14 Saturday Feb 2015
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Love me Love my Vote
Here’s a Valentine’s Day greeting from Joan Iversen’s suffrage postcard collection. You can view some of her other postcards in this gallery. She collected these postcards over much of her retirement.
Posted by Nancy J. Smyth | Filed under Uncategorized
07 Friday Mar 2014
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International Women’s Day 2014 Logo
International Women’s day, March 8th, brings back memories for me of the Women’s Week events that my mom, her colleagues, and students organized at the State University College at Oneonta (SUCO). Those were exciting, if exhausting, times. When I was a “tween” and a teen I remember going to hear some of the speakers and just absorbing it all like a sponge: the excitement, energy, activities and political dialogues.
According to Wikipedia, International Women’s day was first celebrated in 1908. The day had a political focus from the start and quickly included women’s suffrage as part of its focus. So in honor of those roots, here’s another card from my mom’s suffrage postcard collection.
And what better way to honor International Women’s Day, those SUCO Women’s Weeks, and Joan Iversen herself than by giving to the Joan Iversen Scholarship? The scholarship will be the first at Oneonta to go to a women’s/gender studies student. We are already past the halfway mark for our scholarship goal. You can donate here and move us one step closer.
What do you remember about the SUCO Women’s Weeks?
Meeting of Cabinet Ministers 1978
~ Nancy J. Smyth (Joan’s oldest daughter)
18 Saturday Jan 2014
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This gallery contains 11 photos.
I remember watching my mom lecture — she often had amazing images displayed using 35 mm slides long before we …
28 Saturday Dec 2013
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Note: Dr. Davidson, a colleague and friend of Dr. Iversen, shares her reflections on the Women’s Movement, especially at the State University of New York at Oneonta.
I want to say something about who I am, as I think that in a history of feminism, we have to try to understand how and why some women become feminists, while others do not.
In a way, I have always been a feminist, though I did not know this for a long time. I came from a loving family. My mother was a happy homemaker. At the same time, my father was proud of her when she did something unusual, earned money, stood on her own two feet. My father respected and loved his children. Dostoevsky says that the best gift a child can have is a happy childhood. I agree. I was brought up to use my intelligence and to be independent. Continue reading
19 Saturday Oct 2013
Posted in Reflections
Pro-Choice Rally, DC, circa 1985 w/SUCO Women’s Alliance members Stevi Calandra & Robin Frankel. (Joan Iversen in the middle)
I still have my notes from a history class taught by Dr. Iversen that I took decades ago. As a kid, I was never a history buff. I considered history to be a very male pursuit. Mostly because every history enthusiast I knew were men obsessed with war history. Like my Dad who watched every WWII movie a zillion times. Joan Iversen changed all that for me. Continue reading
In Memory of Dr. Joan Iversen 