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Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, 1972-2002: A Guide
M1654
M1654
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Table of contents
Title: Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records
Collection number: M1654
Repository:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection: English
Collection size:
17.0 Linear feet
(29 manuscript boxes, 2 flat boxes)
Dates: 1972-2002
Abstract: The collection contains materials related to the founding and history of the Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women,
a job resource center active on the San Francisco Peninsula between 1973-2002.
Creator:
Career Action Center.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women Records, M1654, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford
University, Stanford, Calif.
Collection is open for research.
The collection is arranged into five series:
Series I. History
Series II. Administrative Records
Series III. Financial Records and Fund Development
Series IV. Programs and Publications
Series V. Audio/Visual Materials
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection includes administrative records, financial records, photographs, scrapbooks, publications, program materials,
video and audio tapes related to the founding and history of the Career Action Center-Resource Center for Women, a job resource
center active on the San Francisco Peninsula between 1973 – 2002.
The Resource Center for Women (1973-2002, name changed to Career Action Center in 1988) was founded in 1972 by five women,
Eleanor Shelling, Mary Morley Perez, Peggy Kelly Larsen, Marylyn Morrell, and Martha Faust Hargadon, who met at a career planning
workshop called “the Next Step” sponsored by the Stanford Faculty Women’s Club. The nonprofit center began with a staff of
volunteers and the goal of providing guidance to a variety of women in transition, including well-educated women, women re-entering
the work force, women with children, widowed and divorced women, and women active in their communities as volunteers. It was
supported by individual and corporate donations, membership subscriptions, and grants. The center’s original mission statement
read: “The Center will serve women who wish to make informed choices about the direction of their lives. It will be an active
link between clients who want to use their talents more fully and the educational, volunteer, and salaried work opportunities
on the San Francisco Peninsula.” Its first newspaper ad read “WOMEN interested in professional part-time or short term work
send resumes to Resource Center for Women, 1176 Emerson, P.A;” and its first workshop, held at Foothill College January 1973,
was entitled “Focus on Choice: Women in Transition.” Over two thousand women contacted the center in its first year for employment
assistance, education programs, counseling, referrals, and use of the center library.
Bertha Bodek Kalson served as the center librarian from 1974 to 1989, starting with a shoe box of clippings and developing
a collection that became a model for local organizations. The collection included college catalogs, statistical surveys, career
guides, materials on women’s organizations, subject files and video tapes. By 2000 membership was down and the center was
struggling to survive as a low-cost career services provider. After exploring merger possibilities the center closed in 2002.
Its library was donated to the North Valley Job Training Consortium and a fund for career development was established through
the Women’s Foundation.
Career Action Center Directors
Eleanor R. Shelling, 1974-1979
Judith Ousterhout, Executive Director, 1979-1984
Gail Stypula, Executive Director, 1984-1988
Diane Pelosi Saign, Executive Director, 1990-1998
Sharon Bray, Chief Executive Officer, 1998-2000
Emily Mora, Chief Executive Officer, 2000-2001
Accession number: 2008-339. The Career Action Center Records were given to Stanford University for the Department of Special
Collections by Marylyn Morrell in March 2008.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Career Action Center.