professionalized health care delivery in the United States. Women were further excluded from medicine through the doctor-patient relationship, by which women were presented with minimal information or choices about the health care they received, and even their own bodies. Feminist health activists argued that the drape used by gynecologists during pelvic exams symbolized a veil of secrecy. Throughout their early years, feminist health centers struggled to uphold their ideals while simultaneously meeting the needs of their clients and their employees. Feminist scholars Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin argue, “Feminist organizations are an amalgam, a blend of institutionalized and social movement practices. […] A movement organization is not a contradiction in terms, but it is, by definition, in tension. It is always a compromise between the ideals by which it judges itself and the realities of its daily practices.” Many clinics realized that change was necessary for their continued operations – for example, many feminist health centers began as collectives. While many activists believed that collective decision-making promoted egalitarianism, most clinics found that reaching a consensus took too much time, especially as organizations grew to include more personnel and began to serve more clients. While most clinics found ways to resolve, or at least maintain, the tension between ideals and practice, some refused to compromise. The Women's Community Health Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts is an example of a clinic that maintained an unyielding commitment to its political values. The women who ran the center were unwilling to rely on outside funding, feeling that outside support could coopt their mission. Unfortunately, their refusal to seek external financial support led to a short shelf life for the clinic – the Women's Community Health Center was only open from 1974 until 1981, and was plagued by financial troubles and internal disputes throughout its existence. In addition to facing internal conflicts, many feminist health centers faced external opposition to their existence. The desire of feminist health activists to alter the delivery of health services alienated many physicians, who saw feminist health centers as offering both criticism and competition to their mainstream practices. Most feminist health centers did cooperate with the medical establishment somewhat, due in large part to state laws requiring physicians to be a part of clinic staff or to perform abortions. Although many feminist health centers initially sought female doctors to join their ranks, the exclusion of women from medical schools