A group of females and a male huddled around a conference table to listen as Challen Nicklen, visiting assistant professor of women’s and gender studies and political science, lectured on “The Shifting Rhetoric of Politics in the United Nations Conferences on Women.”Women’s and gender Studies hosted its second spring 2009 Brown Bag Luncheon Series on Wednesday in Stubbs Hall, which featured a one-hour long lecture from Nicklen.”There were four particular political events that were significant in the United Nations,” Nicklen said. “My lecture will focus on what the women were trying to do and what they were talking about at the conferences.”The four political events included the 1975 World Conference on Women in Mexico City, the 1980 World Conference on Women in Copenhagen, the 1985 World Conference on Women in Nairobi and the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing.Nicklen said the Beijing conference was the most popular and influential of all the World Conference on Women events. The World Conference on Women is a forum for women to meet and discuss interests and issues concerning women.”The women who participated in these conferences put a different spin in several ways,” Nicklen said. “They connected with one another in the sense of unity and sisterhood.”While lecturing, Nicklen said the description of how women connected and several political issues, such as development planning, were challenged by the media.”The media set women from First-world countries and Third-world countries at odds with each other,” Nicklen said.The media believed and portrayed that Western women, who were all for equality, were more advanced than non-Western women, who were all about survival, Nicklen said.Questioning the definition of politics and aspects of feminism were concerns discussed at the conferences, according to Nicklen.”Women at the conferences in Mexico City and Copenhagen began to articulate the meaning of politics,” Nicklen said. “Gathering together at the conferences was viewed as a political act.”After lecturing on the shifting differences of women in politics, Nicklen said people will get a sense of how important these conferences were.”It was exciting how women of all parts of the world got together to discuss issues,” Nicklen said. “This was indeed a sign of global feminism.”Nicklen received a dual degree in women’s and gender studies and political science at Pennsylvania State University where the women’s and gender studies department was recently ranked second in the nation.Her field of research included global feminism, feminist theories and social movements.——Contact Kimberly Brown at [email protected]