Professor Jean Bethke Elshtain's 1981 book Public Men, Private Women challenged feminist ideology of the day-in particular, the notion that "the personal is political," and that the institution of family necessarily oppresses women.
The book set off vigorous discussion and, sometimes, vitriolic debate. Translated in more than 80 languages and still in print, Public Men, Private Women continues to resonate and spur debate. On Thursday, Feb. 25, the Divinity School will host the first of four annual conferences devoted to the prolific, interdisciplinary arc of Elshtain' s 35-year career.
"Public and Private: Feminism, Marriage, and Family in Political Thought and Contemporary Life" will open with a keynote address by John Witte Jr., professor of law and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. The conference continues through Friday, Feb. 26, with discussion panels led by major thinkers from multiple disciplines, including William Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; Mary Ann Glendon, professor of law at Harvard University; David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values; and Arlene Saxonhouse, professor of political science at the University of Michigan.
"I'm humbled by the quality of the participants," said Elshtain, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the Divinity School. "Their bodies of work each are worthy of their own conference, and they all have national reputations."
Still, Elshtain is somewhat ambivalent about a retrospective conference on her work. "I'd like everyone to know that I'm not done yet. I expect to learn. I'm most looking forward to hearing about patterns in my work that they've recognized but that I haven't."
Scheduled sessions include "Feminist Themes in Public and Private," "The Family in Public and Private," and "Public and Private Reconsidered."
Elshtain will monitor the sessions and close the conference on Friday, Feb. 26, weaving her reactions to the discussions into her 3p.m. closing remarks.
The full series, entitled "Jean Bethke Elshtain: The Engaged Mind," is funded by a grant from the McDonald Agape Foundation. Each year, the conference will explore a different segment of Elshtain's work, which has spanned the disciplines and addressed all the major concerns of social existence. Future themes will be civil society, democracy and religion; theology, religion and politics; and gender, international relations, and just war.
"The Divinity School is grateful to the MacDonald Agape Foundation, and delighted by this series of explorations into the accomplishments and long-term significance of our colleague Jean Bethke Elshtain," said Richard Rosengarten, Dean and Associate Professor of Religion and Literature in the Divinity School. "We look forward to a rich tour of the intersections of ethics, religion, politics and society as seen through the prescient eyes of one its foremost commentators."
The conference is free and open to the public, and will be held in the third-floor lecture hall at the Divinity School. For more information contact Debra Erickson at dje@uchicago.edu.
-Mike Knezovich
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
