Fed Event: March 2nd

Date: Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Time: 12:15-1:30 p.m.
Location: Atrium, Van Munching Hall
Admission: free
Light refreshments will be served.

This year's First Year Book committee selected Half the Sky: Turning
Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which chronicles the
courageous stories of women who, through education and microfinance
strategies, were able to break free from a life of sexual slavery, gang
rape, or poor maternal health. The authors believe that empowering women is
not only a moral issue, but also an economic and political issue that
affects the well-being of individuals, the household, the community, the
workplace, and the broader society. Half the Sky underscores the importance
of providing an empowering education that enables both men and women to work
together to solve these vital issues.

The School of Public Policy plays a critical role in educating our emerging
policy leaders to engage in solving major societal issues and to embrace our
responsibility to the rest of the world. Many of the issues in this book
are directly addressed in the School's teaching and research.

The School of Public Policy is pleased to host "Empowering Women in
Developing Countries: Solutions and Policies," to explore the issues raised
in HALF THE SKY. Ioana Petrescu, Assistant Professor in International
Development, will represent the School as part of an all-female panel
designed to explore the large policy issues while addressing what
specifically can be done to help solve the issues raised in the book. The
conversation will also discuss how University of Maryland students can
prepare themselves through their educational programs to effectively attack
the broad social issues that the book so clearly identifies.

For more information, please visit the shortened link below.

http://bit.ly/ig3T5I