Women's studies celebrates 25 years

Women's studies chair Margery Wolf meets with faculty members in her office.

In 1974, there were no women in the United States Senate, no women on the Supreme Court, no women in the Cabinet, no women in such elected positions as governor or mayor of any large city in the United States, no women heading any major corporations in the United States.

The first female president of The University of Iowa would not be appointed for another 21 years, and female faculty members were few and far between. But a group of those women-most of whom had not yet earned the security of a tenured position-decided it was time for change and began working to make it happen.

They were convinced that students should be presented with a greater depth of information about a segment of the population that the academic world-and society as a whole-had long ignored. Their "radical" plan was to include the work of women in a college curriculum.

"It is difficult to understand in the 1990s how beleaguered and strange the idea of women's studies was in the early- to mid-1970s," says Florence Boos, a professor of English who was among the first women on campus to support the idea.

Sarah Hanley, who earned her Ph.D. in history at the UI in 1975 and then joined the faculty, says students in her department rarely heard about female historical figures unless they happened to elect one of only two courses about women's history-one on European history, the other on American history.

For years academics had accepted this as the way of things, but the political climate of the late 1960s and 1970s, coupled with greater numbers of young women determined to pursue academic careers, created a charged atmosphere in which change seemed not only necessary but finally possible.

Those who chose to build this area of study had to do so in their "spare time." They also had to defend their idea against skeptics who believed women's studies was a fad that would die within a few semesters.

Fifty semesters later, the Women's Studies Program at Iowa boasts a national reputation for scholarship, consistently increasing enrollments, and one of the first U.S. doctoral programs in the field.

As the program began to take shape at Iowa, it was interdisciplinary by sheer necessity-there were no faculty members appointed in women's studies until 1978, and from that point until the 1990s, all its faculty members held joint appointments with other departments. Hanley, who became program chair in 1976, says that focusing on courses and scholarship within the disciplines was crucial to the program's long-term success.

"As courses began to be taught, new scholarly questions came to people's minds and people worked on them," Hanley says. "A body of scholarship in women's studies began to take shape, giving us a solid base from which to expand into more specialized courses," she says.

"In the '70s and early '80s, our colleagues in various departments would approach those of us who were teaching women's studies and ask us for bibliographies," Hanley says. "By the mid- to late-'80s they were following the work themselves because it became embarrassing for them not to know on their own."

A prestigious grant award from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1987 solidified the program's academic reputation. In the midst of the 1980s farm crisis, the foundation awarded the program $250,000 to encourage studies of rural women in the context of feminist issues.

"It was the first time Iowa had gotten one of these awards, and it gave our program some status within the University," says Margery Wolf, the program's current chair and author of the grant proposal.

The grant was renewed in 1989, and the project was completed with a major national conference in 1992. In the meantime, Wolf says, enrollments in women's studies courses surged.

Today there are seven faculty members in the program, five of whom have been hired since 1990. Wolf is the program's only full professor and Jael Silliman, an assistant professor, holds the only full-time appointment in women's studies. The other six hold joint appointments with other departments. In addition, about 60 faculty members from across the University are affiliated with the program and regularly cross-list their courses with women's studies.

Student's interest in the program has grown exponentially. When Wolf taught Introduction to Women's Studies in 1985, 18 women enrolled. Now the course enrolls up to 100 students each semester, a figure that Wolf says would certainly be higher if enrollment were not capped. She hates to turn students away, but there aren't enough graduate assistants to accommodate more students.

In addition to the introductory course, the program now offers 10 other core courses and 45 cross-listed courses. But perhaps the surest sign of women's studies' success and permanence in the academy is the beginning this fall of a Ph.D. program.

Until this year, the Women's Studies Program did not offer its own degrees. Students who wished to pursue a degree in the field had to construct their own plans of study through an interdisciplinary undergraduate or graduate degree program, or they could choose to minor in the field.

The program's Ph.D. candidates will study feminist history, theory, pedagogy, and practice through women's studies and will also select an area of concentration in one of the traditional disciplines. They will be required to take a minimum of 18 semester hours in their chosen discipline and work closely with a faculty member from that discipline on relevant research projects.

Women's studies faculty members cannot be emphatic enough in their descriptions of the value of their courses for students.

"By the end of the class, they have a better understanding of who they are and how they struggle with issues in society," Silliman says. "They are able to articulate assumptions they have made and how that has affected them."

Anne Donadey, assistant professor of women's studies and comparative literature, says students who take women's studies courses come away with the confidence to challenge the status quo and the ability to articulate their thoughts on the treatment of women and minorities in society.

"We provide tools for critical analysis, not just for theories and books, but for taking a critical look at society as a whole," she says.

Despite the positive feedback they hear from many students, UI women's studies faculty members face a constant struggle against an image they say is outdated but so pervasive it keeps some students from registering for their courses.

"Many students think 'feminist' is a bad word, and they don't want to be associated with it," Silliman says.

Donadey says she cringes each semester when she hears the inevitable "I'm not a feminist, but..." followed by a statement that clearly demonstrates the student's personal interest in women's issues. "That shows the power of backlash because feminism has been defined for the general public by anti-feminists," Donadey says.

Even though they may not face the same types of overt discrimination that the feminists of the 1970s battled, Wolf says young women should know about new and sometimes more subtle challenges to women's equality.

"It's important for young women to recognize that their moms and grandmothers didn't do a job that stays done," Wolf says. "Everything we won is and always will be at risk."

Florence Babb, associate professor of women's studies and anthropology, says her unease is tempered by the efforts she has seen women making to renew the field and build strength to carry it through the next quarter century.

"I am encouraged by this third generation of feminism-the younger generation who want to embrace feminism and make it their own," Babb says. "They're saying they don't have to be feminists in exactly the style of their mothers. We can hardly envision what things may look like in another 25 years."

by Mary Geraghty

25th Anniversary Lecture Series

The Women's Studies Program will celebrate its 25th anniversary from 4-6 pm on Sept. 17, in the Senate Chambers of the Old Capitol.

Sarah Hanley, professor of history, will lecture on "Fearless Girls, Wise Women, Beloved Sisters." A reception will follow. Members of the public are welcome.

A year-long lecture series will be part of the continuing 25th anniversary celebration of the Women's Studies Program. All lectures will be at 7:30 pm in Rm 204, Jefferson Building. The fall lectures include:

October 8 - Barrie Thorne: "Women's Studies and the Disciplines: Transformation? Cooptation? Common Ground?"

October 28 - Adrien Wing "Critical Race Feminism"

November 12 - Margery Wolf "Who Owns Feminism?"