UNLV's University Forum lecture series in October will offer talks on women's work in the 20th century and on affirmative action.

Sociologist Ruth M. Milkman will speak on the topic, "Women's Work in Twentieth Century America: Change and Continuity" on Oct. 25.

Milkman, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, will discuss the dramatic changes that have occurred in women's work over the course of the 20th century. Those changes include massive increases in female employment, growing acceptance of ideas of gender equality, and a growing variety of jobs opening up to women, she says.

Despite these changes, Milkman says, other features of women's relationships to work have persisted intact: women's earnings still are far smaller than those of men, and women remain concentrated in poorly paid, low-status jobs to a much greater degree than men. The lecture will explore the changes and continuities in women's work and the ways in which recent economic restructuring is affecting the situation.

On Oct. 30, Francis J. Beckwith will speak on the topic, "The California Civil Rights Initiative and the Case for Affirmative Action."

Beckwith, an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at Whittier College, formerly taught at UNLV. In his lecture, he will discuss the California Civil Rights Initiative, a controversial question that will be on California's ballot Nov. 5.

The initiative would eliminate most forms of affirmative action and, according to Beckwith, is bound to set in motion a vigorous national debate. In his talk, he will present and critique the different arguments in this debate and argue that most, though not all, forms of affirmative action are without moral justification.

Both lectures will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History. University Forum lectures, which are sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, are free and open to the public.

For additional information, call the College of Liberal Arts at (702) 895-3401.