Anna Howard Shaw Center
The Anna Howard Shaw Center opens at Boston University to promote structures and practices that empower women and to honor diversity. Named after the Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw (STH 1878), a Methodist minister, medical doctor, and suffragist, the center is designated as the women’s center for the Northeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church ten years after its founding. Ecumenical, the center’s primary activities are in research, education, support, and advocacy.
“When Margaret Wiborg was hired as director of the Shaw Center in 1984, she fashioned her role as ‘identifying the needs and finding the people and the money to do something about it.’ One of the needs she identified was finding more role models for female students. ‘Many women told me they had never had the opportunity to hear other women preach,’ Wiborg says. That led to the creation of Women and the Word, the center’s national preaching event, held each spring. Bishops, teachers, artists, and theologians serve as the primary leadership as women get to hear other women preach.” — BU Bridge
