Cultural Coffee Hour is an event much more than serving free cookies and coffee for students. At these monthly events, students engage in guided conversation about international topics with many different people among the UW-L community. This week two international students presented on the topic of women and culture to the group.

Allie Pflughoeft, graduate assistant in International Education & Engagement at UW-L coordinates each night’s presenters. She explained that “Cultural coffee hour happens five times a semester, and we bring in guest speakers to talk about different global issues. This week is about women in different cultural settings.”

Lindsey, an international student & guest speaker, presented on prominent women in the computer science field. She stated that “18% of workers are females in the computer science field.” Lindsey studies computer science herself and hopes to see a decrease in the gender-related wage gap in her lifetime, explaining that there are much larger wage gaps between white men and women of color.

The next speaker Wenqian Zeng, spoke of the socioeconomic status of women in China and the history of women’s status in the country as well. Zeng discussed unsettling topics such as foot binding and the objectivity of women in china which forces women to be subordinate to men’s orders—husbands and then sons—throughout their whole lives. Although Zeng assures the group that China is “seeing the progress,” she also explains it is not enough and she hopes to see female leaders in China.

After the speakers concluded, the group had a chance to turn and chat with one another and ask the speakers questions about their countries and other traveling experiences they’ve endured.

Leah Burger, Student Affairs Administrator and graduate student, learned in the group discussions that evening that “women in Australia are more forthcoming about their intentions with men than women in America,” and she found that “fascinating.”

Cultural coffee hour meets in the Hall of Nations in Centennial at 5 PM. The next is on April 11, speaking of fashion and traditional dress worldwide. The last meeting will be April 25 regarding folktales.