If she made the rules, “every person that sets foot on campus would get to take a gender studies class,” said Karen Reichard.

Reichard, director of the Women’s Resource Center, is excited for the 20th anniversary celebration of the women’s studies program at Loyola.

“I knew I’d always be involved in fighting for women’s rights in my career,” she said.

Reichard believes that a women’s studies minor “contextualizes things like violence against women and opens students’ eyes to the prejudices that women have faced and still face today.”

The program has about 25 declared minors and one contract major. It has doubled figure since last year.

The 20th anniversary celebration is a fundraising drive for a women’s studies endowed scholarship. Reichard hopes that the scholarship offer will draw in more minors.
While she said they are not pushing for a major program at the moment, she would like to see it happen.

“As the minors increase, hopefully a major will follow,” she said.

Reichard stressed the importance of studying the lives and contributions of women to society, history and culture are reasons to pursue a women’s studies minor.

“We are world citizens,” she said.

“If I could say that everything in the United States of America was equal — I can’t, but if I could¬ — I can’t stop there. We have a responsibility to help people all around the world,” she said.

This philosophy ties into the women’s studies minor program because one word that is used to describe it over and over again is “interdisciplinary.” Vesna Milojevic, sociology senior, said she definitely enjoys having a women’s studies minor.
“A women’s studies minor offers a critical perspective to whatever field you are studying,” she said.

According to Reichard, women’s studies is helpful in understanding the world of the past and the world of the present, and certainly lends itself to whatever may come in the future. Reichard spoke highly of the professors in the field, saying that the “amazing, dedicated group of women teaching in all fields allows students to be exposed to many influences.”
Male readers may think that they will pass this subject by. Reichard promotes the gender studies classes as being “for all on campus. They relate to gender issues.”

“Men have a gender too,” she said.

Reichard said that when she taught gender studies at Tulane, the classes with men led to some of the most stimulating discussions.

The 20th anniversary celebration of women’s studies at Loyola will be held on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 5 p.m. in J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library, Multimedia room 2.

The keynote speaker is former Loyola history professor Nancy Anderson, who Reichard called a “wildly popular professor who is considered to be one of the best at Loyola.”

After Anderson’s presentation on the history of women’s studies at Loyola, there is a reception in the Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery on the fourth floor of the J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Lora Ghawaly can be reached  at [email protected]