Show Page 3 Women need the social support of other women by Denise Marinos staff writer “Should Women Support Women" was the theme of the Campus Women Together alumni lecture series featuring Reba Keele PhD February 19 on the College of Eastern Utah campus Ms Keele member of the Utah State Board of Regents and organization behavior professor at Brigham Young University focused on two major topics session: during the social support and women's resistance to support other women Social support was defined as having one individual value the ideas of another without having a need to compromise personal feelings for that person to attain that value Thus you can value someone without having to like that person she two-hou- rs mm! Ms Kede separated social support into various divisions Among this were: emotional support appraisal personal support and professional support In separating these forms of social support Ms Kcclc emphasized that no one person can give another person all of these forms of support Everyone must have some type of social support system she said If an individual is isolated from society the result can be deadly in some cases She cited several case studies to back up her deductions One study was done with terminally ill cancer patients Cancer patients with a support network of others lived longer than those patients who had no form of support and refused to support themselves This form of self support was centralized around a feeling of anger about their illness and feeling a sense of the need to fight back Ms Keele cited some myths about social support Ore of the greatest myths is that married individuals have an automatic support system This was proved false because each individual must create their own support system it is not just given to them She felt that no one person can be totally supportive of another We need to create our own support system of friends We start creating this supoort system early in life She used the example rtf a being teenager and always having to have a best friend As we progressed and changed we would either keep that friend or find mother that we had many things in common with at that point in our lives As we develop our social support systems often limes our friends change as we change The second issue Ms Keele focused on was women supporting other women and why there is a resistance to achieving this One of the major reasons for women lending support to other women is because women are always referred to as the "other" She cited the example of her being appointed to the Regents and the men naturally felt that she would always take the "women's issues" topic when they were discussinig male and female roles "I was always the 'other vote when discussons were held It did not matter that I pur- - ROXO 0 OGO© Book Buy Back March 9 CEU 10 & 1 1 Student Activity Center 'YA THiNK WEMOULP U6T PIKEIO fiivt THAT NMAHHf oF EfcSTH! tot posely did not choose to take on women's issues I was still referred to as the other vote since I was the only female member of the Board In this regard we will never be equal to men Therefore we must voice our feelings and suppui other women as the men have supported themselves throughout time she added The second reason for support among women is that cooperation between each other is more productive than competition tion is used the success of an individual is dependent on others Thus teamwork is initiated she said The need for women supporting each other is great however women as a whole have not made great progress The major reason for this can be due to personal reasons such as jealousy she said Ms Keele used the analogy of not putting a lid on a lobster tank because if one lobster tries to WAri Kir escape the others will pull it back from going over die top of the tank If a woman excels in her job and is promoted other women in the organization will make excuses for her to try and pull her back down to where they are She felt that women as a whole may be at a stalemate in progress because like the lobsters they arc not being allowed to escape their confinement without paying an astronomical (nice in many cases |