Women's Resource Center at Loyola University New Orleans

Description

The Loyola Women's Resource Center was founded in March 1975, with Carol Deinhardt Mawson as the director. Carol Mawson was a Ph. D. candidate in psychology at Harvard University and an assistant professor of psychology in City College. Funding for the center came from the Louisiana Department for the Humanities and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Women's Center operated under the auspices of continuing education in City College and was located in a shotgun on Loyola Street, now the site of Monroe Library and the College of Business. The Loyola Women's Center was the first university women's center in Louisiana. It served the needs and interests of women on campus and was also open to the community, offering popular courses in public speaking, financial planning, creative writing, assertiveness training, starting and managing a small business, and basic auto maintenance. The center hosted a popular Friday Open House from 5-8 pm, featuring wine and cheese and guests like Angela HIll and other local women. It sponsored successful conferences and seminars, the last one being the Conference on Families in September 1980. The center was closed in 1980 by the vice-president for academic affairs for budgetary reasons (even though the center posted a profit for 1979) and the closing of the continuing education division in City College. A women's studies committee was convened in 1987 by Nancy Anderson, Barbara Ewell and Connie Mui. The committee de