25 Years of Struggle and Achievement Remembered

The Office of Women Studies, 1975-1980

section written by Jan Brittan and Virginia Reynolds
Jan Brittan is a former Graduate Associate with the Office of Women's Studies. Virginia Reynolds is the a bibliographic assistant for the OSU Women's Studies Library.

Pam Unger, Acting Director, 1975-1976

The Office of Women's Studies (OWS) took up its challenge in February 1975 in a one-room headquarters with insufficient chairs for the gathering staff to sit simultaneously for staff meetings. Such was our enthusiasm, however, that we regarded it as a routine virtue to schedule out-of-office appointments so that all could be productive without sitting on one another's laps.

This founding staff consisted of:

• three full-time professionals
  • the director
  • a funding/grant specialist
  • a curriculum coordinator
• two graduate students
  • a research associate
  • an administrative/curriculum associate
• a secretary (later administrative assistant)
• two undergraduate assistants

The Ad Hoc Committee metamorphosed into the Interim Governing Board. Out of their divergent viewpoints this determinedly egalitarian group forged a credible academic and political foundation for women's studies at OSU in its first exhilarating, yet frustrating, years.

The mission of the OWS specified curriculum (course development and an eventual major), research (fostering and performing studies beneficial to women), and service (to women in the non-university community and to feminism at large) as indispensable components. To these ends we undertook the painstaking process of building relationships with department chairs and seeking joint faculty appointments.

We established monthly research colloquia where academics met and critiqued research across disciplinary boundaries. Like the Ad Hoc Committee, we had agonizing discussions about our constituency and our responsibilities to the feminist movement. Always concerned with the future of women's studies, we also taught ourselves to calculate budgets and write grants.

The first two courses offered by OWS were "Introduction to Women's Studies" and "Organizational Development in the Women's Movement." A number of cross-listed women's studies courses were taught by dedicated faculty associates in departments such as Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Black Studies, Education, English, Health Education, Hebrew, History, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration, and Sociology.

Groundwork was laid that year for Women's Studies courses to achieve Basic Education Requirement status, for the establishment of a center, and for an undergraduate degree program. Academics became less wary of concepts such as "interdisciplinary" and "feminists," although "patriarchy" was probably uttered only in OWS courses. Consciousness-raising, an integral part of teaching students, was debated hotly.

In April 1975 the Office published the first issue of The Sojourner, a newsletter that offered academic, campus, community, and national information of interest to women, with Cher Paul as the first editor. At about the same time, the Office moved into larger headquarters in the Welding Engineering Building. The members of the Interim Governing Board and Office staff now numbered nineteen, and a Women's Studies Advisory Committee was formed to act as a sounding board for the Office in matters of policy and program development.

As Pam Unger's tenure drew to a close, once again the search committee and administration could not agree on an outside candidate for permanent director. Dr. Mary Irene Moffitt, an internal applicant who was a longtime supporter of Women's Studies and Assistant Director of the OSU Continuing Education Credit Program, was appointed Director in June 1976.

Mary Irene Moffitt, Director of the Office of Women's Studies, 1976-1980

During her tenure, Dr. Mary Irene Moffitt focused on curriculum development. A research grants program, which sought to promote long-term programmatic research on women and women's issues, was developed and administered by the Office. Research colloquiums, workshops, and brown-bag lunch lectures on a wide range of subjects were presented by faculty, staff, personnel from Women's Services, and community activists.

In June 1977, the Office moved to Derby Hall, and in August the Women's Studies Library was established on the second floor of the main Library. The Sojourner forged ahead with Phyllis Watts LaFontaine as its editor. Under the leadership of Abby Kratz, Women's Studies Librarian, and Fran Blake, Information Writer, Women Are Human became a joint endeavor of the Office and the Library. It was transformed in 1979 into the Women's Studies Review. Martha Lawry, head of the Women's Studies Library, and Jan Brittan, Office of Women's Studies Graduate Administrative Associate, were its first editors. Women's Studies Librarian Adrienne Zahnizer followed as editor until 1988 when the Review merged with The Sojourner to form Feminisms.

In 1978, Women's Studies 201 was granted the status of a Basic Education Requirement (BER), a major step in establishing a permanent place for Women's Studies in the OSU curriculum. Sandra Coyner and Karen Blackwell, curriculum and research coordinators, aided in the expansion of interdisciplinary courses, and Barbara Rigney, an early organizer for women's studies, received a joint appointment in Women's Studies and Comparative Studies. In the fall of 1979 Leila Rupp joined the faculty, holding the first joint appointment made by Women's Studies with the Department of History.

May 30, 1980, marked a decade of activities and struggles directed toward the establishment of a Center for Women's Studies. It was a day of celebration as Karen Blackwell's 1978 proposal for a Center for Women's Studies became a reality. With a home in the College of Humanities, the Center recalled its achievements and presented commemorative T-shirts, designed by Anne Berry, to members of the 1972-1975 Ad Hoc Committee and to the Center staff. The first shirt was given to Linda Green, a founding member of Columbus-OSU Women's Liberation, a group that had issued a demand for women's studies in 1970.

Women's Studies was set to embark on a new era under the leadership of Dr. Marlene Longenecker, who assumed the Center Directorship in September of 1980. That same year the Center welcomed Sheila Inderlied Davis as a joint appointment in Women's Studies and Management Science.

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