Dinner celebrates PWC's 30 years

On Friday -- Penn Women's Center Day in the City of Philadelphia, as proclaimed by Mayor John Street -- a crowd of about 100 gathered in the Hall of Flags in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women's Center.

Rose Weber, one of the participants of the 1973 sit-in that gave rise to the Women's Center, painted a vivid picture of the campus prior to the establishment of the center in her speech.

"Walking down Locust Walk was... humiliating, objectifying," Weber said, explaining how men sitting on the front steps of the fraternity houses would holler at girls passing by and hold up signs rating how sexy the girls looked. Women were also in danger of being hit with a water balloon or sprayed by a hose from one of the windows of fraternities.

Over the past 30 years, however, the Women's Center has worked to make Penn campus a woman-friendly place.

"It's amazing. It's bloomed, it's mushroomed, it's flowered," keynote speaker and author Robin Morgan said, regarding the development of the Women's Center.

Besides the changes that occurred on Locust Walk, the evening also highlighted other accomplishments, including the Women's Center's move to a former fraternity house on Locust Walk, and the establishment of various women's programs such as Sister Sister, Penn for Choice and Women In Thought.

Although the evening celebrated 30 years of accomplishments, problems were also addressed.

Women's Center Director Elena DiLapi spoke about the need for increased funding from the University. "The world is getting uglier," DiLapi said. "As we face an increased need for services, we also see less and less."

She pointed out that last year she was forced to cut the Center's budget by $1,000 and is pressured to reduce the center's work force by five percent next year.

Associate Director of the Women's Center Gloria Gay expressed a similar opinion regarding the need for a women's center.

"As long as [there is] sexism and racism and homophobia, there is a need for a women's center," she said.

The evening concluded with a speech by Morgan, a feminist writer who compiled the anthologies Sisterhood is Powerful, Sisterhood is Global and Sisterhood is Forever.

She challenged those present to change the institutions, to stop settling for less and to embrace "multi-feminism" -- which includes all religions, races and ages.

"We cannot afford to dwindle into tepid policies," Morgan said. "We need to go for the gold."

While some people may perceive that American women already have "the gold," Morgan pointed out that as long as there is rape, educational disparity, AIDS, poverty and inequality in jobs, "women do not have it made."

Morgan summarized her message in a quote from her book: "She who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible."

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