Please note, this event will take place remotely via Zoom. Zoom meeting details will be emailed to you when you register.

In celebration of the Year of the Woman and the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage, Maureen Flanagan Battistella discusses the women, places, and politics in our region through interviews, photographs, and historical records.

Rogue Valley, Oregon women were roused to action in the 1970s, spurred by national events and cultural transitions to organize social services that protected families and enabled women. Women were recognized as powerful change agents and gained the confidence to speak out about injustice, inequality, and sexuality. Women listened and women acted, establishing Women in Transition in Ashland, Oregon at Southern Oregon University, Dunn House, the Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team and many other agencies and services. Women wrote poetry, created art, and some asserted themselves, with pride and confidence, as lesbian. Over the next 20-30 years, a generation of women created social systems and a cultural environment that sheltered and gave new opportunities to women, a movement that celebrated women, welcomed change and gave rise to a broader acceptance of gender diversity.

This community documentation project is centered on the Rogue Valley Women’s Movement of the 1970s through the 1990s, collecting the Stories of Southern Oregon Women. Thanks to a grant from the Oregon Heritage Commission and the support of Jackson County Library Services, AAUW Ashland, and Southern Oregon University,

PRESENTER'S BIOGRAPHY

Maureen Flanagan Battistella has a faculty appointment in Southern Oregon University’s Sociology/Anthropology program. Her research interests include agricultural heritage, land use, and Southern Oregon’s wine industry. She is a curator of the Stories of Southern Oregon project, hosted at SOU’s Hannon Library and on YouTube, a digital collection developed with the support of the Oregon Heritage Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Library and Museum Services under the auspices of the Oregon State Library.

Image: Women's History Month, 1987