The Women's Center to the Side

The Women’s Center to the Side

Women’s Week Program, March 31 through April 8, 1979

Women’s Center Board photograph, 1982/83 academic year

The Women’s Center was established as a Mount Holyoke student organization in 1975 by “a group of women who identified a growing need on the campus for a place where women could come together to share their common experiences, thoughts, and dreams.” The students who founded the Center saw the creation of the space as a way to share and create discussion around women’s issues commonly ignored by the larger campus, such as sexual harassment, racism against women of color, and homophobia. The Center also served as a place for Women’s Studies to develop, first as a concept, with lectures and letters to faculty members and President Kennan, then as a new department.