Women's Housing

Two new female-only residential communities opened this fall, marking an increase in student housing options for women at Duke.

The Women’s Housing Option, or WHO, community, located in Few quadrangle above the Women’s Center, is open to all rising sophomore, junior, and senior women. And on Central Campus, the Panhellenic Association has made housing available for sorority members in two apartment buildings.

The idea for WHO was developed by students in a public-policy course titled “Women as Leaders.” Students living in the dorm will work closely with the campus Women’s Center on programming and have access to meeting space at the center. The group has space for forty-six beds in both single and double rooms, and while the housing arrangement is gender-specific, WHO programming will be open to all students.

The sorority housing is a collaborative effort among the nine member organizations of the Panhellenic Association, which represents more than 800 women on campus. Twenty-six juniors are living in two dedicated apartment buildings on Central Campus and have access to two common rooms that are being used for study space and small-group meetings.

The Baldwin Scholars program, founded in 2004 to foster women’s leadership at Duke, also maintains a female-only living space open to its members.