Center for the Education of Women
The Center for the Education of Women (CEW) opened in 1964 with their first offices in the Women’s League. It was their mission to provide support and provide much needed resources for the women students at the University of Michigan. CEW was especially interested in providing help for non-traditional students, often women who had started a degree but dropped out to begin a family.
CEW was also involved in the “HEW Complaint” (a complaint filed with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare) in 1969 when the University of Michigan came under fire for discrimination against women. The Commission for Women, created by President Fleming to address the issues raised by the lawsuit, included members of the CEW staff.1
CEW has been involved in various aspects of University life, working to create equal opportunities for all women. In the early 1970s, the Center created the Arrow Program, designed to help undergraduate women think about and plan for their future.2 In the late 1970s, the Center held several conferences focusing on the concerns of African American women.3 In 1980, the Center was an important voice for creating the Women in Science program which would later become Women in Science and Engineering.4
Today CEW remains an important place on campus. They perform research on subjects relating to women, hold events and workshops, provide career and education counseling, and have scholarship and grant opportunities for women.
1. Jeanne E. Miller, A Matter of Fairness: A History of the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor: Bentley Historical Library, 2014), 6.
2. Ibid, 18.
3. Ibid, 22.
4. Ibid, 37.