Where Are the Women? Harvard Psychologist Speaks on the Future of Women’s Liberation (Nov. 15)

On the heels of the Lynndie England verdict, Dr. Elizabeth Debold presents her findings on the evolution of women’s liberation: from the remarkable past and current status quo to the next step needed in the true battle for freedom

Boston, MA (PRWEB) September 19, 2005 -- Women across the country and around the world were stunned and horrified by acts of sadism and violence by their fellow sisters at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Last week in defending her actions, Lynndie England sited the oldest reason in history…for the love of a man. England claimed she was not personally responsible for her actions because she was simply following the orders of the man she loved and trusted and that he led her astray.

No one would argue that women took a radical leap in personal freedom as a result of the Women’s Liberation movement in the late Sixties and early Seventies, but where has it all led? Are women really freer today than their foremothers?

Dr. Elizabeth Debold, author of the bestselling book, Mother Daughter Revolution, and founding member of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development, will be speaking about women’s liberation—past, present, and future—Tuesday, November 15, 7:30pm at EnlightenNext Boston, 38 Cameron Avenue in Cambridge. The event, part of the Voices from the Edge speakers series sponsored by EnlightenNext, will include a question-and-answer session followed by a reception with Dr. Debold.

In her presentation, Debold will bring together her two decades of pioneering research on women's development with her decade-long experience of living in an intentional spiritual community, founded by spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, that is committed to furthering the evolution of consciousness. The result is an insider's perspective on the history and development of women's liberation.

Debold will highlight where women have been and how they liberated consciousness from the bondage of patriarchy to where they fell short and became stuck. She will also examine where women must dare to go next, and how to get there—and why it is so important to succeed, not just for themselves, but for the evolution of humanity itself.

"There is something that came alive at the birth of the movement for women's liberation in the sixties that points to a potential so powerful that it calls into question everything that we think we know about the female gender," writes Debold. "In the forward momentum of that fresh wave of radical feminist consciousness, women were vehicles for an almost irresistible impulse to reach higher, to break free, to rise up. And in doing so, the movement itself had an effect so far beyond those relatively few heroic women who were directly involved. Why?" asks Debold, "Because they were working to change consciousness itself."

"But where are women now?" she inquires. What happened to the transformative energy and passion of that movement and, more importantly, how do we move forward from here?

She set out to find out. Her findings have resulted in two eye-opening articles that challenge the current perspective on women's liberation of even the most progressive feminists.

In her first article titled "Where Are the Women?" (What Is Enlightenment? magazine (WIE), June-Aug. 2005), Debold chronicles the rise and fall of the women's liberation movement over the last 40 years, how it self-destructed, and where—as a result of it all—it is today. In her second article, "Toward a New Women's Liberation" (WIE, Sept.-Nov. 2005) she addresses the absence of women at the leading edge of cultural change and calls for an evolutionary elite to continue the work of women's liberation.

Elizabeth Debold is an author, speaker, and theorist with a specialty in gender development, who has committed her life to the advancement of women. In 1996, during a meeting with visionary philosopher and founder of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, Andrew Cohen, she recognized that his spiritual teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment held the key to a radical equality between men and women. This, she believes, will be the next stage in human evolution.

Since 2002, she has been working with Cohen as a senior editor of WIE, bringing insight and expertise as a pioneering researcher in human development and gender to her work for the magazine.

Tickets for the "Where Are the Women?" Voices from the Edge event are $15 online at mktix.com, $18/door and $7 with student ID. For more information call 617.492.4091 visit wie.org/voices.

To purchase a copy of WIE with Debold's article "Where are the Women?" order online at wie.org.

The current issue of WIE with Debold's article "Toward a New Women's Liberation" is available on newsstands, local independent bookstores, Borders Books, Barnes and Noble, and online at wie.org.

Elizabeth Debold, Ed.D., received her doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University where she was a founding member of the Project on Women's Psychology and Girls' Development, under the direction of Dr. Carol Gilligan. Her best-selling book, Mother Daughter Revolution (Bantam, 1994), brought to public attention new research on girls that expanded traditional models of human development. Debold has consulted to a variety of organizations, ranging from corporate law firms to nonprofit educational organizations. She has lectured widely and appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including Oprah, Good Morning America, and NPR's 51%. Debold is on the faculty of the WIE Master's Program in Conscious Evolution in partnership with The Graduate Institute in New Haven, CT, and is currently working on a new book, tentatively entitled The Evolution of Love: Men, Women, and the Possibility of Transformation. She presently resides in Lenox, Massachusetts.

EnlightenNext is a nonprofit educational organization founded by Andrew Cohen and is dedicated to furthering the evolution of human consciousness and culture. EnlightenNext produces a variety of programs and products, including an international speakers series called Voices from the Edge wie.org/voices, an accredited Master's Degree in Conscious Evolution, and online studies, seminars, and retreats worldwide. EnlightenNext's publishing arm produces educational websites, books, audios, and videos related to the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment andrewcohen.org, as well as the award-winning What Is Enlightenment? magazine wie.org. Its newest venture is a multimedia website wie.org/unbound featuring audios and videos from today's leading thinkers in business, politics, environmental issues, science, spirituality, and contemporary culture. EnlightenNext is based in Lenox, MA.

Social/Cultural/Women's Studies Lecture
October 2005
Contact: Hope Cohen, Publicist
Voices from the Edge
413.637.6060
(digital images available upon request)

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