The popular narrative about the 1906 disaster is how an earthquake brought out altruism and erased social differences. But what really happened was that disaster relief widened the social gaps that existed prior to the calamity. In 1906, the needs of the working class and poor were put on hold in the rush to aid business leaders and homeowners to rebuild. Andrea Rees Davies, a historian and former San Francisco firefighter, spent nearly 10 years researching the 1906 disaster, uncovering new insights into disaster relief.

Filmmaker Abigail E. Disney's latest project began with a simple question, "What if you looked at war as though women mattered?" Disney's answer to that question is Women, War & Peace, a bold five-part PBS miniseries. By inserting a female face, voice, and perspective into the dialogue about conflict and security, Woman, War & Peace challenges the notion that these issues are only men's domain. Disney will speak on the Stanford campus October 12, 2011.

"What we do in our lives is important, but the way we do it is more important in transforming our world," says Anne Firth Murray, a Faculty Research Fellow with the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. "We need to be accountable. We need to have concern for the well-being of women by interacting in a mutually empowering way. But the values and principles that emerge are the more important product."

Gender inequality continues to exist in advanced industrial societies, such as the US, despite a plethora of changes that work against gender discrimination. These countervailing forces include economic rationality, changes to the legal system, progressive politics, and even women's own efforts to achieve equal opportunities. Stanford professor Cecilia Ridgeway takes this conundrum one step further. In a talk sponsored by the Clayman Institute, she explains why gender inequality continues in the modern world, and asks if we can predict which type of Silicon Valley start-up would face the greatest persistence of gender inequality in comparison to traditional, hierarchical firms.