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Women at Penn: Past, Present, and Future

To celebrate the opening of the exhibit To Secure These Rights: 150 Years of Women at Penn, a panel of experts will discuss Penn's past, present, and future. 

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September 3, 2026, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
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Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, sixth floor; and Main Lobby, Van Pelt Dietrich Library Center
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Open to the Public

Hosted by: Kislak Center

Women study at desks in a black-and-white photograph

In 1876, the first women students enrolled in courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Before 1876, women students sought their education at other schools, colleges, and universities, and women faculty were relegated to Penn's charity school, where they taught only young children. In the earliest years of women's enrollment in higher education, the expectations placed on women students and faculty required their continual efforts to secure the right to an education and call for gender justice. 

Join us and celebrate the exhibit opening of To Secure These Rights: 150 Years of Women at Penn, an exhibit that traces the 150 years of women students at Penn. To mark this anniversary, a panel of experts in gender studies and student life will reflect on the past, present, and future of gender and higher education. 

Featured Speakers

  • Elisa Foster, Director, Penn Women’s Center
  • Jessa Lingel, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication & Director, The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, & The Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies
  • Kathy Lee Peiss, Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History

Featured image: Students studying, ca. 1945 (University Archives).

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