The Beginning of Women's Studies
The first Women's Studies department was founded at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) in 1970. The second Women's Studies department was created at Cornell University the same year.
During the 1960s, the women's liberation movement had increased awareness that university education often lacked a woman's perspective. The first Women's Studies programs were created as scholars attempted to re-examine history, literature, anthropology, psychology, and other subjects, and to explore the missing perspective.
Formation of the Department
At San Diego State, the on-campus Women's Liberation group formed a committee with faculty and community members called the Ad Hoc Committee for Women's Studies. The group collected hundreds of petition signatures in support of a Women's Studies program. In 1970, five San Diego State faculty members from existing departments taught classes related to women's studies. In the fall of 1970, the first Women's Studies Department was officially approved.
San Diego State was also one of the first universities to begin a Chicano/a Studies department, examining Mexican-American culture. That program began in 1970 as well.
Lois Kessler was an important contributor to the founding of the first Women's Studies Department. A nurse and San Diego State professor, Kessler had degrees in nursing and education. She had served as a nurse in the Navy, but was honorably discharged when she began a family. After that career was cut short, she received her master's in health education from San Diego State and began teaching there. She was also active with San Diego's Planned Parenthood and taught one of the earliest human sexuality classes. Her career at San Diego State lasted more than 25 years.
There were some who opposed the creation of separate departments for Women's Studies. They felt it was more important to challenge the lack of women's perspective throughout the university curriculum. They worried that relegating Women's Studies to a separate department would not change any of the existing institutional flaws.
Expansion of Women's Studies
In 1974, San Diego State began a nationwide faculty recruitment to strengthen the Women's Studies Department. By the 1974-1975 school year, the once fledgling department had two full-time and four part-time faculty and an enrollment of nearly 400 students. The department has continued to grow, and in 1995 began offering a master's degree in addition to the bachelor's degree. The program also hosts a Women's Resource Center on campus.
Shortly after San Diego State began the first Women's Studies Department in 1970, Cornell University established its Women's Studies Department the same year. Cornell's program was renamed Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in 2002.
When San Diego State established the first Women's Studies Department, many other universities were offering some classes in women's studies. By the mid-1970s, there were at least eighty Women's Studies programs across the United States. The National Women's Studies Association was established in 1977 as a professional organization to support scholarship, professional development, networking, and publications of Women's Studies professionals.
Women's Studies Scholarship
Ann Calderwood began publishing the journal Feminist Studies in 1972. She had been working with students and feminist activists in New York for several years to bring together a network of feminists to start the scholarly journal.
There are now multiple scholarly publications that explore Women's Studies and more than 500 Women's Studies Departments around the world. Women's Studies programs continue to explore feminist theory, identity, history, cultural institutions, and the intersection of self and society. They also continue to be a hub for interdisciplinary studies.