1920 - 1930

In 1919, after a fifty-year battle by America's first generation of feminists, Congress approved a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote and sent it to the states for ratification. Yet even as they took a giant step toward equality on the national scene, women remained second-class citizens at the U-M. The only facilities for femals students were two dorms (Martha Cook and Helen Newberry) and a few sororities. Most women lived scattered around town with families or in rooming houses, "where they have no opportunity to come into contact with the more refining and more highly cultural influences," in the words of a League proponet.

So in 1919, the Women's League started seriously discussing building a place of their own. In 1921 they asked the Alumnae Council (of which Mary Henerson was secretary) to support the effort. The Council, in return, petitioned the Regents.

The Regents approved the concept and offered to provide the land, but required that all other costs be covered by donations. The goal was $1 million—$600,000 for construction, $150,000 for furnishing, and $250,000 for an endowment to support the building's operation.