| This site describes the history of the YWCA of Portland, Oregon. For over 100 years,
the YWCA has offered a space for women to work out issues of identity, community, and
social purpose in a Christian context. The YWCA both contained and expressed a "world of
difference." Its members negotiated a context cross-cut by differences of age, class,
"race," and nativity at the same time as they sought to evangelize and later serve and
reform the world around them in the interest of women and girls. Our site offers facts, figures,
and images to tell this complex history but strives equally to raise questions,
inspire further study, and invite contributions from visitors. We count
users among those contributing to the multiple standpoints encompassed in
this site. This multiplicity of standpoints reflects the nature of the
creators' collaboration in building this site and the value we place
on the many voices, conflicts, and controversies that make up the historical record. |
