Dear Friend, Expo '96 for Women�s Empowerment is rapidly approaching.... And the response to Expo '96, which will be held February 2-4 at the Sheraton Washington in Washington, DC, is truly impressive. Over 200 organizations already have signed on as co-sponsors. Expo '96 has been greeted with tremendous enthusiasm throughout the feminist community. Registrations from all sectors of the feminist movement and across the country are coming in fast and furious. At Expo '96, we want the nation to see the power of the feminist movement,its ideas, its vision, and the diversity of its work and constituencies. On the eve of the 1996 election, we intend to ignite the women's movement on the fight to save affirmative action; to realign the nation's budget priorities; and to envision a feminist future. Expo '96 will assemble under one roof thousands of feminists from all sectors of our community: advocacy; medicine and health care; law; business;colleges and universities; unions; politics; non-profit services; sports; public service; philanthropy; religion; the arts; and constituency groups representing women of color, lesbians, poor women, disabled women, young women, and seniors. Expo '96 will be the largest gathering of feminists in the United States since the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and the NGO Forum. This first-of-its-kind event will showcase new solutions and strategies and energize us to move forward towards equality for women in the 21st Century. By reframing the debate on the federal budget and affirmative action, Expo'96 finally will put opponents of women's rights on the defensive. Expo '96 will feature over 160 of the most courageous leaders and innovative thinkers of our day. So far the program includes: Senator Carol Moseley-Braun; Barbara Ehrenreich, author and Time columnist; Mary Frances Berry, Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Carmen Delgado Votaw of Girl Scouts USA; Cheris Kramarae of Women, Information Technology and Scholarship; Patricia Ireland, President of the National Organization for Women; Marcia Ann Gillespie, editor of Ms. and former editor of Essence; Gloria Steinem; Janet Benshoof, leading reproductive rights litigator and President of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy; Barbara Arwine of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights; Prema Mathai-Davis, National Director of the YWCA; artist Sara Steele; leading feminist authors, including Jan Goodwin and Margaret Wertheim; Helen Reddy; Marie Wilson, President, Ms.Foundation; Frances Fox Piven, professor and author of Why America Doesn�t Vote and Poor People�s Movements; Paula Gunn-Allen, Native American poet and writer; former Congresswoman Bella Abzug; C. Delores Tucker, President, National Political Congress of Black Women; Judy Mann, author and columnist;the music group Betty; Karen Narasawki of the Asian Pacific Legal Defense Fund; Ellen Bravo, Director, 9-5; Just Economics, a multi-cultural economic education center; Heidi Hartmann, McArthur Genius Award recipient and President of the Institute for Women�s Policy Research; Charlotte Bunch of the Center for Women's Global Leadership; Gloria Johnson, President,Coalition for Labor Union Women; Ronnie Steinberg, sociologist and leading pay equity expert; Marian Kramer, President, National Welfare Rights Union; Cathy Rodgers, President, NOW Legal Defense Fund; Claire Moses, editor Feminist Studies; Eileen Applebaum, Economic Policy Institute; Barbara Bergmann, economist, American University; Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney, Louise Slaughter, Patsy Mink, Elizabeth Furse, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Eva Clayton, and Carolyn Maloney; leaders of all major women�s political action committees; and many, many more ... At Expo '96 you will participate in four major assemblies -- on affirmative action, the federal budget, leveling the playing field, and envisioning the future. You will have your choice of more than 40 smaller sessions -- symposia, roundtables, and training seminars. At this crucial stage in history, Expo �96 will help us create a federal budget that will fight poverty. In Congress, we are witnessing the destruction of welfare entitlements, the gutting of Medicaid, and the devastation of Medicare -- all for the sake of tax cuts for the wealthy. To embolden feminist demands new spending priorities, Expo '96 will feature sessions on developing a feminist budget. A series of training seminars on the economy and the federal budget will give activists the tools we need to participate in this debate about our futures. We must not watch from the sidelines as women's programs are wiped out and the military budget is as bloated as ever, while the interest on the national debt is mounting astronomically. Nor can we allow the right wing to roll back the gains women and minorities have made as a result of affirmative action. Expo '96 will highlight what's at stake in the affirmative action debate, who is behind the drive to repeal affirmative action, and how we can build alliances to keep the doors of employment, education, and business opportunities open. Voter registration will be another major emphasis of Expo '96. The National Voter Registration Act provides a new tool for empowering women and other constituencies previously excluded from public decision making. Expo '96 will feature strategies to register women to vote at public assistance agencies, through non-profit services such as clinics and battered women's shelters, and on college campuses. Between sessions, you will tour our innovative Exhibition Hall -- a totally new experience that will expand your mind and help you visualize a feminist feature. The Expo '96 Exhibit Hall will be a completely new concept,featuring: *Organizing On-line for Feminism. Learn to use the Internet for instantly reaching millions of people, for organizing free of postage, and as an unparalleled research and education tool. *Feminist Architecture. See how feminists are designing a modern world. The Feminist Architecture exhibit will display the winners of a national contest,"Visualize Our Feminist Future," including feminist architecture designs for city spaces, living spaces and work spaces. *Feminist Future Career Center. The hub of the Exhibit Hall will provide some innovative approaches to finding a job, including a feminist job inventory, computerized job search utilities, and a seminar series in which feminists from a wide variety of professions and occupations will share their experiences and advice. *Women and Sports. This Exhibit will illustrate how Title IX opened the doors to increased sports training and participation opportunities for women girls and what women and girls have to lose if this path-breaking law is eroded. Women in the Olympics will be another facet of this exhibit. In addition, the Exhibition Hall will feature exhibits from organizations, publishers, and non-profits looking toward the future for women. Expo '96 opens on Friday, February 2, with the first panel of symposia, roundtables, and training seminars beginning at 10am and the opening plenary at 1:30pm. The closing plenary session will conclude on Sunday, February 4 at 4pm. We are entering a very critical time in our nation's history. As we enter the national debate for the 1996 elections and plan for the dawning of the 21st century, reactionary forces are seeking to scapegoat modern women for all of the ills of society. Women's organizations have been almost completely excluded from the national debate on budget priorities, affirmative action, job creation ... we have been isolated to just a few issues that the press and public opinion leaders have deemed "women's issues." We must show the nation�s leaders and the media that the grassroots of the feminist movement are united, mobilized, and ready to take on the right wing and to redirect the policies of this country. Expo '96 will help us to rise together as a whole and to feel our strength and the strength of our ideas. Together, we will embrace our diversity, face the world with solidarity, and present our vision for a feminist future! We hope you are as excited about this innovative endeavor for women's empowerment as we are in bringing it to you. Please contact our Expo �96 Team by e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED], by phone at 703-522-2214, or by fax at 703-522-2219 for more information on Expo �96, or to register. You can also obtain more information and register online, at the Expo section of the Feminist Majority Online site, http://www.feminist.org/action/expo.html. For Feminism in the 21st Century, Eleanor Smeal President Feminist Majority Foundation
