About Us

The Women’s Center supports and empowers students at Georgetown. Women are the majority of the student body, yet are often marginalized in the classroom and campus experiences. As a result, the Women’s Center seeks to center the experience of women and educate the entire campus about gender dynamics that impact campus culture. We seek to create a more equitable campus for a more expansive notion of gender and gender roles. We serve students of all gender identities. 

The Women’s Center staff collaborated with the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access (new window), Disability Cultural Center, (new window) and LGBTQ Resource Center (new window) in order to holistically serve students. We are a part of the Office of Student Equity and Inclusion (new window) in Student Affairs. In particular, we focus on the following areas:

• Education and Outreach: We provide trainings and workshops for faculty, staff, and students. We are happy to partner with your organization to help you think through how gender functions in your organization. We offer programs and events in collaboration with student groups, academic units, and other campus partners
• Student Engagement and Leadership Development: We offer programs that help students cultivate and develop their leadership skills and unique strengths. These include lectures, discussions, and retreats. Our student staff (link) are ambassadors of the Women’s Center. They lead their peers in conversation and events.
• Individual Student Support: Staff it available to talk with students about anything and everything. We can connect you with resources, or help you think through topics like what you want to major in, how things are going with your roommates, whether you want to study abroad, how to navigate conflict with a friend, and all of the other things that come with student life.
• Health and Wellness: We work individually with students to help students address challenges and flourish at Georgetown. As a semi-confidential Title IX reporting space (new window), we also help students in crisis situations. A semi-confidential space means that son-identifying information about an incident of sexual assault will be shared with a Title IX Coordinator; you will not be contacted by a Title IX Coordinator. Additionally, we are here to help you navigate the University Bias Reporting system for incidents inside and outside of the classroom. We can connect you with resources on and off-campus.
• Community Building: We are stronger when we come together. We seek to not only gather people together, but to build strong relationships marked by justice. Together, we can influence culture on the Hilltop.
• Advocacy and Empowerment: We challenge oppressive ideologies and encourage a holistic approach to community building and education.
• Alumni Engagement: We cultivate a community of Hoyas supporting Hoyas. In the Women’s Center, we can connect you with alumni in roles of professional networking and mentoring.
• In-office and Virtual Services: Stop by the OSEI space in the basement of New South or connect on zoom to talk with a staff member about personal topics, navigating campus culture, and academic issues. We also offer free pregnancy tests, period products, and snacks.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Division of Student Affairs works to create an environment in which students, and the staff and faculty who work with them, can flourish. Student formation is the center of our mission, and Student Affairs works with students very directly through education, programmatic efforts, supportive services, and on-the-ground engagement. In living out these commitments, Student Affairs embraces students, staff, and faculty from all backgrounds and identities.  This includes racial, ethnic, sexual and gender identities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religious/spiritual identity, immigration status, indigenous heritage, disability status, military affiliation/veteran status, and age. We recognize that these groups are intersectional and that there are myriad identities and experiences in addition to these which shape our students and our colleagues. This intersectional approach calls us to be mindful of issues of power, privilege, and oppression and to pursue equity in our structures and our practice. While we have built a strong foundation, we seek to do more – we seek the Magis in our work, our awareness, and our impact.

A commitment to diversity calls us to value the different perspectives and lived experiences that students and others bring to the community by virtue of the identities they hold. 

A commitment to equity calls us to ensure that every student has what they need to be successful in their pursuits and endeavors.

A commitment to inclusion calls us to restructure our environments and practices to center voices of those who have been historically underrepresented in our work and campus.

We carry out this work within the context of Georgetown’s overall educational mission. In addition, we recognize the Jesuit tradition that grounds our work. In 2000, then Superior General Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ delivered his famous address The Service of Faith & the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education. Fr. Kolvenbach offered a historic challenge for us to integrate this mission commitment into our teaching, scholarship and institutional lives as Jesuit universities. At Georgetown, this is reflected in our values of Community in Diversity and Faith that does Justice.