The life of women's rights advocate Betty Friedan is being celebrated at Cornell on Monday, April 24, at 5 p.m. in the Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) Conference Center, Room 423. Friedan was a distinguished visiting professor at the ILR School's Institute for Women and Work (IWW) from 1998 until her death this February.

The event, "Betty Friedan Remembered: Prospects for Feminism, Families and Work," is free and open to the public.

In her later years, the author of "The Feminine Mystique" called for workplace support, flexible schedules and national child-care policies to assist working men and women. She guest lectured in ILR courses and developed a series of symposia for policy-makers and researchers on those critical workplace issues as director of the IWW's "New Paradigm: Women, Men, Work, Family and Public Policy." The gatherings took place in Washington, D.C., New York City and Bellagio, Italy, with support from a $1 million Ford Foundation grant.

"Our conception of the event is to look both backward, at Betty's achievements, writings and work with Cornell, and forward, to feminist work on campus now, the conception and role of families in the 21st century and the importance of race and sexuality to feminism," said Amy Villarejo, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies and of theater at Cornell.

In addition to Villarejo, speakers will include Cornell Provost Biddy Martin; Muriel Fox, co-founder and past board member of the National Organization for Women; Francine Moccio, director of the IWW; Sheila Tobias, author of "Faces of Feminism: An Activist's Reflections on the Women's Movement"; and Michele Wallace, visiting professor at Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center. The event's sponsors are the Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, the ILR School and the Office of the Provost.