This year’s celebration of Women’s Week will focus on diversity of women, and both male and female students can benefit from attending the lectures offered this week.

“Women’s Week gives people the opportunity to learn more, address another issue of diversity and ideally improve their perspectives” said Penny Rice, coordinator for the Sloss Women’s Center.

Women’s Week reminds members of the ISU and Ames communities there are still needs to be met, said Rice, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies.

“One of the reasons we do Women’s Week annually is because the issues haven’t gone away yet,” Rice said. “The challenge and barriers to women students, staff and faculty are still on our campus and in our community.”

Jeff Cullen, men’s outreach coordinator at the Sloss Women’s Center, said the week’s events apply to women of all backgrounds.

“What we were really conscious of this year in planning was trying to bring events that would speak to the diversity of women and women’s perspectives with events that focus on Middle Eastern and Hispanic heritage and sexual violence in the African-American community,” he said. “Hopefully this reaches across race, ethnicity and national lines to address issues that are of concern to women everywhere and not just here at Iowa State.”

Increased involvement is another goal organizers have set for the week.

“We’re focusing on women’s attention on how they can have an impact in the political sphere locally and nationally,” Cullen said. “You can choose to stand on the sidelines but it’s definitely more impacting if you get in the game.

“I think a lot of speakers really will give the audience ideas about how to take personal values they have inside of them and connect those with what’s going on in the world today.”

Women’s Week 2003 began with “We The Planet,” an environmental discussion featuring a performance by Grammy award-winning musician Tracy Chapman Sunday evening.