Women’s Centers

Women’s centers in higher education are as unique as the campuses on which they are located, but all share a mission to advance gender equity. The first campus-based women’s center in the United States was founded at the University of Minnesota in 1960, with more centers emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s amid social movements for women’s, African American, and LGBTQ civil rights. In 2018, there were more than 500 women’s and gender equity centers throughout the nearly 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States, meaning that centers are located on approximately 10% of campuses. While pioneering centers may have focused on the needs of women returning to college after a hiatus, they now address a wide range of issues affecting student, ...