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Who We Are

1960's to 1970's         1970's to 1980's         1980's to 1990's         2000 and Beyond  

Montclair State University

Changing Times, Making History

(Late 1960’s, Early 70’s)

 

~ Campus unionized in the early 1970’s

 

~ Campus strike about Cambodia

“It was a different climate and Montclair was part of that climate.” (LK)

 

~1972~ Connie Waller creates the Women’s Center on campus and starts push to create an academic program

“I would describe it as a focal point of activities that, particularly the women on campus regarded as necessary.”(JF)

 

~ Rhoda Unger started teaching

Psychology of Women

“I said I wanted to teach it and no one knew what it was. When they wanted to know who else wouldteach the course everyone raised their hands…it was in the air.”(RU)

 

~ November 1974~ Campus strike allowed women to talk to each other from other schools on campus, creating connections

 

~ Spring 1974~ Dr. Unger holds “Women: Scholar and Advocate” conference;

chance for contact with faculty interested in the study of women.

 

~ Campus imperative to innovate new avenues of academia

 

~ Movement of feminism caused many women to look at their individual fields and notice how women had been excluded from the cannon

 

~ Research was being done on women in personal studies and brought into the classroom

 

~ Childcare became an issue on campus

 

~ Should Women’s Center and Women’s Studies be one and the same?

 

~ Women got together and literally made women’s scholarship where there was none before. (AS)

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Women Making Noise

(Mid 70’s, Early 80’s)

 

~Curriculum work on the minor began

 

~ Teaching sessions with future WMST faculty

 

~ Minor began to evolve, it was the moment of Black Studies, Women’s Studies, there was an explosion all over the country. (LL)

 

~ Fought against sexist attitudes and labels from colleagues

 

~ Strong affirmative action presence on campus

 

~ Fought to have Women’s Studies respected as an academic discipline

 

~ Decision to split academics from consciousness-raising

 

~ Minor in Women’s Studies made available in Fall of 1976

 

~ Tenured faculty began getting on committees asking, “Where are the women? The Blacks? The Hispanic Women?” (AM) 

 

~ “On the Rag” feminist student publication appeared

 

~ Struggle persuading Department Chairs for faculty

 

~ Faculty and students participated in national protests in Washington D.C.

 

~ Student reception and involvement with program was enthusiastic

 

~ Faculty fought hard for promotion despite program strides, MSC still a part of crony system

 

~ Without its own faculty, the Women’s Studies program had a hard time developing courses in the Math and Sciences; hard to make WMST a complete program

 

~ Struggle to obtain adequate funding

 

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Making a Difference

(80’s and 90’s)

~ Student presence in the program grew, included a few male minors

 

~ Class material shifted to include more diversity and reach more students

 

~ Faculty sought out by students for such problems as sexual harassment on campus

 

~ WMST director: Reading everything and meeting people

 

~ Worked to make program truly interdisciplinary

 

~ Interest grew in developing major

 

~ Worked to change students’ ways of looking at the world

 

~ 1985 faculty development seminar in Women’s Studies funded by the VP for Academic Affairs

 

~ New Courses, New Directions:

~ Sexism in American Education

~ Women and Language

~ Women in American History

~ Sociology of Sex Roles

~ Women in Politics

~ Psychology of Women

~ Women in Contemporary Society

~ Introduction to Women’s Studies

 

~ Women’s Studies major approved in Spring 1999

 

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Moving Against the Tide of Conservatism

(2000 and Beyond)

 

~ Women’s Studies Major available in Fall 2000

 

~2000 Spring study group: Refining WMST core courses

 

~ By Spring 2001 the program had 15 majors and 26 minors

 

~ 5/2/02~ Curriculum Development Workshop

 

~ Julia Landweber, PhD, became the first joint Women’s Studies/History faculty member, 2003

 

~ 4/25/04~ March for Women’s Lives: Students and faculty traveled to Washington D.C. to attend historic march

 

~ Healthy relationship between the Women’s Center and Women’s Studies

 

~ “The courses in Women’s Studies are inclusive and always involve critical and analytical thinking; they have to because they are still teaching against the tide.” (AM)

 

~ New Courses available such as:

Anthropology of Women

Women in Art

Legal Rights of Women

Women Prose Writers

History of Feminist Thought

Women in Religion

 

~ 2005 September Curriculum retreat

 

~ 2000 and Beyond~

 

~ “Women’s Studies is recognized as a discipline, now we want lines.” (LL)

 

~ More involvement with the College of Math and Science

 

~ Attend to the issues of women who aren’t affluent

 

~Create an even bigger male presence in major and minor programs

 

~ Increase the conversation among faculty about their scholarship to better direct students to Women’s Studies experience

 

 

The Women's Studies Program thanks the following women who were instrumental in establishing the Women's Studies Program:

Key:

AF= Alice Freed, PhD

AM= Adele McCullum, PhD

AS= Amy Srebnick, PhD

JF= Joan Ficke, PhD

LK= Laura Kramer, PhD

LL= Linda Levine, PhD

RU= Rhoda Unger, PhD

The National Scene

Changing Times, Making History

(1960’s, Mid 1970’s)

 

~ 1963~ Betty Freidan wrote The Feminine Mystique

 

~ 1965~ Voting Rights Act was passed prohibiting any election practice that denies the right to vote on account of race

 

~ 1966~ NOW, the National Organization for Women was founded

 

~ 4/5/68~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated

 

~ 1/15/68~ Jeanette Rankin Brigade, a women’s anti-war demonstration was held: “Sisterhood is Powerful”

 

~ 9/7/68~ Women’s Liberation groups protested the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, N.J.;

the myth of “Feminist Bra-Burners” is born

 

~ 3/69~ 1st accredited Women’s Studies course appeared in spring at Cornell University

 

~ 6/28/69~ Stonewall Riots and the birth of the Gay Liberation Movement

 

~5/18/71~ LA NOW declared lesbianism to be a “legitimate concern of feminism”

 

~ 11/8/71~ Richard Nixon re-elected in a landslide against democratic candidate George McGovern

 

~ 1971~ Reed vs. Reed made it unconstitutional to have laws that prefer a husband over a wife in estate administration

 

~ 1972~ Ms. Magazine’s debut issue hit shelves

 

~ 6/23/72~ Title IX is passed, prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions

 

~ 1/22/73~ Roe vs. Wade decided, legalizing first trimester abortions in the U.S.

 

~ 8/15/73~ National Black Feminist Organization formed

 

~ 8/8/74~ Richard Nixon resigned

 

~ 1/10/75~ Vietnam War ended; 14 years and 56,559 American Soldiers dead

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Women Making Noise

(Mid-Late 1970’s, Early 1980’s)

 

~ 8/26/75~ 1st Take Back the Night march

 

~ 1975~ APA removed homosexuality from list of mental disorders

 

~ 1975~ Taylor vs. Louisiana declared the law that women have to apply for jury duty to be discriminatory

and ruled that jury pool selection must be random

 

~ 8/76~ 1st Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival held

 

~6/9/77~ Hyde Amendment passed, banning the use of federal money to obtain an abortion

 

~ 10/3/77~ Rosie Jiminez, 27, became the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment to die from an illegal abortion

 

~ 1977~ NSWA: National Women’s Studies Association founded;

sent out letter to all college presidents arguing the importance of Women’s Studies

 

~ 7/9/78~ tens of thousands marched on Washington in support of ERA

 

~ 10/14/79~ The National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights

 

~ 12/80~ Ronald Reagan elected president;

women voted differently than men for the 1st time since the ratification of the 19th  Amendment

 

~ 9/25/81~ Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court;

O’Connor became the first woman to hold the position

 

~ 1981~ Kirchberg V. Feenstra invalidates law that gives a husband the legal right

to control marital property without spousal consent

 

~2/25/82~ Wisconsin became the 1st state to prohibit discrimination of gays in government jobs

 

~ 6/30/82~ ERA fails to be ratified

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Making a Difference

(Early 1980’s, Mid 1990’s)

 

~ 2/28/83~ Supreme Court ruled on limiting Title IX’s reach

 

~ 12/1/83~ Wage discrimination case won; “Equal Pay for Equal Work”

 

~ 2/20/84~ Geraldine Ferraro became 1st woman VP on major party ticket

 

~ 1984~ Reagan administration enforced the “Global Gag Rule” which prohibited U.S. funding to any overseas health organization that even mentioned abortion

 

~ 1985~ 38 states made it illegal for a husband to rape his wife

 

~ 9/86~ March for Women’s Lives

 

~1986~ Meritor Savings vs. Vinson decision that sexual harassment and hostile work environment are acts of sex discrimination covered by Title VII

 

~ 1986~ NJ Project established at William Patterson University

 

~ 1/8/88~ Bush/Quayle ticket wins Presidential race. U.S. signs on for another 4 years of anti- woman legislation.

 

~ 1990~ Senate passed bill that requires the government to compile statistics on

hate crimes against gays and lesbians

 

~ 7/1/91~ Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court; sexual harassment suit followed

 

~ 11/3/92~ Clinton signed Family and Medical Leave Act

 

~ 1995~ Beijing Conference on Women

~ 1999 ~ NOW held 3-day Lesbian Rights Summit

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Moving Against the Tide of Conservatism

(2000 and Beyond)

~ 12/22/00~ Supreme Court gave presidency to George W. Bush

 

~ 1/22/01~ Bush’s 1st act as president was to reinstate Reagan’s Global Gag Rule

 

~ 3/29/01~ Administration closed White House Office for Women’s Initiative and Outreach

 

~ 8/9/01~ Bush limited funding for Stem Cell research

 

~ 2002~ TANF (welfare) reform came up for reauthorization and became a battle ground between “traditional family” conservatives and feminists and progressives who don’t see marriage as the answer for the problems of poverty

 

~ 3/13/03~ Senate passed the “Partial-Birth” Abortion Ban without the clause for the mother’s health; 1st bill to criminalize an abortion procedure since Roe vs. Wade in 1973

 

~ 2004~ Administration removed important, truthful information from government websites on women’s health.

 

~ 5/6/04~ Pressure from administration forced the FDA to reject the sale of over-the-counter Emergency Contraceptives  

~ Decision still being upheld

 

~ 3/25/04~ “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” passed; gave legal status to fetus but failed to acknowledge violence and the mother

 

~ 3/18/05~ Administration provided ways for schools to get around their Title IV obligations by “proving” girls have less interest in sports than boys

 

~ 2005~ 10th Anniversary of Beijing~  Administration tries to push anti-choice views onto platform

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The Women's Studies Program thanks our research assistant, Melissa Crecca, for her commitment and work in creating the timeline. We also thank Alicia Remolde, Women's Studies Program Assistant, for overseeing this exciting historical project. Funding for this project was provided by a MSU Student Faculty Undergraduate Research grant .