Community Engagement: WOST in Fort Wayne
Women's Studies personnel were part of the 1971 "communion caper" in which a group of feminists took the communion and passed it out after being forbidden to do so. They then left the church and formed their own feminist group which met on Sundays. Folks from the Women's Studies Program also participated in a 1972 action where they defied the "Reserved for Men” custom at Ayres Tea Room’s Mariner Room, in an effort to bring to make "Fort Wayne's male power structure" aware of the presence of the women's movement.
1972 also saw the launching of the course that would the foundation for the formation of the Women's Studies Program. Facilitator of the Fort Wayne Folk School class, Dr. Cathryn Adamsky Levison, associate professor of psychology at Purdue University at Fort Wayne launched a class called “Woman as Person: A Feminist View,” that looked at the history of feminism, traditional views of women and resulting stereotypes, and new views and philosophical approaches. Alice Stott taught a class called “Exploring the Female Person”
These are just the roots of the enduring and thriving relationship between the (I)PFW Women's Studies Program and the feminist community of Fort Wayne. In the gallery above, you can find artifacts that reflect the longstanding interconnection between the (I)PFW Women's Studies Program and the feminist community in Fort Wayne. Artifacts include fliers from events co-sponsored by WOST and local feminist organizations. You will also find a timeline of feminist activism in Fort Wayne compiled by Harmony Associate's Fort Wayne Herstory Project. The timeline provides snapshots of the active feminist movement in Fort Wayne and its connection to WOST.