This week, the Penn Women's Center is celebrating its 35th anniversary with several service projects to benefit the Women Against Abuse shelter, Philadelphia's sole domestic-violence center.
However, 35 years ago, PWC had to fight to establish itself as a home for women on campus before it could tackle domestic violence elsewhere.
The center was originally founded in 1973 after a series of protests and sit-ins addressing sexual assaults on campus.
"The political stance at that point was you sat-in until you got what you wanted," said Gloria Gay, associate director of PWC. "They wanted to negotiate for a safe place for women."
As a result of these protests, Penn women brought victim-support groups, women's studies courses and PWC to campus.
The center was originally located in Houston Hall, which Gay say she sees as poetic justice since until the mid-20th century, women were not allowed in Houston. In 1996, PWC moved to its current location on Locust Walk, in a house that used to be home to a fraternity.
The move was made not due to any deficiency of the previous location, but rather because, according to Gay, "the students wanted the center to be at the center of campus."
PWC was originally a place for women to feel comfortable on a predominantly male campus and to educate students on issues such as violence against women, rape and harassment.
The center has since expanded from these goals to provide educational, leadership and networking opportunities, as well as a forum for political discussion and social interaction, and much more.
"Even though we're accomplishing some of the same goals, we now have systems where originally there were none," Gay said.
One form of this progress includes the hiring of violence-prevention educator Jessica Mertz with funds from a federal grant received in 2008.
"We've made some remarkable and wonderful progress on a lot of issues that [affect] women's lives," said PWC director Felicity Paxton, in a Penn Current article published in October 2008.
Even now that the slight majority of the undergraduate student body is female, the center is still a place for women to seek comfort and understanding, and to receive confidential support for private issues, said Jennifer Jackson, PWC program and outreach coordinator.
"We make ourselves accessible to any student who wants us to be there for them," she said.
This week's service projects - which include making 35 fleece blankets, 350 activity and coloring books and at least 35 books on tape - are a "low-cost but high-impact" way to help women at and around Penn, Jackson said. No experience and little time is required to contribute.
Jackson hopes to see a large number of contributors this week, particularly because the shelter's operating costs were recently depleted by 15 percent.
"The projects demonstrate women taking care of women in the truest sense," Gay said. "We are our sister's keeper and will always be our sister's keeper."
