On August 13, 2002, Harilyn Rousso joined the WEEA
Equity Resource Center for a book signing and discussion for the newly
published book Gender Matters. Twenty-five colleagues attended
the event, including a group from a current WEEA-funded project (Working
It Out Together II: College Women with Disabilities and Employment
Project) and representatives from local universities and organizations
working with people with disabilities.
To begin the session, Harilyn engaged the audience
in an activity from Gender Matters. The activity required participants
to form groups and brainstorm the names of ten famous women with disabilities
who have made contributions to the world. The audience’s own difficulty
in generating such a list was testimony to the underrepresentation
of women with disabilities in school curricula and an ideal launching
point for Harilyn’s twenty-minute discussion about the book and the
issues it raises around the intersections of gender and disability.
After Harilyn’s presentation, Julia Potter, the WEEA
Equity Resource Center’s Managing Editor, served as moderator of the
session, fielded questions and guided the discussion. Audience members’
questions ranged from interest in the author’s own experiences growing
up as a girl with a disability to inquiries into strategies for raising
career expectations of girls with disabilities. Harilyn signed copies
of Gender Matters after the Q & A session.
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