Women's Rights Symposium collection

The Women’s Rights Symposium, entitled “Women’s Liberation: Who Needs It?”, was held on 3 February 1973 in Centennial Hall at Augustana College. The symposium was put on by the Representative Assembly, the student government organization of the time. The Representative Assembly had just begun holding annual symposiums on contemporary issues a few years prior, with the first being the Black Power Symposium held 7 February 1969. For the 1973 symposium, Lori Hess and Karen Pritz served as co-chairwomen on the steering committee and are credited as primary organizers. They brought in Wilma Scott Heide, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Betty Friedan, author of The Feminist Mystique and founder of NOW, as keynote speakers for the event. Other addresses and panels were held covering women’s history, health, rights, education, employment, and religion. The symposium also screened the 1971 documentary film Growing Up Female and put on a performance by Vinie Burrows of her show Walk Together Children focused on the African American experience.