Crashing the ol' boys' club

On the back of my friend's t-shirt, a quotation reads, "Speak up for what you believe in, even if your voice shakes." The day I feared that my voice was too shaky to speak alone, I walked into the Women's Center and found some reinforcement.

Located next to Durfee's Sweet Shoppe, the Women's Center has served as a support and activity center for women at Yale since the University went coed in 1969. The Center holds weekly coffee hours, organizes outreach programs, and houses feminist publications like Aurora. Staffed completely by students, the Center also serves as an umbrella organization for groups like Women in Science, BiWays, YaLesbians, Women and Youth in Support of Each other (WYSE), the Asian-American Women's Group, the Reproductive Rights Action League at Yale (RALY), and Take Back the Night. In addition, the center also holds a number of concerts and other events throughout the year.

I feel as though the Center has always been a part of my life. It is a home to me—home because it always offers a sense of belonging that is never half-hearted. And even now, when I try to think of the exact reason I first stepped inside the Center's doors, I get lost in the possibilities.

I certainly wanted to get involved in political action, and I knew someone on the staff. I also joined because I wanted someone who could relate to me, and I wanted someone to listen to me complain about my ex-boyfriend and men in general. I wanted to let everyone know that some of my male friends were feminists, too, that I had heard about the pathetic male-to-female ratio of tenured faculty at this institution, and that one of my best friends was raped by a "friend." I also wanted to learn about proper health care for women so that I wouldn't have to lose another loved one to breast or cervical cancer. As I became more committed to the Center, I soon understood that this list of reasons went on and on.

I am not your "typical" Yale feminist. Come to think of it, there is no such thing. We come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. But we do have one thing in common: we stand for each other and for all women, even though our voices might shake. Many people think that to be a feminist is to be a femi-Nazi. I don't believe it. Don't get me wrong—the Women's Center has its share of extremists, and I am proud to know them. But I, too, am a feminist, though I wear short skirts, make-up, perfume, and barrettes in my hair. I don't stand outside of big buildings with my picket sign shouting "Hell no, we won't go!" But I certainly would if I had to. And my fellow feminists would back me.

I have also seen the Center bravely tackle sexual assault and harassment, tenure reform, sweatshop labor, police brutality and a plethora of other injustices that many women don't have the guts to stand up to on their own. I know that I didn't.

The Women's Center was established so that all Yale women could find a place to call home, and a voice to back up their own. We are a meeting place for groups that do not have the means to support themselves, and we are a support group for women in a sometimes misogynistic world. We are conservative, liberal, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered. We are the women of Yale.

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