University of Virginia Library

Full And Equal

The center is now operating two
days a week (Thursday and Friday
from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.) at
Westminster Presbyterian Church.
As more volunteers become
available for staffing, we hope to
have it open seven days a week.

Men or women interested in any
of these activities should stop by
the Women's Liberation table on
the second floor of Newcomb Hall
any weekday between 11:30 and 1.

Our hope for the women coming
in this fall is that we will be
received as full and equal members
of the university community. There
has been considerable resistance to
coeducation here, even among
students, and a tendency to regard
women in class as biological
oddities - strange sub-male
creatures taking some deserving
man's place.

We must not be steered away
from such "masculine" fields as
science and engineering and
channeled into more "feminine"
areas, like language and the arts,
unless, of course, that is where we
want to be. It is now time that
women students be recognized as
full human beings with the same
aspirations and potentialities as
men.

We further hope that we will see
each other as sisters rather than as
competitors for male approval. It is
important that we not feel cut off
from or above other women
because we have been "blessed"
with admission to this sanctuary for
men. Above all, we must be free to
define ourselves, to create our own
identity. We must not succumb to
images imposed from without by a
community which is predominantly
male. We are more than mere
playthings, adornments for
fraternity parties or future
homemakers of America marking
time until we find a man.

Despite the fact that women
have been at this university for fifty
years, the entrance this fall of 450
undergraduate women seems to be
something of a watershed for
Virginia.