Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice-presidential candidate on a major national party ticket and a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, will speak on April 17 in Webster Hall.
Ferraro's speech, titled "Human Rights: A Guarantee for Peace or a Source of Conflict?" will kickoff the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences' new Susan B. Anthony Lecture Series: "A Celebration of Women's Political Involvement."
The series celebrates the 75th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution that gave women the right to vote.
Bella Abzug, a former congresswoman and women's rights advocate, and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick will also speak as part of the series.
Roxanne Waldner, acting director of the Rockefeller Center, said the goal of the conference is to have prominent women involved in politics speak about their current work and to act as role models for Dartmouth women.
"We feel very privileged to have all three of these women coming to campus," she said.
Ferraro, who ran on an unsuccessful Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale in 1984, lost to Republican incumbents President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush.
Ferraro began her career in national politics after her election in 1978 to the House of Representatives from New York's Ninth Congressional District in Queens.
During her three terms in office, she was recognized as a strong supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and entitlement programs such as Medicare, Social Security and pensions.
Ferraro is currently active in foreign relations through the U.N. Human Rights Commission, as a board member of the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs and as a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
On April 21 in Collis Common Ground, Abzug will deliver a speech titled "From Rio to Beijing: Changing the World for Women."
Her speech will coincide with the College's conference on "Environmental Ethics in the 21st Century: Race, Gender and Justice in a Sustainable Environment."
Abzug, a democratic congresswoman from New York in the early 1970s, was a strong supporter of women's rights, affirmative action and Federal funding for abortion.
She worked on the Women's Environment and Development Organization.
Gorelick, the third speaker in the series, will address criminal justice or women's legal rights, but has not announced an exact topic yet, Waldner said.
Gorelick also served as general counsel of the Defense Department and the deputy secretary of the Energy Department.
The lecture series will continue in the fall when the sponsors hope to have more successattracting prominent Republican women to speak, Waldner said.