2011 Women & Girls in Georgia Conference
Call for Participants

Since the global financial crisis struck in 2008, Georgia has fared even worse than the nation as a whole. We are among the top ten states in foreclosure filings, our unemployment rate has risen to over ten percent, and the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that Athens-Clarke County has the highest rate of poverty of any county its size in the country. With women disproportionately affected by every aspect of the crisis from subprime mortgages to the cuts in public services, the economy is an urgent feminist issue.

Given the need for creative responses to the economic crisis, the Fourth Annual Conference on Women and Girls in Georgia seeks to connect researchers, activists, academics, and community members from across the state. WAGG welcomes presentations of scholarship, reports from the field, workshops, and opportunities to organize.

The Institute for Women’s Studies encourages submissions that engage the intersections of gender, sex, and other dimensions of identity, and that recognize the diversity of women and girls in our state. We also especially welcome presentations that include community involvement, applied research, service learning, and student participation.

Interested groups and individuals are requested to submit a 250-word abstract and a brief biographical paragraph about each presenter and/or organization via e-mail to WAGGconf@gmail.com by June 1, 2011.

Possible formats include, but are not limited to:

• Individual talks

• Group panels

• Workshops

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• What are the roots of the economic crisis, and what are the available options to address them? How much power do women exercise over the decisions that caused the crisis? Over the decisions about budget priorities in response to it?

• What skills do women need to understand and shape the economic agendas affecting their lives?

• When social services are cut, who picks up the slack? How is women’s disproportionate burden of childcare, elder care, and domestic labor affected by the removal of public goods?

• Given that women are the overwhelming majority of teachers, nurses, and public union members, what are the gender politics of the attack on public employees?

• How can families respond to debt, foreclosures, eviction, and fraudulent lending?

• How is maternal and child health affected by reduced access to health care?

• With wage theft and labor law violations most rampant in women’s service workplaces like restaurants, nursing homes, and retail stores, how can employees effectively defend their rights at work?

• How has the crisis and recession affected domestic violence?

• How are unemployment and budget cuts affecting food security?

Click here for .pdf version of this Call for Participants.