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Women’s History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of women and reflect on the initiatives that advanced equity over the years. Where we are today is the result of the tireless work of generations of women spanning from the mid-1800s onward. In each period, women came together “to press collectively for more respect, more freedom, and less discrimination” (Cobble et al., 2014).
While 1848 saw the first Woman’s Rights Convention in New York, women didn’t gain their first nationwide victory until 1920—the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed in Congress and then in 1964 the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, prohibiting race and sex discrimination in employment (Berkeley, 1999; Cobble et al., 2014).
Inspired by the civil rights struggle and the anti-Vietnam War campaign in the late 1960s, a younger generation of women converged to form what became known as the Women’s Liberation Movement. “By the early 1970s, these women collectively created the largest social movement in U.S. history” (Berkeley, 1999). It was during this burgeoning time that Women’s Centers began popping up across college campuses nationwide.
These centers aimed to provide “specialized educational and consulting activities, quality information, non-sexist materials and non-discriminatory counseling and support services” (Mawson, 1979), while “removing barriers to intellectual growth by supporting education equity, violence prevention, and leadership development” (Clark-Taylor et.al, 2021).
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The Oakland Community College Womencenter was founded in 1973 by a small group of women students, faculty, and staff. The Center operated as a volunteer organization until 1974 when the counseling department included the Womencenter as an outreach program with Mary White as its director. The Womencenter initially focused on improving campus services for women, providing assistance to new or returning women students, and bringing special outside resources to the campus. As it grew, the Womencenter developed a referral service, sponsored workshops and seminars, and participated in local, state, and national conferences on women and women’s issues. In 1976, with the addition of Peer Counseling, a part-time staff position was created to coordinate that program. In 1980 the Womencenter moved to its final location at the Orchard Ridge Campus.
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Dr. Jacqueline Shadko, former Vice Chancellor of Student Services and Orchard Ridge Campus President, remembers the OCC Womencenter as a place that “fostered self-awareness and individual and collective empowerment for those who sought its services.” Members of the OCC community “would take me aside to tell me the all-too-familiar story of how OCC’s Womencenter had changed the direction of their life or the life of a loved one.”
Although the Womencenter was located on the Orchard Ridge Campus it served all OCC Campus locations and the surrounding community. The Womencenter and its coordinator Arlene Frank sponsored many popular workshops and events including: The Girls Matter Conference, the Women’s Art Show, Women at Work: Magic Summer Camp, and the Women’s Conference: “A Call to Wholeness”. Dr. Shadko recounts one of the Womencenter’s final activities, "In 2015, the Womencenter cosponsored an event for women veterans—one of the earliest before their issues finally garnered national attention. The speakers were largely women vets, and local, county, state, and federal groups provided information about services and employment opportunities."
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“On behalf of the communities you helped empower, we thank the Womencenter most kindly and happily share its archives here for the betterment of all. There is still so much more to learn and to do. These archives should provide us with some good guideposts from the past…for our future.”
- Jacqueline Shadko, Ph.D., 2023
More information about the OCC Womencenter and Dr. Shadko’s full reflections can be found in the OCC Womencenter Records
References
Berkeley, K. C. (1999). The Women’s Liberation Movement in America.
Clark-Taylor, A., Creamer, E., LeSavoy, B., and Cerulli, C. (2021). Feminist Attitudes, Behaviors, and Culture Shaping Women’s Center Practice. The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal, 4, 110-131. https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/sfd/vol4/iss1/9
Cobble, D. S., Gordon, L., Henry, A. (2014). Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements. Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Mawson, C. D. (1979). Women’s Centers: A Critical Appraisal and A Case Study. Personnel & Guidance Journal, 58(1), 61-65. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-4918.1979.tb00341.x
Morris, B. J., Withers, D-M (with Gay, R.) (2018). The Feminist Revolution: The Struggle for Women’s Liberation. Elephant Publishing Company Limited.
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