The anniversary has become a time to clarify the center's mission and services in response to changes in the women's movement
The six-page proposal for a women's center at Brown rolled off Kay Lewis' typewriter in language carefully devoid of the emotion behind the keystrokes.
It was the early '70s, and Lewis and another new administrator, Karen Romer,
were at the forefront of the effort to form the Sarah Doyle Women's Center.
"Feminism was scary to people," said Lewis. "When I began espousing feminist
views people treated me like I was a flaming radical and I thought - me?"
At the time, 1.9 percent of Brown's tenured faculty were women. Pembroke and
Brown had recently merged, and one of the unintended consequences was that many
of the services to support women had fallen away. Beyond the tree-lined campus,
a national surge was building for women's rights.
Lewis and Romer sought a center to foster discussion among women students and
faculty, administrators and staff, of different ages. Inequalities between the
sexes were apparent in classrooms and offices; experiences shared among women
would provide support and strength to bring about change.
"The Women's Center at Brown," typed Lewis, "could substantially forward the
interests of women."
A quarter century later, Margaret Klawunn is the seventh director of the center
at 185 Meeting St., leader at another time of change.
In many ways the center has influenced the community and the University, said
Klawunn. Activism generated there brought about the creation of the city's
Sojourner House for battered women, Taft Avenue Daycare, women peer counselors,
and the shuttle and escort service.
Friday forums drew women to hear from others successful in their fields; the
library drew women to read empowering literature such as "Our Bodies
Ourselves." In doing so, they forged some lasting friendships.
Brown "admits some amazing women," a member of the Class of '87 recently wrote.
"We find our way to each other through the Women's Center; we find our way with
each other beyond."
However the 25th anniversary has also become a time to clarify the center's
mission and services, and determine where the gaps are, Klawunn said.
The women's movement locally and nationally "looks different, it feels
different, and it needs to respond differently" than it did two decades ago,
she said. "How do you do that? Our conversations with alums and current
students will help us to answer some of these questions."
One of the center's current goals is to increase the involvement of women
faculty, staff and students, she said. There is a need to ensure that the
center is a place with which women of color and men can identify.
This year, Klawunn considered changing the center's name in response to the
idea that using the name of a white woman might not convey a sense of
inclusiveness among all races, and the name "women's" might not convey a sense
of inclusiveness of all gender issues.
One idea for a name spoke to both issues: The Brown Gender and Sexuality
Center. But the plan was eventually discarded in favor of an increasing focus
on "what we are doing and how we are doing it," Klawunn said.
An anniversary is an opportune time to do that, according to Janina Montero,
vice president of campus life and student services, the office which oversees
the center. "It's a wonderful opportunity to affirm the past and look forward
to the next steps, to assess areas where change might be appropriate," said
Montero.
Added to the self-examination, the Sarah Doyle Women's Center is entering a
year of transition. Klawunn was recently appointed associate dean of the
college and the center must find another director. That search will begin in
the fall, said Montero.
The center is an important bridge between the academic and nonacademic, and
provides vital connections with faculty and staff, said Montero.
The center's proposal easily rolled off Lewis' typewriter. At the time "it was
just so obviously the thing to do," she said.
And over the years, the center's impact became obvious.
"You would begin to hear about things that hadn't been talked about," said
Romer. "Issues would come up ... you would hear things that you would then, as
an administrator, begin to act upon."
Through that process graduate students discovered inequities in their maternity
health benefits that offered provisions for the wives of graduate students, but
neglected to account for female graduate students, she said. Through that
process also the need for sexual harassment policies became apparent.
Although there has been much progress toward women's equality at Brown - the
percentage of tenured female faculty has grown from 1.9 to 24 percent, and for
the first time in the University's history, there is a woman at the helm - more
needs to occur here and elsewhere, said Lewis.
Just look at a recent report from another institution of higher education, she
said. An MIT report released last year cited ways women have been discriminated
against for years. In response, the institute raised women's salaries to equal
men's; increased research money and space for women; awarded them key committee
seats; and increased the pensions of a handful of retired women.
"One way [changes] come about is to learn how someone else is making it
possible," she said.
In 1997, undergraduate Andrea Levere found the center to be an ideal place to discuss a paper she was working on. Behind her is a portrait of the center's namesake.
"There are requests from women citizens of Providence, young and old, married
and unmarried, to do degree work at Brown," Lewis typed in the proposal.