The Beginning: Early Stages as an Ad Hoc Committee 1970-1975

But when did the Ad Hoc Committee decide to organize a Women's Studies program? In 2004, the Department of Women’s Studies created an abridged digital History of Women’s Studies at Ohio State University that is now defunct and unavailable online. The digital archive states that in 1972 Dr. Barbera Rigney, the creator of one of the first Women's Studies-related courses at OSU titled "Women Writers," gathered other faculty members and graduate students who had taught courses related to the issues and experiences of women. The group met under the guise of the Division of Comparative Literature to not raise suspicion about any feminist organizing. While OSU had one of the first Women's Studies programs in the country, feminism on campuses across the States was seen as a threat and an offensive waste of time by many of the men in charge of the university institution. 

That said, this Division of Comparative Literature was actually the Ad Hoc Committee of self-selected and self-motivated feminists interested in creating a Center for Women's Studies. Along with Barbera Rigney, notable figures such as Dr. Leila Rupp, Dr. Mildred Munday, Dr. Verta Taylor, and Pamela Unger made up a group of various feminist scholars dedicated to creating equity for women in all aspects of society. The group also sought to make aware of the problems all individuals face as a result of living in a systematically oppressive patriarchal society.

The Ad Hoc Committee designed a prototypical course listing and major/minor curriculum, devised a plan for a Women's Library, and discussed strengthening Women's Services on campus. Furthermore, the Committee also emphasized plans for research and contribution to feminist scholarship with plans to publish a program-run newsletter.

Prior to the Ad Hoc Committee, there were about a dozen courses related to women. These were the courses the Ad Hoc Committee used to organize their proposed curriculum. Of these courses, there were various History courses on women in Europe and America, Women's literature, Sociology, and a Women's Sexuality course taught by the Psychology Department. Alongside this selection of courses was a course titled Black Studies 236: "The Black Woman: Her Role in the Liberation Struggle." 

This course specializing in black women's experiences and black feminism is noteworthy for various reasons. For one, it is monumental to see that even in its inception, the Women's Studies Program at OSU felt it essential to include black feminism. That said, the representation of women of color, queer women, and global south women was sparse and barely existent. The Program needed to do better. However, seeing that the original curriculum and course listing proposed by the Ad Hoc Committee included a course on black women is refreshing. The program is rooted in plenty of white and Western feminism, but there was space made for women of color. Looking at this listing, there is not enough diversity. However, there was hope for more diversity with an initial course roster intentionally including black women when it could have been rejected as much of mainstream feminism did (and still does).

This point emphasizes the other importance of this course listing: the Women's Studies program relied on the Black Studies Center. Both programs were fairly new and not completely established at OSU or other prestigious universities. However, just as the Civil Rights movement made clear collective struggles and shared missions for equity and justice, the two Programs worked together closely during Women's Studies' early years. As Dr. Susan Hartmann shared in my interview with her, the WS and Black Studies programs relied on and supported one another passionately. 

That said, this symbiotic relationship speaks to the inherently multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of Women's Studies at OSU. The program was just strengthening itself, so it relied on creating a reputation and establishing relationships with other departments and centers. There were no Women's Studies courses or any WS faculty for that matter. Every participant in the Ad Hoc Committee was either a student or a tenured/assistant faculty member a part of another department (such as English, Sociology, and History). 

After two years of meticulous planning, organizing, and political maneuvering, the Ad Hoc Committee proposed the Center for Women's Studies in 1974 to the Office of Academic Affairs and Council of Academic Affairs. Once the group became public to the rest of the university, word spread like wildfire.

Various Lantern articles were written in response to the proposal. Many students advocated for the Center for Women's Studies by sharing their support and desire for such a program in op-ed pieces. One such article, written by Marilyn Weldon, states that Women's Studies must exist to combat sexism in and outside the classroom. Another article compares the niche and importance of Black Studies to Women's Studies as a defense for the program's proposal being accepted. In yet another Lantern article, student writer, Candy Steinbach, argues that the multidisciplinarity of a Women's Studies program will empower and add depth to other programs that begin to use gender as a critical lens for analytics.

Even the Ad Hoc Committee took to the Lantern, detailing their mission and future goals for the whole university to see. Pamela Unger explained that her group's proposed multidisciplinary major will support a more diverse curriculum and become a leader in a budding field of research. Gaining Center status would grant Women's Studies the ability to develop standard major and minor programs, hire more faculty members, receive a larger budget from the university, and eventually develop a Masters's program.

Unger also refuted the common attack against Women's Studies potentially promoting separatism between the sexes. She states that all Women's Studies courses already exist in other departments, so if anything, these feminist courses will encourage interdisciplinarity. Further, she asserts that anyone is welcome by the Center, attempting to rebut assumptions that the Program will be inherently anti-male (many did not understand the difference between hating patriarchy and hating men).

So, how did the Provost of the Committee on Academic Affairs respond to the Ad Hoc Committee in light of their careful efforts? How did the strong student desire for a Women's Studies Program inform the university's decision? Did the myriad misconceptions about feminism harm early campus efforts to establish Women's Studies?

Well, in 1975 the Ad Hoc Committee's proposal was accepted. However, not as a Center for Women's Studies, but as a smaller and less functional Office of Women's Studies (OWS). However, keep reading to see how the Office's resilience contributed to establishing the OSU WGSS program as one of the most prestigious and established in the world.