Common Speaking, volume 2 number 5

‘Ten Years Later

A total of sixteen alumnae returned to Swarthmore to celebrate
the tenth anniversary of their Women’s Center this April, ranging
from members of the class of ’73 to the class of ’79. For past and
present Women’s Center members alike the week-end was a rare
opportunity for communication between women of different
generations. Hearing the history of women’s liberation at
Swarthmore provided both younger and older women with an
enormous sense of continuity and perspective.

As the oldest member present, Libby Leader of the class of ’73
was the first to present her version of this history. She came to
Swarthmore in the fall of 1969, which she describes as a year when
anti-war and Black liberation issues were at the center of political
action on campus. Though the administration had just abolished
the rule that women had to wear skirts to dinner, they still had
curfews, and had to sign in and out of their dormitory’s, none of
which were co-ed. Women had no gynecological care, and
McCabe contained almost no literature on feminism, partly
because so little had been written.

During Libby’s first and second years here she was approached
by the Swarthmore Political Action Committee, which was
interested in activating women’s liberation on campus. Though
they held a few meetings, in which the most pertinent question
raised was that'of faculty child-care, these did not last. The
following year, in 1970, a few women initiated a student-run
course called Women in Industrial Societies, with the help of
some faculty. They also started a consciousness raising group
consisting of five people. At about the same time a woman named
Jesse Ford tried to begin a Gay Liberation group, but with little
success. Jesse had left Swarthmore years before because she had
felt so oppressed as a lesbian here, and she had returned
determined to make this a place where gay and heterosexual
students could co-exist comfortably. With the support of the
women’s c.r.group, gay liberation got off the ground by the
following fall.

At that time the central focus of both the women’s and the gay
liberation groups was consciousness raising. Organizing c.r.
groups, which were both single-sex and co-ed, grew out of the
feminist definition of the personal as political. As Tina Crosby put
it, (class of 74) this definition was what directed all their activities
as feminists. They had a column in the Phoenix called, “The
Feminist Slant,” and two radio shows on WSRN: a women’s music
hour called ‘What do Women Want?” followed by a talk show
called ‘‘Respect.”

One of the problematic issues these women faced was that of
leftist politics on campus. Early feminists at Swarthmore ended up
defining themselves in opposition to leftist groups like S.P.A.C.,
which they perceived as extremely theoretical, intellectual and
male-dominated. Though this conflict was very destructive, there
were other issues which solidified feminist politics in a more
constructive way. For example, women athletes were faced with
the possibility of losing Cunningham Fields, which was where all
women’s sports activities took place. The adminstration had
decided in the late sixties to replace Hall Gym with a new facility
which would be built on Cunningham Fields. The Gym issue gave
feminists on campus a concrete basis around which to organize,
which tied in with other issues and involved many different kinds
of students.

When Ellen Barry’s class entered in 1971, consciousness raising
groups were still in their beginning stages. As she puts it, the idea
of a Women’s Center grew out of a desire to concretize what was
going on in these groups. When women first began organizing a
center in 1973, however, they received a great deal of opposition,
both from the administration and from Student Council. The
strongest resistance, in fact, came from some members of the
Council, who demanded petition after petition proving that there
was student interest in a Women’s Center. After a lot of struggle, a
group of women finally ended up before the Council with a
serious proposal. At exactly that time five students came foreward
with a mock proposal for a “Men’s Center,” a parody of the
Women’s Center idea which called for speakers such as the
author of How to Pick Up Girls, and subscriptions to “Hustler”
and “Qui.” Though the Women’s Center committee had

3

proposed a budget of 1200 dollars, this was cut to exactly the same
amountas the ““Men’s Center” (around 300 dollars.) The next day
this group, which consisted of two past presidents of the Student
Counsil, and two former and present editors of the Phoenix,
rescinded their proposal, which had been a joke. But the
Philadelphia Inquirer had come out to Swarthmore anyway, to do
a story not on the Women’s Center, but on this ““Men’s Center”
which never existed.

In the fall of 1974 a whole group of freshwomen became
involved in the Center, to the relief of those then in charge, all of
who were about to graduate. Because of the large turnover
between old and new members, Ellen Mutari of the class of ’79
was appointed head of a steering committee which organized a
transitional center. In 1975 and ’76 their main issues were security
and health. They agitated for a regular shuttle bus service to off-
campus dorms, for better publicity in the case of assaults, and for
student access to a gynecological nurse practitioner. In 1977 and
78 the Women’s Center initiated a student-run course on feminst
theory under the auspices of the Political Science department.
They also invited a group of women down from the Everywoman’s
Center in Massachusetts who ran a training session on how to
organize small groups and facilitate meetings.

From 1979 on, the history of the Women’s Center begins to look
more current: the rising issue of D.U. and the related problem of
anti-homosexual activity on campus; the push for better security
and health services; the struggle to integrate feminism and
academics; all these are familiar to today’s Women’s Center
members. Some changes have taken place, such as the transition
to Sharples |, the publication of Common Speaking, and the
opening of the Coffee House. But surprisingly many of the
Center’s questions, problems and goals were already under
discussion over ten years ago.

Even more important to the week-end than this evidence of
tradition and continuity, however, was the fact that so many
alumnae had continued to be politically active after leaving the
Women’s Center. Many described how the training they received
at Swarthmore, both in terms of personal growth and political
organizing, carried over into the work they do now. For present
members it was inspiring to receive the support of older feminists
with so much more experience and perspective. Nor was
communication between past and present members resricted to
this review of Women’s Center history. Three discussion groups
were held in the afternoon, on Women in the Law, Political
Organization, and Women’s Studies, all of which were extremely
productive and helpful to the students involved. The alumnae,
too, were grateful for the chance to reunite with old friends, and
to return to the scene of their first political awakenings. As Ellen
Barry put it, “It feels like a real completion to come back here, and
| think that’s true form many of us. It was ten years ago, ten
significant years ago.” But thanks to Ellen and all the alumnae who
returned, the same celebration which allowed them to look back
has enabled the second generation to look forward.

—ElizaNewlin

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