A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

              FOR RELEASE                 Contact:  Ivette Rodriguez            March 8, 1996                         (202) 401-0262

Deputy Education Secretary Madeleine M. Kunin and former Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Judith E. Heumann, delegates to the Beijing conference, will offer their views and report on department activities in response to the meeting's Platform for Action.

"March 8,International Women's Day, provides us with a unique opportunity to renew our commitment to the goals of the Beijing Conference," Kunin said. "We must continue to work together to remove barriers facing girls and women, and to develop initiatives so that all individuals, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or disability, can have equal access to, and participate in, education and learning opportunities."

The Platform for Action education objectives adopted at the conference include: ensuring equal access to education; eradicating illiteracy among women; improving women's access to vocational training, science, technology and continuing education; developing non-discriminatory education and training; allocating sufficient resources for and monitoring the implementation of educational reforms; and promoting lifelong learning for girls and women.

"The U.S. Department of Education's work in the areas of lifelong learning and leadership for disabled girls and women has enabled us to provide a unique role in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action," Heumann said. "Our initiatives will impact the lives of disabled girls and women in the United States and around the world in a very positive way."

Frances A. Karnes, professor of special education and director of the Center for Gifted Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, participated in one of Kunin's first post-Beijing roundtables on women and leadership. Karnes talked about girls as leaders and inventors.

"If we are going to have women in leadership positions, we have to start early," she said. "And we must provide opportunity and encouragement to all girls, regardless of national origin, minority status or disability."

Karin J. Akins, an 18-year-old student majoring in political and Germanic studies at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore, spoke about the struggle of young women to break free from socially accepted roles.

"We need to be reached at a younger age, while we are developing ideas of what we want to do and what we want to be and become," she said. "When I was in high school, I didn't have role models I could talk to about my aspirations and how to fulfill them. These roundtables show young women that there is support and opportunity for them to assume leadership positions."

In addition to roundtable discussions, the department is planning a number of activities to advance the Beijing platform's education commitments, including:

• a national assembly on girls' and women's education and a public awareness campaign to change gender discriminatory policies and practices;

• a leadership forum dedicated to nurturing a new generation of women leaders;

• efforts to raise the number of family friendly employers who encourage family involvement in learning;

• developing strategies to increase the number of girls and women in science, mathematics and technology classes and careers;

• drawing greater public attention to violence against girls and women.

"The U.S. Department of Education is committed to gender-equity in all its programs and to the elimination of gender-bias in education activities," Kunin said. "When we enable women and girls to reach their full potential, all of us benefit."

The March 8 seminar will begin at 3 p.m., in Room 2411 of the department headquarters, 600 Independence Ave. SW.