Development and Demise of a Women's Center.

The formation, development, and demise of a women's center in suburban New York are described. The women's center resulted from a conference designed to assess problems confronting women and to mobilize resources to meet those problems. However, after the formation of the center, a struggle for leadership and conflicts over the values and beliefs of the participants emerged. Many of the middle-class women with children at home tended to be more moderate and emphasized education, counseling, and referral to existing facilities rather than social action and radical change. As the emphasis shifted from social action to service, the center's reason for existence became eroded. The leaders became immobilized and quarreled among themselves, and the ambivalences among the leaders reflected the role strain prevalent among most women today. Women feared appearing too militant to attract other women or too ineffectual to accomplish the improvements they desired in the status of women. In addition to internal factors accounting for the Center's demise, external problems were prevalent, such as inability to tap funds. Recommendations for future women's centers are included. (Author/DE)