The origins of the Stanford Women's Community Center began in the 1970s when a group of students decided to build a coalition to combat gender inequities at the university. Over time, through student activism, coalition building with students from ethnic community centers on campus, and the graduate students who helped manage space part-time, the WCC evolved into the flourishing community it is today.
Institutional Timeline:
1971 - On October 7, the newly-founded Women's Center hosted a pot-luck dinner open to all Stanford undergraduates, graduates, student and faculty members and spouses, and community members at the I-Center backyard. The event hosted about 250 women guests and some male guests and featured speeches by different women's groups and registration for courses offered by the Center. Coordinator Janie Turner outlined the purpose of the event as helping women discover what was happening at Stanford and emphasize that the Center serves all women of the Stanford community. Several women from off-campus groups, including the Problem Pregnancy Information Center and the Committee to Defend the Right to Live (an anti-war group), spoke in tandem with student activists. In its founding days, the Center operated as a coordinating body for women wanting to work on a particular issue to collaborate with others. Stanford students worked on issues including abortion, job discrimination, child care, women's admissions, discrimination at Stanford, work with the media, changing the "ratio," visiting women prisoners, and creating women's studies programs.
Coordinator Janie Turner: "Right now we're working on the principle that everyone helps with both the leadership decisions and with the typing. We want the decisions of the Center to be based on groundswells of feeling rather than on a hierarchy which works from the top down."
1972 - The Women’s Center was officially founded by the Women’s Collective in the Toyon Eating Clubs. On April 3, the Center held an open house in the International Center with registration for classes followed by a singing and poetry reading by Jody Aliesan, a feminist singer from Seattle. The Center held classes and activities including Auto Repair, Modern Jazz Dancing, Bike Repair, Women's Health Collective, Breadbaking, Techniques of French Cooking, Home Repair, Women's Gay and Bi-Sexual Rap Groups, Black Women Together, Men's Groups, Small Groups of Mothers and Children Working Together, Figure Painting, Leathercraft, Art Collective, Women Musicians, and Performance. Other classes and activities included Self Defense, Moving, Women's Guerilla Theater Group, Women's Film Festival, High School Women, Consciousness Raising, Study Group in Women's History, Conversational Spanish, Sexuality, Women's Vocations, Images of Women in Modern Literature, Women's Movement- Past and Present, Women and Imperialism, Women's Union, Angela Davis Defense Committee, Child Care Now, Intercommunal Survival Committee programs, housing Shortage, Stanford Community Women for Peace, and a Para-Legal Workshop.
Explaining the split from the YWCA, Women's Center member Hedva Lewittes stated, "Now that we're independent, we can shift our focus, and work on things that we think will really liberate women. The Y wasn't interested in women's liberation. They wanted more of a social center." The YWCA Board opposed some parts of the Center's newsletters, such as information on a rally for the repeal of abortion laws and strong anti-war activity at the Center. As of August 1972, the Center enrolled about 200 women per quarter in its courses and provided a mailing list to 700 individuals.
1975 - Student activists such as Charlotte Germane advocated for the creation of a women's building, but was turned down by the administration. Germane assisted the Center to relocate from the Women's Clubhouse to the Bridge, a location thought to be easier to find and twice as large.
Center member Barbara Brown collaborated with Center for Research on Women (CROW) coordinator Cynthia Davis on "A Guide for Stanford Women."
1976 - The Women's Center choose not to hold the Women's Day Fair due to a shortage of interested student volunteers and the desire to serve Stanford through community-sustaining projects rather than a single, large event. In lieu of the event, the Center created a feminist library, coordinated women's and co-ed CR groups, and provided workshops for women in topics including gynecological self-help, feminist politics and theory, personal growth, arts and crafts, etc. The Center also sponsored the Women's Non-Formal Education Network (WHEN) Workshops with courses categorized into arts and crafts such as weaving, technical skills such as bike repair, personal identity workshops on subjects like intuitive and psychic awareness, and women's cultural identity classes on issues like women and the legal system. Women's Center coordinator Dee Bucciarelli shared that rather than sponsoring the normal Women's Day Fair in the spring, the workshops provided an opportunity to educated women and last longer than a few days. Maggie Nelson, a peer counselor at the Bridge, highlighted that the workshops tapped into the community's talent rather than recruiting outside individuals to speak and lead sessions. WHEN workshops were open to all Stanford women and the outside community.
1977 - Half the Sky, a coalition of feminist students and women's special interest groups, submitted a proposal to Associate Provost Ed Shaw to relocate and expand the Women's Center. Staffer Carla Lupi emphasized, "The overwhelming response of more than fifty women attending Half the Sky meetings demonstrates that a vital women's community does exist on this campus. However, their need for a usable Women's Center entails more than a closet in the Bridge that holds seven women and a desk." The coalition dreamed of operating a file of research and action-oriented projects on women's issues, a home for gynecological self-help groups, a 24-hour rape crisis line, a feminist library, and a comfortable place for women. Half the Sky united women activists in groups including the Committee on Battered Women, Gay People's Union, Sisters in Stanford, Chicana Colectiva, Asian American Women, Women's Center, Androgyny house, and women's athletics and staff, faculty, and graduate women. In its first month of organizing, the collective sought tenure for Assistant Psychology Professor Sandra Bem, analyzed healthcare services available to women students, and created surveys on the Women's Center relocation proposal.
1979 - Council of Presidents (COP) member Tom Gart validated over 1,200 petition signatures collected by the Women's Center supporting a referendum for a $1 winter quarter special fee assessment. Justifying the need for funding request, Center Coordinator Linda Gardner explained, "We have in the past spent a lot of time and energy collecting money," which often failed to cover baseline operating costs. "We would like to expand our activities and to pay the people who run our free workshops every quarter."
The Women's Center housed the Pro-Choice Alliance, Feminist Union, and women's newspaper Aurora. During the fall 1979 quarter, it hosted six workshops on bike repair, gynecological self-help, assertiveness training, introduction to the automobile, self-defense, and problem-solving for women. The fall activities line-up also included a Tuesday night discussion seminar series such as a film screening of "Killing Us Softly: An Advertising Image of Women" on October 9, a speaker showcase from the Mid-Peninsula Support Network for battered women's projects on October 16, and a film screening on abortion on October 23. On October 5, the Center hosted a party open to all students which featured a performance from blue-grass musician Robin Flower's band. The Center also prepared publication of "A Woman's Guide to Stanford," orientation training for freshmen women, and a dessert potluck and slideshow viewing about women against violence and pornography.
1980s - The University funded part-time graduate coordinators for 10 month positions in the mid-1980's.
1984 - The Women's Center submitted a $11,060 funding request in the ASSU Spring Election. In its location at the Toyon Eating Clubs, the Center shared space with groups including the Students United for Rape Elimination (SURE), the Rape Education Project (REP), feminist newspaper Aurora, and Students Against Conscription (SAP).
1986 - The Women's Center began a weekly speaker series in October entitled "Women in Motion: Competition, Expression, Fitness," which featured a basketball coach, health promotion specialist, nutritionist, dance instructor, healthcare center instructor, and two sports sociologists, was followed by question-and-answer sessions, and included receptions with refreshments. The Center also created a forum with campus sorority leaders and concert featuring a band of women, aiming to include those not otherwise interested in the Center.
1987 - The Center continued to gain more exposure and educate students about women's issues, such as co-hosting a forum with the Intersorority Council entitled "Wonderworker Meets Superwoman." Professional women from different fields provided insight into balancing their career, family, and personal goals. Every Monday night, the open-house style "Coffee-house" event welcomed in community members to socialize and enjoy live entertainment. The Center also held a comedy event with feminist and lesbian humorist Kate Clinton. At weekly Wednesday meetings open to the public, the 15 core members of the Center led policy for the organization.
1988 - The Women's Center began advocating for a relocation from the Toyon Eating Clubs to the old Union to secure a more central location on campus. Coordinator Sarah Bryer commented that the Toyon location was out of students' normal traffic patterns and impedes student drop-ins, as the Center strived to serve as a referral center. In advocating for a relocation, Bryer noted that other community centers such as the Chicano-Latino; gay, lesbian, and bisexual; and black communities were located in near proximity to Old Union. Citing a spring 1987 Committee on Student Space report recommending that community centers be located near the campus center, committee co-chair and coordinator of Student Organization Services Michael Ramsey-Perez predicted the Women's Center relocation proposal would likely receive committee approval. The Center garnered widespread community support, with about 1,000 signatures on a petition supporting the move and a supporting draft resolution from ASSU senators Kathleen Cole and Julie Martinez and COP member Stacey Leyton. The Center provided job listings for women, a library of books soon women's issues, and physical space for women's events such as the Rape Education Project.
1990 - According to the directors of the University's eight community centers, although they were not included in the $22 million of budget cuts, the centers' abilities to continue growing were hindered. Director of the Black Community Services Center Keith Archuleta noted that the increasing importance of multiculturalism in Stanford's mission has facilitated the institutionalization of the ethnic community centers in the preceding five years. Associate Dean of Student Affairs Michael Jackson highlighted the fact that across Stanford, people faced 12-30% budget cuts. By retaining the centers' budgets, he observed that Stanford "has made a real strong statement that the community centers are very important institutions." Jackson stated that despite a slight increase in the centers' base budget, there was less funding available for special requests. Center directors responded to funding fluctuations and uncertainty by advocating for the University's support in spurring growth, relying on a March 1989 report by the University Committee on Minority Issues recommending hiring a full-time director for reach center, employing three full-time staff members, and providing additional space for student organizations to convene.
The Center continued seeking a move to a more central location on campus, eyeing relocation to the Firetruck House, which housed the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community Center (LGBCC). David Bradfute, a graduate student and LGBCC officer, highlighted, "There are a lot of synergies between the LGBCC and the Women's Center. If the Women's Center were really close (to the LGBCC), bisexual and lesbian women in the women's community might be more likely to be active in both communities."
1991 - The Women's Center moved to the Firetruck House from the Toyon Eating Clubs in the fall of 1991 and became the Women's Community Center. The Fire Truck House formerly served as office space for about 200 student groups and was used only for storage and filing, generally inaccessible to community members interested in student groups and student group members. In the preceding three years, Women's Center members advocated for a more central location on campus to boost its visibility and accessibility. Junior Jennifer Pearson, who was involved with the Center and contributed to moving plans with the Tressider Union Program Board Committee, commented that "the move will increase awareness of and involvement in women's issues among the wider Stanford community. Stanford is looked at as kind of a model for cultural centers. It's kind of notable that the Women's Center doesn't have a dean and, while women comprise almost half of the campus, we just don't have the visibility of other groups."
The relocated Women's Center included office space, a social area with couches and space to screen films, and an open area that could hold women's self-defense classes and other activities. Noting the excitement of the move, Jennifer Pearson shared the Center aspired to "create a social as well as working center" and "expand and broaden the services and resources we provide." Coordinator Quynh Tran shared that prior to relocating, the Center delivered letters to 32 campus groups centered on women's issues that may have desired to move to the Fire Truck House. She shared, "I think the community is entering a new phase of student service. Because we have so many groups and the center is so accessible, we can get a lot of people's energy together to provide more activities and programs." She also noted, "There's more interaction (among women's groups) than ever before," the relocation enabling separate organizations to collaborate on big events like Women's Herstory Month. As shared by Pearson, the Center aspired to house groups ranging from the Rape Education Project to the Society of Women Engineers and the Pro-Choice Alliance to the University's sororities.
1992 - The Women’s Needs Assessment was published. In September, Brown University graduate Rebecca Bliss became the part-time Director of the Women's Center while studying in the School of Education. Upon assuming the role, Bliss expressed her impression that Stanford "didn't have a strong women's voice." After meeting with students, administrators, and other campus members, Bliss remarked, "It is problematic that women here are afraid to be associated as feminist. The majority of women hold feminist ideals but don't call themselves feminist." Noting the tremendous potential of the Center as a catalyst for change, she applauded the Self-Defense for Women course the previous academic year and revitalization of the Graduate Women's Network.
1996 - The Women's Center special fee was denied due to changes in ASSU voting regulations. Although 60% of graduate students voted for the Center, fewer than 15% of students voted, resulting in a denial of funding. According to Senior Cathy Rion, the Center was confined to only one graduate student supplied by a stipend and a thousand dollars in university funds. In retaliation, forty women activists decorated campus with colorful paths of fliers leading to the Center. After every flier was removed by the next morning, frustrated students created a path of flyers to University President Gerhard Casper's office door and confronted him at a town-hall "Tea and Cookies" talk, demanding funding for the Center. President Casper promised consideration and submitted a student request for a proposal that cited studies emphasizing the need for women's resources and offering fourteen recommendations, including a request for a full-time director. Due to the constant changing of coordinators and allocation of most of the funding to building maintenance, the Center experienced difficult maintaining a steady program and funding activities.
Formerly run by volunteer graduate students and surviving on an annual $22,000 of Special Fees by the ASSU, the Center received an additional $50,000 in University funding through the Office of Student Activities, growing the community with dedicated program money, a half-time director, and five interns. The boost in funding enabled the Center to host more annual events, as members planned to start a big sister/little sister program pairing each incoming female freshman with an upperclass woman, a faculty brown-bag lunch series featuring female faculty and staff to discuss their professional and personal experiences, a senior honors thesis forum, and a sophomore support group. Center Coordinator Anne-Marie Nunez shared, "The main focus of the center this year is going to be just establishing the center as a resource center for women, and through that, by making it more established, we hope to develop programs related to women's issues." The Center also focused on direct academic programming, providing "an ongoing working group and final presentation forum for women from different disciplines writing their honors theses" and organizing a dissertation support group for graduate students. The Center planned to move the SURE Escort Service into their space the next year, enabling women to study late at night and receive a safe ride home.
The Women's Center created a new forum which replaced the weekly meetings of the Women's Collective, the umbrella organization for women's groups. The new forum featured discussion on topics like classroom discrimination, grassroots organizing, differences between male and female faculty, the stigma attached to the word "feminism," and the proposed changes to Stanford's judicial process. Inspired by a November 9 retreat for members of the Center and other women's organizations, students were inspired to hold a discussion group on a regular basis and open to all community members.
Summer intern Katy Chow focused on maintaining the Center, planning programming, creating a brochure of women's resources, and developing a Big Sister/Little Sister program for freshman women.
"Leaders of Stanford's women's community - from left to right, Herstory coordinator Kate Stinger, Women's Center Coordinator Anne-Marie Nunez, Graduate Women's Network Coordinator Melanie Mala Ghosh and Womenspeak Editor Rula Razek - discuss ways to spend an additional $50,000 in University funding this year." Stanford Daily Archives, September 1996
1997 - During the first year of University funding, a graduate student served in the half-time director role. Composed of students and members of the Office of Student Activities, the selection committee narrowed the pool of applicants from 125 to 4, considering Fabienne McPhail, Madhuri Mathema-Kilpatrick, Angela Dolittle, and Susannah MacKaye as the final 4 candidates. The committee envisioned a candidate who embraced a vision for the Center mirroring that of the student staff. Anne-Marie Nunez, a graduate student intern who worked as the Center Director, reflected, "I think it is important that the Women's Center creates an active, affirming community that seeks to celebrate diversity. I think [the new director] should have the ability to help the center educate the community about gender issues and promote the causes of women."
1998 - Fabienne McPhail, formerly with the Black Community Services Center, was appointed as the Women's Center's first part-time director. Initially working afternoons to oversee and coordinate the center, McPhail expressed her interests in supporting students in their academic lives and collaborating with other community centers. According to Senior Cathy Rion, McPhail found it difficult to perform full-time duties in a half-time position.
In April 1998, the Center upgraded its space with a cluster of Macintosh computers and a printer available to students, funded through a grant from the Office of the President and a donation from the Overseas Study Program. The study group and tutoring program initiated the previous quarter was expanded to include 19 classes and a writing tutor. Tutors completed training from the Center for Teaching and Learning and ranged from groups like the Society of Women Engineers, the Graduate Women's Network, and Cap and Gown Women's Honor Society. The Center also created a faculty adviser program and Research Round Table encouraging students to explore independent research. Stretching educational support out into the broader community, the Center began offering a mentorship program for 20-25 sophomore girls at Andrew Hill High School in San Jose.
1999 - Addressing protests following the resignation of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community Center (LGBCC) Director Gwendolyn Dean's resignation in late 1998, the University provided funding for a full-time director at both the Women's Center and LGBCC. After Women's Center Director Fabienne McPhail stepped down in October due to personal reasons, Communication Master's student and co-coordinator of the Graduate Women's Network Lauren Popell held the Interim Director position from 1999-2000. Starting in November 1999, the Center assembled a search committee of students, faculty, and staff to secure a new full-time director. After receiving resumes and conducting phone interviews, the committee narrowed the pool of over 70 applicants to four candidates. Community center leaders, Dean of Students Marc Wais, Associate Dean of Students Morris Graves, and students interviewed the candidates on campus and provided the committee with feedback.
In February 1999, the Women's Coalition and Women's Center co-sponsored the annual women's leadership conference. The weekend long event, hosted at Elliott Programming Center, was centered on "Voices of Creation: The Art of Women's Leadership." Senior and conference co-coordinator Jenny Assef envisioned the theme as representing "the coming-to-voice in coalition with other women - finding the voice inside of you to speak out" and focusing on building and solidifying a network of communication of women. Departing from conferences of the previous five years, the 1999 conference enable participants to meet in a large "retreat-like" setting instead of small groups to emphasize the "network" goal of the event. The conference included workshops and activities on cross-cultural and non-defensive communication and issues of gender related to race, class, and sexuality. Feminist playwright and theologian Victoria Rue, the keynote speaker, was joined by social activist and poet Merle Woo, author and communications specialist Sharon Ellison, Women's Center director Fabienne McPhail, and Dean of Women's Spirituality at New College Rose Frances. The event also featured performances from Stanford students and organizations like Jam Pac'd and the Women's Performance Collective.
In April 1999, the Center held the inaugural Achievement in Women's Leadership Awards as a brunch ceremony, celebrating women leaders and women's groups who raised awareness on women's issues, empowered women to action, and improved the quality of life for women on campus. Cathy Rion, a senior who lobbied the administration for the Center's full-time director, won the undergraduate leadership award. Second year drama graduate student Venus Opal Reese won the graduate leadership award for promoting the arts among undergraduate students. Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority received the sorority award, South Asian women's group Saheli received the student group leadership award, Haas Center for Public Service associate director Nadinne Cruz received the staff award, Assistant Spanish and Portuguese Professor Clair Fox received the Junior Faculty Award, and Associate Mechanical Engineering Professor Sheri Sheppard and mechanical engineering doctoral students Adela Ben-Yakar, Judy Segura, and Catherine Rose received the Senior Faculty Award for their engineering class focused on women's perspectives.
The South Asian women's group Saheli sponsored a discussion on April 16 at the Women's Center on "The Creation of a Collective Women's Community. Part of the month-long series of "HerStory" events celebrating the community of women, the discussion focused on the possibility of nurturing a more integrated women's community on campus. Saheli member and Stanford senior Anita Pancholi share, "There are tangible tensions between women... different backgrounds and perspectives, and we want to bring them forth with the positive intention of moving towards something larger and Moore collective." Open to women and men, the dinner event included invitations to other women's groups including Sisters in Stanford from the Black community, Unidas from the Latina community, and representatives from the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Center.
The Center created the Campus Sisters program to provide mentoring and advice to young women living in undergraduate residences. Campus Sisters coordinator and sophomore Lydia Poon hoped the program would address issues important to women students and serve as a "community-based network of emotional support. The goal is to get women on campus connected to other women, as well as to raise awareness that gender issues, especially in residences, are still very much a part of the lives of Stanford students." Poon highlighted that the program targeted the "typical Stanford woman who has some problem which doesn't seem 'big' enough for more formal channels which currently exist - for example, a relationship problem. A Campus Sister is sort of a trained, impartial friend." Reflecting on past difficulties personally reaching through to Stanford peers, Poon also commented, "Last year it was decided that volunteers were not getting enough involvement with the women's community, but were instead answering phones or cleaning up the Center itself. The Campus Sisters program moves the volunteers into residences or community centers, where they will likely have a more direct impact on Stanford women." Specific duties included working as a referral for women community members to campus women's organizations, liaison between the community and Women's Center, and mediator and non-defensive communicator in issues involving gender and other topics. Training began on October 15 with a dinner led by Cowell Student Health Service member Donnovan Somera.
2000 - During the Winter quarter, the Center opened forums allowing students to post questions to four candidates for the Director position. Interim Director Lauren Popell shared that the director's role would be focused on increasing the Center's exposure, supervise staff, work with the 40 student groups associated with the Center, and be active in the Center's daily life. In the forums, students, staff, and candidates discussed strategies to improve the Center's image, the role of men in the Center, and strategies to tackle student apathy toward the Center.
On June 5, Laura Harrison became the assistant dean of students and director of the Women's Center after a five-month search to fill the position. Harrison received her Bachelor's degree in English and Women's Studies at Ohio University and previously served as a program coordinator at the university, focused on supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. In her new role at Stanford, Harrison coordinated programs and services focused on women students, faculty, staff, and alumni and educated the broader campus community on important topics in women's issues.
2001 - Representatives from the Native American Cultural Center; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center; the Women's Community Center; the Black Community Services Center; El Centro Chicano; and the Asian American Activities Center convened to discuss issues plaguing the community centers. The coalition requested the administration increase funding for capital equipment like photocopiers and fax machines and permanently supporting a full-time staff, shifting the centers from the discretionary to the permanent portion of the budget, and ending limits on fundraising for centers. In April 2001. the Dean of Students Office announced an additional $50,000 to support each community centers' operations, programming, and student staff salaries. The WCC and LGBTCC received additional funds for new assistant directorships, with the University provided funding for a 2nd full-time role of WCC Assistant Director (later elevated to Assistant Dean/Associate Director).
2005 - The WCC and Vaden Health Center co-hosted a reception for the annual Take Back the Night March, an international rally to educate the community on violence against women, children, and families. The 2005 reception recognized the formal addition of the YWCA Sexual Assault Center, supporting victims of sexual assault, stalking, and domestic and dating violence.
2018 - The university provided funding for a 3rd full-time professional staff fixed-term position (Assistant Director).
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Before the university allocated resources to hire professional staff at the WCC,
the space was run primarily by Stanford graduate student coordinators and directors:
1980 - Patricia Brandt - “Working against rape on campus” daily article
1992 - Rebecca Bliss, (Daily article) - director (part time grad position)
1995 - Anne-Marie Nunez, coordinator of the WCC
1996 - Marya Howell, Women’s Center Coordinator, School of Education Master’s
1996 - Hula Razek, a student volunteer at the center and a former summer intern
1997-98 - Fabienne McPhail (see above)
1999 - Lauren Popell, a master's degree candidate in communication, served as interim director 1999-2000
PLEASE NOTE: We are still building this timeline! If you or anyone you know was involved with the WCC as an undergraduate or graduate student at Stanford - please email us at [email protected]