The Women's Issues Discussion Series will begin this month and is the first lecture or discussion series at Southeast Missouri State University fully focusing on women's issues and history. The series was created by Megan Murray, coordinator for leadership and development in the Office of Campus Life and will be sponsored by Leadership Development, Campus Life and Event Services and the LGBT Resource Center.

The series will take place throughout the spring semester with each discussion having its own topic. The topics include "Women and Body Image," "The Sexual Double Standard," "The Working Woman: Shattering the Glass Ceiling" and "Male Feminists." Hall directors, professors and other staff members will be facilitating these discussions with opportunities for audience members to participate in open discussions.

According to Murray, the series is something that students expressed interest in having and was created to give students, faculty and staff a safe place to have conversations about gender and society.

"Women's issues and genders studies have always been an interest of mine and after talking with several of my students who are women, they talked about how they would be interested in having something specifically for women, and the series is open to anyone -- men, women, they can all come -- but they talked about wanting a place where they could discuss things like this because there's not a ton of opportunities in a non-academic setting to talk about this," Murray said.

Murray also said that she hopes opening up the series to not just students, but to faculty and staff, will help create a different atmosphere for these discussions on gender.

"It's for faculty, staff and students, so I think that would be a different dynamic than students are usually used to," Murray said. "Meeting with upper administration, some of their teachers, their friends, their hall directors, it will make a really great atmosphere of people just talking together about these different issues."

Men are welcome to any and all discussions, and Murray said she feels that it is important for men to be a part of these conversations to educate themselves, or if they are already knowledgeable, to contribute to the conversation or even help introduce their friends to these topics.

The last lecture in the series "Male Feminists" will feature Eric Foster, who Murray said is a male feminist who will speak about that position and his beliefs.

Murray says that she hopes those who attend will gain a better understanding of issues affecting women and become more comfortable having more open and honest discussions about those issues.

The dates for the series are Feb. 4, Feb. 18, March 4, March 18, March 25, April 8, April 22 and May 6 and will all be from noon -- 1 p.m. in the University Center.