University of California, Berkeley Launches Archive on the Women’s Studies Movement

The women’s studies program at the University of California, Berkeley was established in 1976. Now, the Bancroft Library at the university has launched the Berkeley Women’s Studies Movement Archive. The archive chronicles the history of the women’s studies program at the university.

The archive includes the original papers outlining the proposal to create a women’s studies program. Also included are syllabi from the original courses on women’s studies, correspondence relating to the program, and feminist pamphlets and literature. Nine women who participated in the establishment of the program have donated their personal papers to the archives.

Kathryn Neal, associate university archivist, told the Daily Californian, that “researchers of history, literature, and gender and women’s studies, especially, can use this material to study the contributions of these women to the campus landscape and set them within the context of the broader women’s rights movement that was taking place in the U.S. at that time.”