The acronym PCUW, pronounced "PQ," stands for the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women. In this section, you will find our Herstory, our Mission Statement, our Objectives, and our Constitution.
Our Herstory
Penn's undergraduate women's groups - those dedicated specifically but not exclusively to the institutional advancement of Penn women - once engaged in woefully little collaboration. In November of 2003, then-junior Jennifer Lane sensed that the synergistic potential of these groups might be quite powerful. She undertook the task of inviting each President and Co-Chair to join the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women. Thanks to their enthusiasm, we now boast more than twenty members and are a thriving activist force on campus.
Since its inception, the Consortium has organized three annual Women's Weeks with its constituent groups. The first Women's Week in 2004 was entitled "Engendering Unity." In 2005, acclaimed author Naomi Wolfe came to speak about the politics of body image, while in 2006, Gloria Steinem, an influential feminist activist, spoke about the future of feminism in America. For 2007, the Consortium has invited Frances Hesselbein, chairman of the board of governors of the Leader to Leader Institute and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the United States of America's highest civilian honor) to be its keynote speaker. In all three years, the women's groups held very successful events of their own, which ranged from a student production of the Vagina Monologues, movie screenings, self-defense workshops, and speaker panels.
In addition to Women's Week, the Consortium has designed, developed, and printed a first-of-its-kind resource guide that caters to the needs and interests of undergraduate women. It is filled with useful information on various problems and situations that female students may need help in addressing, such how to handle sexual harassment by a TA or how to help a friend with an eating disorder. It also contains the biographies of the constituent groups in order to help undergraduate women find others with similar passions. The Consortium was greatly helped by the support from the Trustees' Council of Penn Women.
Our Mission Statement
The Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women seeks to enact the systemic change necessary for the unbridled self-actualization of PennŐs female students, faculty, and staff. We will always do our part to establish the institutional infrastructure within which women are empowered to reach their potential. We will take gender equity seriously, and will welcome the day that women ascend their own personal and professional ladders free of self-doubt and full of self-esteem.
Our Objectives
- To serve as a liaison between undergraduate women and undergraduate women's groups, and Penn's staff, faculty, and administration.
- To empower undergraduate women's groups to effectively fulfill their respective missions.
- To collectively advocate for gender equity at Penn, in all sectors and at all levels, through heightening consciousness of women's issues, affairs, resources, and history.
Our Constitution
» Download Constitution
Core Values
The following quotes substantiate PCUW's five core values:
- We work together to reach common goals
- We Work for Education, Enrichment, Empowerment, and Equity
- We Take Responsibility for Our Collective Statements and Actions
- We Share Our Skills, Knowledge, and Resources
- We Believe In Ourselves and Our Capabilities
I would have to say that my first grade teacher was the best. She taught me to read when I thought I couldn't. It makes me feel just so great.
For it is in unity that inner strength exists, and in the separation that it dissipates, leaving one feeling weak, and powerless — and hence, struggling for power. I tell you this: Heal the rift between you, end the illusion of separation, and you shall be delivered back to the source of your inner strength. That is where you will find true power. The power to do anything. The power to be anything. For the power to create is derived from the inner strength that is produced through unity. Understand that it is about power with, not power over.
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to become themselves?
Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you.
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them.
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances…
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
It is disagreeable to take stands. It was always easier to compromise, always easier to let things go. To many women, and I am one of them, it is extraordinarily difficult to care about anything enough to cause disagreement or unpleasant feelings, but I have come to the conclusion that this must be done for a time until we can prove our strength and demand respect for our wishes. We will be enormously strengthened if we can show that we are willing to fight to the very last ditch for what we believe in.
Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.