page_title: Wuaneita Society
section_title: Growth and dissolution
hierarchical_section_title: Wuaneita Society / Growth and dissolution
caption_attribution_description: English: Three women sitting in the Wuaneita Room, a wood-panelled women-only study hall, at the University of Alberta in 1935. Photo taken for the Gateway Photograveure section.
context_page_description: The Wuaneita Society was a women's group at the University of Alberta from 1908 to 1973. For many decades, it functioned as a support system for the relatively few female students on campus. The group organized lectures, social events, and fundraisers, and eventually operated its own women-only study hall in the old Students' Union Building. The group's core traditions and identity were heavily appropriated from stereotypes of Cree culture, at a time in Canadian history when Indigenous communities were criminalized for practising their culture.
context_section_description: Later, in the 1950s and 60s, the students operated Wuaneita Hall in the old Students' Union Building as a women-only space for studying and socializing.
  Throughout the 60s and 70s, as the university's female population grew, the club's thousands of members clashed over the group's purpose: some wanted to continue focusing on etiquette and domesticity while others were keen to address progressive issues like birth control and drug use. The Club wound down in 1973.
caption: Three women sitting in the Wuaneita Room, a wood-panelled women-only study hall, at the University of Alberta in 1935
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