Welcome! This page is dedicated to the narratives and chronologies of the Stanford Women’s Community Center and all those who have contributed to the space and offerings over the years.
Evolution of the WCC
The history of the Women's Community Center can be traced to 1972 when a group of Stanford women started holding regular meetings to discuss common challenges of being women students in a male-dominated academic setting. As this group grew, they named themselves the Women's Collective and advocated for meeting space at the Toyon eating clubs. Coinciding with a surge in activism on many college campuses across the nation, these women collaborated to advocate for a more equitable educational experience for women students. Issues they addressed included sexual harassment, pay equity, and discrimination in the classroom.
In the mid-1980s, they appealed to the university for a half-time graduate student coordinator position to assist the group with providing programs and services to the greater campus community. Successful in this appeal, the center welcomed the new Graduate Women's Network Coordinator position, funded by graduate student special fees, ensuring that the center provided resources for both undergraduate and graduate students. Assistant dean of students and director of student activities noting that the "center was first run by volunteers... when the administration hired that first staffer, it provided some stability for the group."
In the fall of 1991, the Women’s Collective further grew and was allocated space in the Old Fire Truck House, where it was re-named the Women’s Center. Prior to the move, the location had been used primarily as a storage space. Howe explained that "We wanted to have the Women's Center, like the ethnic centers, in the heart of life on campus. The new space was nicer, bigger and more accessible."
The Center obtained additional funding in 1993, which allowed the addition of seven student staff members. At the time, the Women's Center was funded by ASSU Special Fees until a group of students created the Women’s Center Funding Proposal in 1996 to advocate for permanent funding from the university through the Office of Student Activities.
Thanks to these effective lobbying efforts, Fabienne McPhail, formerly with the Black Community Services Center, was appointed as the Women's Center's first part-time director in 1998. Initially working afternoons to oversee and coordinate the center, McPhail expressed her interests in supporting students in their academic lives and collaborating with other community centers. With the center previously supervised by a graduate student coordinator, McPhail envisioned a transition for the center by focusing on her role as an administrator to best address student concerns.
The position was extended to a full-time position shortly before her departure in 1999. The Dean of Students Office granted the Women's Center and the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community Center full-time directors after protests following LGBCC Director Gwendolyn Dean's resignation in late 1998. Espousing the advantages of institutionalization, McPhail pictured the Center as a community representing a broad swath of Stanford women, "even the voices of dissension." Lauren Popell held the Interim Director position from 1999-2000.
The Women’s Community Center (affectionately known as the WCC) has provided programs, services, and resources for students over the years and has continually evolved to meet the changing and dynamic needs of students. The WCC now employs three full-time professional staff members in addition to approximately two graduate student coordinators and between 10-13 undergraduate student program coordinators. Our mission has evolved to one that is explicitly focused on gender, equity, identity, and justice with an inclusive and intersectional lens. We aim to serve students of all backgrounds, identities, and genders, particularly those of most marginalized. The Women's Community Center is now a university department within the Centers for Equity, Community, and Leadership in the Division of Student Affairs. The Women’s Collective as a student-let group has evolved over the years in its function and mission, and is now known as the Womxn’s Coalition. They are one of many women’s voluntary student organizations that the WCC supports.
This website now serves as a hub for the historical and archival resources and information. You can also check out wcc.stanford.edu for more information on current programs and offerings of the WCC.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that any conversation about the evolution and history of an organization requires the sincere acknowledgement of the land and its peoples. The Stanford Women's Community Center is located in the Fire Truck House and at Stanford University which sits on the unceded and ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. This land was and continues to be of great meaning and importance to the Ohlone peoples. We recognize this with humility and a commitment to education, awareness, justice, and honoring their sacred land.
This land, called Popeloutchom by Ohlone peoples, continues to be of great meaning and importance to its original stewards. We recognize this with humility and commit to grounding the work we do at the WCC in education, awareness, justice, and honoring the sacred land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. We encourage you to engage with educational resources available the official website of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, and to visit the website of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, where you can begin reading about some of the current work tribal members are doing to restore Indigenous knowledge and practices to the land, and learn how to donate your time or money.
We also encourage you to learn about and donate to the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, working to rematriate traditional Lisjan Ohlone land.
