Up and Coming Women

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Stephen Voltattorni

Staff Writer

On March 5 there was a luncheon on campus that touched on today’s times, which stated that women play a big role today including that of Icy Smith, who is an author on several scholarly works.

“I believe that the accomplishments of women in the United States are really most significant,” Dr. Francisco Arce said.

“During my lifetime it’s been really a wonderful experience to be able to see some dramatic changes in the role that women play in our society because it’s been during my lifetime that, what I have observed at any rate, it seems that women’s roles and women’s’ stature has dramatically changed and improved in our society,” Dr. Arce said.

“It’s all partly related to the advances we made in the area of civil rights and also in the culture because I have traveled in Europe, I have traveled in parts of South America and Asia and I have never yet seen a country where women are so empowered,” Dr. Arce said.

“I think that that’s a really incredible attribute about the United States that we enjoy,” Dr. Arce said.

“Not only in business and clearly we have a long ways to go; in business, in culture, in media, in film, in writing,” Dr. Arce said.

“I would have to argue that in the last 20 years women are more accomplished then men in our society,” Dr. Arce said.

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Up and Coming Women

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“Look at the colleges and universities, 57 percent of El Camino students are women,” Dr. Arce said.

“At our Compton center, I believe it’s closer to about 60 percent; maybe even higher,” Dr. Arce said.

“And these are community colleges across the state that enroll 80 to 70 some odd percent of the students are women and this is now happening to universities,” Dr. Arce said.

“When I started working at a college most of the faculty were men and that’s changed in the 36 years I’ve been working in community colleges,” Dr. Arce said.

“I think these are incredible accomplishments,” Dr. Arce said.

“These are just small symbols, and yet it is important, in my mind, to continue to celebrate this month just as it is for other events and periods, for other groups that are separatist from a nation or have been disparaged because of their class or ethnicity or the race or gender and so this is an important month,” Dr. Arce said.

During the luncheon, Icy Smith, a former ECC journalist major and successful graduate of ECC, discussed the plight of Chinese who were put down and pushed around because of their ethnicity back in history.

Among other stories, Smith told of the old Chinatown, which was located where the present day Union Station is; due to unfortunate circumstances the Chinese were driven out of the location to where Chinatown presently is today.

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Smith then went on to end the luncheon by discussing her own addition to history through her books.

“I have four books, the first one is the Lonely Queue, which documents the entire 150 years of the history of Chinese in Los Angeles,” Smith said.

“And I have another one that talks about the impacts in the Asian American Communities,” Smith said.

“And my recent works are the historical fiction for school age and up; Mei Ling in China and also Half Spoon of Rice,” Smith said.

So make note that her first two books, Lonely Queue and Voices of Healing, are written for the intended use of upper division classes or college and here most recent books, Mei Ling in China and Half Spoon of Rice, would make a good Christmas gift for your nephew or niece that’s enrolled in elementary or middle school.

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