Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 414/832-6590 
For Immediate Release					February 4, 1997
					
Russian Feminist Movement Examined in Lawrence University Lecture
 
 
APPLETON, WIS. -- Martina Vandenberg, co-founder of Moscow's first  sexual
assault recovery center, will discuss the successes of the Russian women's
movement in addressing violence against women, women's political participation
and issues of democratic governance Monday, February 10, as part of Lawrence
University's continuing lecture series, "Russia and Europe in Transition."  Her
address, "What Women's Movement? Feminism in Post-Communist Russia," at 7 p.m.
in Lawrence's Main Hall, Room 109 is free and open to the  public.  

Drawing upon more the three years in the field working with grass-roots women's
organizations across Russia and Ukraine, Vandenberg will examine issues of
discrimination and violence against women and the response of the Russian
women's movement.

In 1994, Vandenberg helped establish the sexual assault recovery center in
Moscow, the first facility of its kind in Russia.  According to Vandenberg,
Russian police typically refuse to take rape reports and have been known to
harass women who report rapes.  Russian doctors and hospitals won't deal with
rape victims without a police report.  

A Rhodes Scholar with a degree in Russian and East European Studies  and
currently studying law at Columbia University, Vandenberg has served as a
consultant to the Women's Rights Project in Moscow for Human Rights Watch.  She
also has directed the New Independent States/U.S. Women's NGO Consortium, a
group of 47 Russian, 22 Ukrainian and 25 U.S. non-governmental organizations
for women.