Why a Women's Center?

Progress has been made!

Fifty-six percent of college students are women. The number of women with doctorates and women in administration has increased in the last decades, at the University and nationwide. There are some notable women, though few percentage-wise, in high levels of administration.

However in 2008 . . . in spite of significant progress, women are not yet close to reaching equity.

• College women graduates who work FT, with the same degree, make 76 cents for every $1 their male counterparts earn.
• At the U of MN, just 27% of the tenured faculty are women. Nationwide, only 3- 15 % of full professors in science and engineering are women.
• One out of five college women experience rape or attempted rape during their college career (National Institute of Justice, 2001) and one in three women will be a sexual violence survivor during her lifetime. In addition to the statistics re: inequity, the Women’s Center hears accounts daily of covert (& at times blatant) sexism.
• There are just 90 women in congress (out of 435) including 23 women of color, and the Speaker of the House is a woman. No woman of color currently serves in the U.S. Senate, & no woman of color has ever been a governor. Only nine of the 50 state governors are women.
• There has been a 480% increase in cosmetic surgeries in the last nine years.

But we keep working to transform the University and the world because women matter . . .

If working women earned the same as their male counterparts, their annual family incomes would rise by $4K and poverty rates would be cut in half (www.doer.state.mn.us/lr-peqty/lr-peqty.htm).

The University of Minnesota promises a culture that fosters excellence and an extraordinary education. Imagine how the world would be different if the Supreme Court, which makes policies for all of us, was composed of 50% women. What if 50% of those women were women of color? Imagine if all people were encouraged to contribute to their fullest potential!

What is Feminism?

There are various definitions of “feminism,” but a broad and more general definition could be “a social justice movement that works to ensure women's freedom and equity of opportunity in all spheres of life.”

The means of securing this freedom and equality of opportunity are different for every person. There is enough room within feminism for diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, class, age, geography, thought, profession, sexual orientation, ability, and life experience.

There is a weblog entry entitled, “Feminism is not your expectation" that addresses the many ways in which “Feminism is Feminisms, many and varied.” You might recognize yourself, some of your beliefs or some of the causes you are passionate about in this article, and you might not. You might have ideas about feminism that aren’t reflected in any of the definitions listed. Either way, the article is a great introduction to some of the things that feminism is and can be.