Conference at AMU Will Explore Women's Career, Family Choices

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Published on Friday, 04 March 2011 16:40

A conversation on a car ride among five young women wondering what they'd do after graduating from Ave Maria University has turned into a one-day conference intended to help hundreds of other young women sort out their options as career professionals, mothers, or some combination of the two.

"On most campuses, it's assumed that women would have a career, and family is not taken into consideration," said Eileen Gallagher, one of the conference organizers. At Ave Maria University, however, many young women also have definite plans to raise a family as well. In photo at right, Miss Gallagher (in blue) is with co-organizer Mary Hardy.

"So a lot of us had many concerns," Miss Gallagher said. "Go to medical school? Raise a family? How to incorporate a career? A lot of girls are asking these questions, and we wanted to help them find the answers."

The young women from that car ride formed an organization on campus called Genuine Feminine, and their first conference Saturday, March 19, is titled: Work - Is There a Feminine Way?

Keynote speakers include Leah Darrow (left), a former contestant on America's Top Model, and Kathryn Lopez, an editor at both the print and electronic editions of the National Review.

Miss Darrow, who now is pursuing a masters degree in pastoral theology at AMU and speaks on Catholic issues, will speak at lunch and Miss Lopez at the conference's closing dinner.

Several women who currently are balancing career and family choices will also speak, including Dr. Caitlin McLaughlin-Raiger who operates a successful dental practice in addition to raising her family of eight children. (Right, Dr. Raiger at the opening of her dental office in Ave Maria two years ago with her husband, Michael, a literature professor at AMU and seven of her eight children)

"Our inspiration for this conference came from a similar event at Notre Dame University, put on by an organization called the Edith Stein Project," said co-organizer Mary Hardy.

The young women were able to secure some funding at the Edith Stein conference, Miss Hardy said, and also received support from the Washington-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Our Sunday Visitor Foundation, AMU's office of Student Life and AMU student government.

In addition to Miss Gallagher and Miss Hardy, the other founders of Genuine Feminine are Sarah Pakaluk, Sophie Pakaluk and Monica Waldstein.

The conference is open to young women who are high school juniors or seniors, university students - both male and female - and young mothers and young women professionals. Registration costs $15 for students and $30 for non-students, and is available on the conference's website here.

"The message we wish to present to young women is the importance of being truly feminine, especially in the workplace," the group says in its website. "Pope John Paul II wrote about the value of women in the workplace in their ability to bring the ‘feminine genius' to their work. This year's conference hopes to illuminate what, specifically, this femininity entails."

Click here for related article from the Naples Daily News: Ave Maria to host seminar on women at work, home