To address crucial issues about women’s place in politics, Iowa State’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center and the International Studies Association will be holding its seventh-annual conference this weekend, starting tomorrow and running until Sunday.

The conference will be held at the Savory Hotel in Des Moines, and this year’s theme is “World Politics: Women Moving to the Center Stage.”

“[This year’s conference] relates the interest of women and politics to international politics,” said Patrick James, chairman of the political science department.

This year is the first time that the Carrie Chapman Catt Center has paired up with another organization to plan its annual conference.

Diane Bystrom, director of the center, believes the collaborate effort between the Catt Center and the International Studies Association will help strengthen the discussions at the conference. “It will bring together people who study and practice women in politics,” she said.

The conference itself will consist of roundtable and scholarly discussions, research papers and presentations.

Students and scholars from around the world are scheduled to attend.

The speakers will “help to show the practical side [of women’s roles in politics],” Bystrom said.

Presenters will be addressing such topics as international studies and understanding, women’s roles in business and industry, Iowa’s role in international agriculture and the Holocaust.

James believes this conference will truly benefit participants.

“It is an intersection of information in new areas of knowledge [they] would not run into otherwise,” James said.

Bystrom agreed, saying that it should be an educational weekend for all involved.

“It will expand the borders of [their] expertise and [help them] achieve a greater understanding of issues,” she said.

The Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics also will be presented to three research projects chosen from the record number of 35 entries submitted.

The winning researchers probed gender differences in the actions of U.S. senators, feminist and guerilla politics and post-sufferage voting behavior.

The winners will each receive $1,000.

Next year’s conference is scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. “The center needs to get more national attention as a research entity,” Bystrom said.

Seats for this weekend’s conference are still available and can be reserved by calling the center at 294-3181.