Chapter 3: History of the Duke Divinity Women's Center

Table of Contents

In the academic year 1973-74 Duke hosted the Second Annual Women’s Interseminary Conference. Letty Russell, then a professor at Union Seminary in New York , was the keynote speaker. Sally Bentley Doeley (now Sally Bentley) also spoke. Sally had edited one of the first collections of articles about the church and feminism, Women’s Liberation and the Church , which was published in 1970 by Association Press in New York.

In that same academic year, several women, including a most insistent Betty Wolfe, begin to ask for a center for divinity school women. Diane Tennis, the woman in the Presbyterian Church (USA) who was then in charge of women employed by the church, made a small grant to get the center started. The Duke Divinity School Women’s Center was to open officially in the fall of 1974 if space could be found in which to house the Center The only woman on the faculty, Jill Raitt, gave up her office space and moved to the top floor of Old Divinity. The Women’s Center had been located in that space which Dr. Raitt vacated for 31 years. The Divinity Women’s Center has now moved into a new space Spring 2006.

One of the projects of the Women’s Center during that year was to create the “buddy system.” Each of the women was assigned a faculty member whom she would meet at least twice a semester to discuss the importance of inclusive language and what the women in his class were feeling and thinking about their education. The Women’s Center also held a program for faculty on language issues. After showing a filmstrip about the subject, they had a discussion. Several faculty members, like Frank Baker and Frederick Herzog, showed great concern and seriously reflected upon what the women had to say. As some of the professors actually begin to use more inclusive langue, the women realize that language was only the beginning of changing the images and stereotypes. Jeanette Stokes recalled of the struggle, “If the professor of Old Testament still begin all his stories with ‘a little boy went to his father and asked…’ then we had not made much progress.”

The Women’s Center offered a support system in which the women discussed what they had been reading and thinking. One of the readings they discussed was Nelle Morton’s essay “Preaching the Word” from the book Sexist Religion and Women in the Church: No More Silence! edited by Alice Hageman in 1974. In this now famous essay, Morton asserted that women needed to hear each other in speech, which the women of DDS tried to do for one another.

During these early years the magazine of the DDS Women’s Center, Sojourner , originated. Named for Sojourner Truth, the magazine has been published off and on since the Women’s Center began. Also during the late 1970’s the Women’s Center published a newsletter. Another early development for the Women’s Center, its logo, was conceived.

Cindy Jones succeeded Jeanette as Women’s Center Director. During her tenure, the women organized additional worship services, which were held in Duke Chapel on Wednesdays. John Westerhoff helped the students create an inclusive atmosphere for worship. Overnight retreats were held each semester as women sought a haven from the struggles in the divinity school. Most of their budget was spent on bringing ordained women into the school to speak to the students. Ann Kaiser Stearnes spoke and showed just how far women had come. She recalled that when she was a student at Duke Divinity School that there was only one bathroom for women. She and two other women sang in the choir her first year, and all three of them had to sing tenor. She also recalled that the professors reading their old notes continued to began class by saying “dear gentlemen.”

In the 1980s the Women’s Center spent most of their energy trying to incorporate women into the curriculum. The women wanted not only female faculty members but also course reading lists, which included texts by and about women. Several famous women, including Phyllis Trible, Marie Fortune, and Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, came to speak to Duke Divinity School during this time due to the efforts of the women’s center.

Paula Gilbert’s arrival at Duke gave the women a very supportive staff member. Through her efforts as director of student life and her influence in York Chapel, inclusivity issues became a more important topic. Women on the faculty were growing in number and became a great support system for the women of DDS as well as the Women’s Center.

The Women’s Center has celebrated over 22 years of service to the Duke Divinity School. Women’s voices, particularly those from the Women’s Center, have strengthened over the past two decades. Courses have been created and faculty added to meet the needs of women seeking a theological education. However, many goals still exist: more women as tenured faculty; women of color as full time and tenured faculty, women scholars added to reading lists in required courses, and a full-time director of the Women’s Center. With these and other valuable aspirations, hopefully the Women’s Center will maintain its prophetic witness in these hallowed halls of Duke Divinity School.

The Women’s Center serves the entire Divinity School community through a focus on the special needs and contributions of women in ministry in and to the church and society. The office, coordinated by two women, is a resource center for the whole community, in addition to a support and action center for women in particular.

The Women’s Center serves as a resource and support center for the entire Divinity School community, responding to the needs of the community as they relate to issues of gender. It serves as a clearinghouse for information on a variety of issues affecting women and provides opportunities for interaction, networking, challenge, and growth for students and faculty interested in gender issues. It also serves as a sacred space for those in the community who experience struggles in their lives and/or ministries.

Chapter 3: Former Women's Center Coordinators >