Women's Caucus History

The Women's Caucus at Saint Michael's College was founded in 1996. Its intial goal was to address issues of importance to women on campus to ensure that women have a strong voice in the college community. The Caucus includes faculty, staff and administrative women. Originally, to avoid any hierarchic structure, rather than to have a chair or other leadership, the members created a "Continuity Group" to provide cohesion and continuity.

The primary purposes of the Continuity Group were as follows:

  • To publicize the Caucus and to give it stronger campus identity
  • To keep records for the Women’s Caucus
  • To provide continuity from semester to semester
  • To seek funding for the Caucus and to distribute those funds to the subgroups
  • To channel inquiries and responses from other constituencies to the appropriate subgroups.
  • The Continuity Group consisted of representatives of three subgroups: Mentoring, Gender Studies and Advocacy. Each subgroup met and operated independently, with its own organizational strategies.

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In the fall of 1998, the Caucus decided to create a steering committee. Members of this committee were nominated at the January 27, 1999 meeting. The Caucus continues to provide mentoring, a Gender Studies forum, and advocacy.

In recent years, the Caucus:

  • Helped to establish the first Women's Center on campus
  • Held a luncheon for new employees during fall, spring and summer
  • Set up individual lunches for new employees and mentors
  • Served as an advocate in a contract dispute
  • Established the Women's Caucus Web page
  • Sponsored several Women's History month events and produced a calendar of local and campus Women's History month events
  • Sponsored open lunchtime work-family discussions
  • Sponsored a Caucus lunchtime discussions on women and academic leadership 

Future objectives include:

  • Raise awareness of sexual harassment problems on campus
  • Improvement of campus childcare options
  • Open lunchtime discussions on gender in the workplace
  • Outreach to women employees currently under-represented by and in the Caucus