All of the information on this site was graciously supplied by Nancy McIntire, the Williams Women's and Gender Studies Department, and documents from the Feminist Alliance archives.
In 1969, the faculty/trustee Committee on Coordinate Education and Related
Questions proposed, and the Faculty approved by vote, the recommendation
that Williams become coeducational. The 1969 decision followed several
years of discussion and review of the financial implications of expanding
the student body; the related question was, "Should additional students be
male or female?"
The College had begun an exchange program with other single-sex institutions, first with Vassar in spring of 1969, then with eleven other colleges in 1969-70. In 1970-71, the first year in which women at Williams were eligible for a degree, 95 exchange and transfer women joined a student body of approximately 1,200 men; seven women graduated in the Class of 1971. In that first year, the fully-coeducational Class of 1975 was admitted.
The number of women on the faculty and administration was very small: in the fall of 1970, only seven women held full-time faculty positions, only some of the seven were tenure-track. One woman administrator was appointed to be an Assistant Dean of the College and a member of the Admission Committee. Many women worked for the College in support staff positions, including women custodians who were called "matrons."
By 1974-75 the faculty/student/staff Committee to Review College Expansion
(i.e., coeducation)recommended that the College admit a larger proportion
of women, to the student body and to the faculty. Over time, the ratio of
women to men in the student body has increased to fifty-fifty.
Approximately 36% of the tenure-track faculty are women in 1999-2000.
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The history of Women's Studies at Williams began in 1970 when, with only six women as full-time faculty, Williams became a
coeducational institution. At first, the College's interest in gender issues focused primarily on coeducation. However, Professor
Frederick Rudolph's course The American Woman, taught in 1971, was an early academic effort to integrate women's experiences and contributions
into the curriculum.
Students initiated the course Contemporary Feminist Thought in 1979, demonstrating a serious interest in Women's Studies as an academic field. The following Fall, Committee W, the Dean of Faculty, and the Mellon Fund brought fifteenprominent scholars from other institutions to participate in "The Williams Conference on Womens Studies." The conference generated a questionnaire collecting information and proposals for Women's Studies courses which were then presented to the faculty at a special meeting in May of 1980.
By 1981, Williams offered twenty-one Women's Studies (and related interest) courses, and the first Williams degree was granted for a contract major in Women's Studies. The Women's Studies Advisory Committee was formed in 1982 by Professors Ilona Bell, Lynda Bundtzen, Suzanne Graver, Meredith Hoppin, Anne Margolis, Rosemary Tong, Patricia Tracy, Patricia Yeager, and Dean Nancy McIntire. The Advisory Committee proposed a program for a concentration in Women's Studies which was accepted by the faculty in the spring of 1983.
Since then, the Women's Studies program has grown from a relatively small number of concentrators and courses to a substantial community of students and faculty as well as a rich curriculum of elective courses in many disciplines. Professor Jana Sawicki was hired in 1992 as the first joint appointment in Women's Studies. She assumed chair of the program, a position which she currently holds. With funding from the President's office, the Women's Studies program sponsored a regional conference, "The Future of Women's Studies," in Spring, 1993. At this conference, feminist scholars from regional colleges and universities came together to discuss effective strategies for maintaining strong programs in Women's and Gender Studies.
In the Spring of 1998, the Faculty unanimously supported a proposal from the Women's Studies Advisory Committee to change the
name of the Women's Studies Interdepartmental Program to "Women's and Gender Studies Interdepartmental Program." This change
of name reflects curricular changes in the Program over the past decade. The Women's and Gender Studies curriculum has expanded
to include not only women's contributions and concerns, but also a broader analysis of how gender is constructed and how
assumptions about gneder influence the construction of disciplines, social and political institutions, the family, definitions of culture,
accounts of human nature, and traditional canon formation.
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As more women arrived at Williams, politically active women's groups emerged. The first women's group, Committee W, was established in 1971 and included women faculty, staff, and students. Committee W was a subcommittee of the American Association of University Professors and was instrumental in establishing lasting reforms that improved the lives of women on campus.
By 1973, students had formed Williams Women and soon after established a Women's Center. The Center was first located in Park Hall (which is now a private residence), then in Mears House, and then moved to its current location in Hardy House.
In 1977, the Wiliams Women changed their name to the Feminist Alliance. This first incarnation was a decidedly political one, with early newsletters calling for members to write letters and march in protest, as well as attend campus lectures and performances. The scope of the organization was national and international, defying much of the conventional wisdom about Williams students and their confinement to the "Purple Bubble." One publicized action was the picketing of Images Theater for showing "National Lampoon's Frat House," which the Feminist Alliance believed was pornographic and degrading to women (The Williams Record, April 22, 1980, pg. 1).
The Feminist Alliance did not always enjoy such a strong following. In recent years, its membership has fluctuated wildly, due to changing interest in the topic, and has even disappeared altogether at times. However, the Feminist Alliance is currently bolstered by a core group of supportive, enthusiastic members. It also gathers strength from collaborating with other groups, including the Rape and Sexual Assault Network Hotline and Williams Against Sexual Harassment, a now-defunct organization.
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