In the 1970s, shortly after the formation of the University's women's studies department, Evans came to the University and became active in the women's movement.

Authors Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner described the atmosphere of the early 1970s in their book “Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future,” which mostly addresses the new generation of feminism that began in the early 1990s.

Women's rights activists of that period vied for women to serve on juries, get credit in their own name and get admitted to law and medical schools, she said.

Evans describes this ceiling as the image that women still are not proportionally represented in upper level leadership roles and in some fields, such as medicine, find themselves trapped in professions tagged as “female,” such as family medicine and pediatrics, Evans said.

In fall the Women's Student Activist Collective had an event that addressed women's health and health care, Lamb said, and they've also done work to address issues of violence against women.

These issues need to be addressed by women because “the majority of student leaders are male and the majority of students here are female,” she said.

A panel of four American Indian activists came to agree that the U.S. women's movement of the 1960s had little to do with issues for American Indian women.

The panel, titled “Native Women Leaders Speak about Activism,” included former vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke, Red Lake Nation College President Renee Gurneau and University students Kate and Carly Beane.

Claire Walter-Marchetti, director of the Office for University Women, said she asked the panelists to think about what they would like white female feminists to know.

LaDuke said that while the white feminist movement in the United States encouraged women to rankle against the oppressive power of men, it didn't apply to American Indian women in the same way.

She said that when someone asks why a woman isn't allowed to sit at the drum, they neglect to ask about the meanings and the traditions behind it.

When asked by the moderator about whether women in the American Indian rights movement were struggling against sexism, Gurneau and LaDuke agreed that that perception was not true.

“Interculturalism differs from the melting pot concept in that it helps people to retain and respect their own identities, while gaining understanding and respect for other people's identities,” she said.

“We've been very successful (in college) because we've taken our education into our own hands,” she said. Both Carly and Kate Beane are senior American Indian studies students focusing on Dakota language and working toward second majors.

Begaye received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona in psychology with a minor in American Indian studies. She hopes to return home to the Arizona Navajo reservation she grew up on after she gets her master's degree.

Begaye said she is interested in the effects of postcolonial trauma with regard to education in native communities and wants to develop materials to best evaluate the educational needs of native children.

Kaminsky, now interim chairwoman of the department, said she is part of the generation that brought women's studies into existence and therefore never got the chance to study it before teaching.

“A group of mostly undergraduates but a few graduates and junior faculty decided that it was really important to do women's studies here at the University,” Kaminsky said.

One of the unique aspects of the department at that time was that it hired its own faculty members, she said, as opposed to departments elsewhere that pulled faculty members from other departments.

Women's studies senior Jen Mohnkern said people often think of women's studies as “a group of women studying women,” but that the program is more than that.

Connections with student and community groups, as well as the development of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender minor, have helped to improve the program, she said.

In fall the program will expand and change its name to Gender, Women and Sexuality studies to incorporate all the work and research done in the program, she said.

The next generation of women's studies majors are unique in that they will be the first to have been formally trained in women's studies, Zita said.

Peggy Flanagan graduated from the University in 2002 and just two years later became the first American Indian to be elected to the Minneapolis school board.

I think it sort of goes back to women: We are truly the foundation of the community. Understanding where we came from and whose shoulders we're standing on is critical to how we move forward.

Well, keeping in mind that I'm only 26, I think that right now, as a generation, we're trying to figure out what it means and where we're going. You know, sort of being the daughters of Roe; we've always had access to reproductive health care. Sometimes I think we take it for granted. But I think I've seen more and more young women stepping up and taking leadership roles and getting involved.

I guess, frankly, my campaign. The fact that I'm the first American Indian to be on the Minneapolis school board is huge. I think I was able to bring a lot of issues forward that folks in my community are facing. And sort of paving the way and it makes it easier for other young women who want to get involved and who want to run for office. I think young women of color need to see more and more women in positions of leadership.

I think it sort of goes back to finding out what our role is within our community. I think there's a lot of pressure to figure out how do we remain true to ourselves and true to the movement, while at the same time, pursing things that we're passionate about. I think we have a unique balancing act in our lives.

In 25 years, I think we'll have a woman sitting in the White House, or at least I hope we'll have a woman sitting in the White House. I think women are sort of figuring out what their role is (in society). I think we are of the generation where it was totally realistic for people to say, Yeah, I'm going to be president, or I'm going to be an astronaut, or I'm going to be a physicist.

I think just, in general, our careers, what we're able to pursue in higher education, pursuing elected office, access to health care. It touches every access of my life as a young woman, and just seeing what we are able to accomplish. They laid the groundwork for us, and we're standing on their shoulders.

It was kind of an accident. My mom always kept me engaged and let me know how important it was to vote and to be a voice in the community, but as far as running for school board, I had been looking for something from the American Indian community to run for the board for months, and finally folks turned to me and said, Why don't you do it? I think women often wait to be asked to get involved and to run for office. And that needs to stop. We need to just do it: The women who came before us sort of sent the invitation, and now we need to accept it.

I think that working on a campaign, be it for a political candidate or an issue campaign, is the best way to get experience to learn more about how to organize on a grassroots level and to bring your own personal concerns forward. I think that's why the University is such a great place. There are so many different communities on one campus where people can really find their niche and what they're good at and gain some experience.

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