To honor the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Conciliation Agreement, the University of Idaho Women’s Center will hold a celebration merged with their annual Virginia Wolf Awards ceremony from 12-2 p.m. in the Vandal Ballroom of the Student Union Building.
The Conciliation Agreement, signed in 1974, legitimized the Women’s Center Office, according to Lysa Salsbury, Women’s Center director. The agreement created an affirmative action plan, complete with an officer to monitor progress. The agreement mandated the Student Health Center hire at least one female physician, and also created the High School Relation Programs, now called New Student Services, to recruit female students.
Among these, Salsbury said the implementation of funding for the Women’s Center for a full-time director impacted the office most.
Of the nine signatures on the Conciliation Agreement, only one of them was from a faculty member. Her name was Virginia Wolf — the namesake for the annual award ceremony.
Salsbury said signing the Conciliation Agreement isn’t the only thing Wolf did in regard to women’s rights, though Salsbury never knew her personally. Wolf was a professor in physical education at UI for 20 years beginning in the 1960s.
“I gather from our feminist mothers … and other women who were around at the time that the climate was really inhospitable for women,” Salsbury said. “She sounds like she was pretty fearless in standing up to that, and to taking the lead in issues that needed to be addressed.”
Every year, the Virginia Wolf Awards recognizes one UI student, faculty member and Moscow citizen for their contributions to women. Salsbury said the nominees are judged by a panel of past winners, and the Women’s Center has no control over who is chosen.
In 2013, Virginia Solan, UI Violence Prevention Programs coordinator, won for her involvement in Yin Radio, a radio station providing an opportunity for women to cover women’s stories. She also won for her lifelong involvement in women’s issues.
Solan said her past was a large reason for her dedication to the fight for women’s rights.
“For me it’s been just this lifelong journey of trying to be grounded, and find my own voice after growing up in a home with really extreme violence,” Solan said. “I was sexually assaulted by my father from when I was four. My parents were both alcoholics, and my father was very physically and emotionally violent.”
Solan worked as a journalist for multiple years and said she had to quit many of her jobs on principle. She said a lot of the places she worked paid men doing the same job she did up to three times more. Even when Solan climbed the ladder and became editor of multiple newspapers, she said she still struggled with sexism in the workplace.
As a 2013 award recipient, Solan was on the panel that picked the 2014 winners of the Virginia Wolf Awards.
Salsbury said the panel of judges must pick a winner based on a set of three criteria — length and scope of active participation in gender justice activism, a proven record of leadership and accomplishment in advocating for gender equity issues and demonstrated courage and commitment to challenging misogyny and sexism.
“Basically, how long they’ve been doing the work and how deeply they’ve been involved in it,” Salsbury said. “This is people who don’t just do it as part of their job.”
The nominees for the 2014 student award are Hannah Caldwell, Kaitlin Moroney and Samantha Hansen. The nominees for the faculty and staff award are Julia Keleher, Julie Taylor, Maggie Rehm, Ryanne Pilgeram and Yolanda Bisbee. The nominees for the community award are Deb Payne and Sami Sumpter.
Nominee Kaitlin Moroney is the managing editor for The Argonaut. Solan said she was nominated for her bi-weekly “The F-Word” column seen in the opinion section of The Argonaut. Moroney said the column covers a range of current issues from the perspective of a feminist. She said she feels strongly about many of the issues she covers, and she wanted to bring light to them in a way that was respectful of all people.
Solan said nominees are judged on their specific actions toward women’s rights, but also how they live their everyday lives as a feminist.
Moroney said she wouldn’t describe herself as courageous compared to other feminists she has learned about, but she does try to incorporate respect for women in her day-to-day life.
“I really try in my everyday life to take those small moments to educate people,” Moroney said. “I mean, I don’t think I’m anything special, but I think that those little steps do go a long way to bringing about gender equity in our society.”
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected]