Four decades of feminist scholarship at U of T

When Women & Gender Studies started at U of'T in 1971, there was no way to predict how it would be received: women's studies was not considered to be a field of study, and the 'great ferment' of the 60's had created a new playing field where the rules had yet to be written. Even the first two courses offered were noticeably distinct in their approach. Whereas Jill Ker Conway and Natalie Zemon Davis created the course called The History of Women (HIS384H) on the foundations of a traditional course structure, it was a teaching collective composed mainly of students that emerged from the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the Faculty of Arts and Science that created Women in the 20th Century (FSW200). Importantly though, their aims were quite similar. From these beginnings it would still be another 12 years before the first full-time faculty appointment was made in 1983, and so the program sustained itself by borrowing faculty from around the university.The home and structure of Women's Studies had to change over the years as well. Having started in Interdisciplinary Studies, the program then moved to Innis College before finding a permanent home at New College. Once Women's Studies became institutionally formalized, it began to grow at a pace to keep up with interest and demand.