Creating A ‘Herstory’ Of The Women’s Center

By Kaaren Valenta

Before Deirdre Dougherty left for her freshman year at Smith College this month, she completed a Girl Scout Gold Award service project that created a moveable historical timeline for the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury.

“The center celebrated its 25th anniversary this year and many women at the center wanted to preserve the past in a way that was accessible and thorough,” she explained.  “The Women’s Center wanted it done, but it couldn’t afford to hire someone to do it. I took the project as my own and constructed a six-panel timeline with the history of the Women’s Center interspersed with the history of women in the United States and around the world. I also created a resource binder to preserve the extant original documents I used and the ‘herstory’ I created for each decade.”

A member of Senior Girl Scout Troop 651, Deirdre is the daughter of Katherine Dougherty and Jerome Mayer of Beaver Dam Road.

“Preserving the past is the only way that we can understand the present and the future,” Deirdre said. “Most of my compilation of the herstory was done through careful examination of newspaper articles from each time period as well as many searches through old newspapers to find relevant stories.”

The content of the project made the 18-year-old high school senior realize several things.

“I realized how much and how little things have changed for women,” she said. “In terms of the use of the center and its presence in the Danbury area, women’s lives have been altered. But there is still the foreboding presence of sexual abuse, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and social ostracism. Women are still divided in many ways and are urged to stay divided by the world. But it seems to me that the Women’s Center strikes down and embraces the differences. It doesn’t ignore them or try to diminish them; it has created and has continued to create a place from where, founding mother Bonnie Geriak said hopefully in 1976, ‘…women who think they are different will find out through their womanness they have many things in common.’

“The vision [of the center] morphed from what the City of Danbury saw as a joke, to a sort of laughable idea, to a radical political hotbed, to a dependable alternative, to what it is now, an irreplaceable resource,” Deirdre said. 

 She credited several women with inspiring her to take on this project, including her mother, who is a co-leader, with Jan Bennett, of the scout troop; plus Pam Chapman, Pat Zachman, and Nicole Rossi, and the Newtown Neighborhood Council.

“Ms Nicole Rossi, my Women’s Studies teacher at Newtown High School, broadened me through her class and piqued my already present interest,” Deirdre explained. “Her class generated such a passion and provided a foundation for my project.”

Pat Chapman, a teacher with Deirdre’s mother at Bethel High School, suggested the Women’s Center project and put Deirdre in touch with the Pat Zachman, the center’s current director. 

“Ms Zachman allowed me access to the center’s resources and described her vision of what the timeline should contain and accomplish,” Deirdre said.

The senior scout also gave the Women’s Center two extra framed panels that allow the agency to continue to add to the timeline.

“The binder I designed also allows space for additions to the timeline and the document collection,” Deirdre said. “I consider both to be working resources that allow for change but preserve the past.”

Similar to the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Project, the Girl Scout Gold Project is a culmination of all the skills the scout learned in scouting. It requires badges, community service, and leadership hours, in addition to the project.  The project took about 60 hours to complete.

At Smith College, Deirdre says she may major in English or government, but she isn’t sure. She knows one thing, however.

“They have a huge collection at the college’s women’s center and I intend to take advantage of it,” she said.