to reach out for new people. That’s why we restructured the symposium to be more concentrated,” says another member, Mary Kay Menard, who is also on the In cidental Fee Committee. "Our shape has changed quite a bit,” she adds. Davis says she hopes the task force will accomplish five things this year: identify cur rent or potential women’s issues, define long- and short term goals to address those issues, coordinate a "quality” symposium, work within the group’s $4,000 budget, and keep a record of the year’s work. Task force members besides Day and Menard include Kim Freeburn, former Panhellenic president; Lynn Pinkney, co director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance; Leah Juniper, a direc tor of the Women’s Referral and Resource Service; Diane Ar nold, Ariel Friesner, and ASUO Executive members Davis, Mar cia Schmaedick and Karin Keutzer. Feminist promotes Freudian theory Although feminists have long regarded Sigmund Freud with scorn, his psychoanalytic theories concerning the family should not be dismissed because they accurately describe traditional sexual attitudes in society, said University sociology Prof. Miriam Johnson Tuesday night. “I believe that Freud's description of the Oedipus complex can be taken as a fable about the ideal typical middle-class family,” Johnson told an audience of about 80 in the EMU Dad's Room. "He over generalized to all family systems,” Johnson said. “But to the extent that the so-called isolated, male-headed nuclear family is still viable on the scene, Freud’s fable about it reflects psychic reality.” As such, Johnson said, Freud’s theories are a valuable key to our understanding of in cest, especially father-daughter incest, and the problem of female identity. “In his distorted way,” Freud understood that a daughter in a patriarchal family is com pelled to become psychologically bound to her father “until he hands her over to another man,” Johnson said. Freud was also the first to suspect that hysterical symptoms in women might be caus ed by their having been sexually molested by their fathers or close male relatives, she said. Freud unfortunately had suppressed the publication of this theory, fearing that his col leagues would ridicule him, Johnson said. Johnson’s major criticism of Freud was that he assumed femininity meant only being passive and heterosexual. To Freud, a female was always “daddy’s girl,” she said. “If it is not to be oppressive, psychoanalytic theory must come to terms with the fact that gender identity does not have to rest on either heterosexuality or dominance and subordination,” Johnson said. “Women themselves are now constructing new defini tions of what being a woman can mean.” TEETH Ignore them and they will go away Teeth Cleaning, Exam and X-Rays as needed $25 Will Morningsun, D.D.S. Thomas R. Huhn, D.D.S. Sarah Hollander, D.M.D. call for appointment 746-6517 | Vi miles Irom campus, next to Bilt« Patti 528 Mill St., Springfield ^rotfier Jonathan1 JANUARY CLEARANCE! SAVE 15-50% d Wool Shirts /Chamois a Shirts c/goretex d Patagonia . Sierra u Designs cf WOjOLRICH / Wilderness Q Experience STEP UP TO THE SKYLIGHT AND DISCOVER THE FLAVOR OF ITALY! Fine, quick cuisine at reasonable prices International Desserts and Gourmet Delights Check CLASSIFIED section for daily specials! 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