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1st
appeared 10 May 1999
Campus to Celebrate 20 Years of Advocating for
Gender Equity
Times may have changed since 1979 but some things have stayed the same - women are still
at high risk for sexual assault and domestic violence, and face gender discrimination and
sexual harassment in the workplace at a far higher rate than do their male counterparts.
 These issues have not been lost on the UCSF community.
Administrators created the Rape Prevention Education Program in 1979, which turned into
the Women's Resource Center in 1984, and evolved into the Center for Gender Equity last
September. The Center will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in May with a dinner at the
St. Francis Drake Hotel, featuring financial expert Suze Orman as guest speaker.
Amy Levine serves as the director of the Center, with which she has been involved through
its various manifestations. Levine, who has a master's degree in counseling psychology and
a doctorate in education, was the first coordinator of the rape prevention education
program, which received permanent funding after its first two years as a pilot project in
the campus police department.
However, women started using the program as a "pseudo-women's center," says
Levine. In the early 1980s, the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on the Status of Women
began discussions on creating a women's center and in 1984 the Women's Resource Center
opened its doors. The rape prevention program remained in the police department for one
more year before formally joining the Women's Resource Center in 1985.
As the Center evolved, it moved administratively from Public Service Programs to
University Advancement and Planning (UAP), then to Student Academic Affairs before making
its final move back to UAP almost two years ago.
Along the way, the Center has broadened its scope and changed its tactics. It now includes
resources for the campus' lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members, and is
concentrating its advocacy efforts on health, leadership and public policy issues.
Levine says the Center is more directly targeting different audiences on campus and
holding fewer, but higher quality, programs for those groups. For example, the Center has
held successful "mini-conferences" on topics such as women in campus leadership
positions at UCSF and UC Berkeley, as well as seminars for women of color. Levine is
planning a UC-wide conference for March, 2000 for women in leadership positions.
Levine says the Center was expanded and renamed in order to be more inclusive -- not, as
some may assume, as a reaction to Proposition 209 or SP 1or 2, which banned affirmative
action policies in California and at UC.
The Center for Gender Equity now has five staff members working in their Woods Building
offices on issues such as rape and sexual assault prevention education, LGBT issues in the
workplace, and various women's issues, such as salary and promotion equity. The staff's
input is often sought out when campus policies are being drafted on these issues. For
instance, Levine recently served on a committee that developed a sexual assault policy,
which is currently under campus review.
Levine says the Center in all of its manifestations has focused on people traditionally
marginalized in society, and that although women have made great strides, they are still
on the periphery in terms of underrepresentation as tenured faculty and executives, but
are overrepresented in the lower-paying clerical positions.
"At UCSF there is a glass ceiling and a sticky floor," says Levine. "It's
true for women faculty and staff. We've achieved some parity at the student level in terms
of numbers but those numbers change when they move into academic careers and cluster in
non-tenured positions."
The Center not only holds lectures and conferences, but also trainings in issues such as
self-defense. It also offers support groups, a reading and conversation lounge, a website,
and a small reference library of books, pamphlets and videos.
 To commemorate its 20th anniversary, the Center for Gender Equity
invites the campus community to a special evening which includes dinner, a performance by
Purple Moon Dance Project, recognition awards, and a presentation by guest speaker Suze
Orman, author of the #1 bestseller, "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom" and the
recently published "The Courage to Be Rich."
The anniversary dinner will be held on Wednesday, May 26, 6 p.m., Sir Francis Drake Hotel.
RSVP by May 17. $45 per person, $500 per table of 10. Call 415/502-7048 for more
information.
Links:
Center for Gender Equity
Related Daybreak stories:
Amy Levine -- A Woman Who
Makes a Difference
Michael Scarce First
Coordinator of LGBT Resources
Source: Paula Murphy, Daybreak
editor |
