In just fifty years, GWSS professors went from no programs, no course materials, no full-time professors, to more than can be contained in university walls, including paywalls.
Women’s studies has always maintained that women’s words matters. As the early GWSS professors did their PhDs in history or literature, they kept asking: Where are the women authors? Or women protagonists? Sadly, we still have to ask this question—but it’s become more sophisticated, and we ask where are the marginalized communities which includes women but it’s much more complicated than gender: Where are the women of color? Especially trans women of color? Where are the two spirit Indigenous folks? Where are the disabled queers?
GWSS still asks the “where are … ?” question—and now, fifty years later, we have many more answers, including those who have survived sexual assault and previously lived as “Jane Doe.” One of the authorsMelinda Chen.