9 Before IX
An Informance featuring DR. FRANCENE KIRK |
Saturday, January 19 @ 8 PM
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One woman’s quest to understand her mother and herself by putting herself in the shoes of women who lived without Title IX
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Five years ago, Dr. Francene Kirk began interviewing women who were educated before Title IX, the law that bans discrimination based on sex, was implemented in public schools. Her interest in the subject came from a conversation she had with her mother, a smart, talented woman whom Kirk dearly loved but “didn’t want to be like.” In that conversation, Kirk asked her mother if she ever thought about not marrying. She relied, “No, but I didn’t have the options you have.”
The culmination of this oral history project is 9 before IX, an “informance”. For 90 minutes Kirk inhabits the women she interviewed, weaving together their stories with her story and the information she gleaned while teaching a gender studies course. It leaves you pondering how far women have come and how far we will have to go. |
The Founding Mothers of Title IX were just looking for a more level playing field in academics. "We had no idea," says Bernice "Bunny" Sandler, who helped draft the legislation... "We had no idea how bad the situation really was -- we didn't even use the word sex discrimination back then -- and we certainly had no sense of the revolution we were about to start."
