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Formation | 1977 |
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Type | 501(c) |
Purpose | Academic support |
Location | |
Region served | North America |
Membership | 2,350 [1] |
Key people |
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Website | www |
https://www.nwsa.org/page/People |
The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is an organization founded in 1977, made up of scholars and practitioners in the field of women's studies also known as women's and gender studies, feminist studies, and related names in the 21st century. [2]
Their mission is to further the development of women's studies throughout the world through open dialogue and communication. [3] Since its inception, NWSA has been the subject of controversy based on its failure to include marginalized women in the conversation. [4] [5] [6] The NWSA offer two types of memberships, individual and institutional, [7] both of which offer a variety of different benefits. In addition to hosting annual conferences, NWSA also provides access to constituency groups, and offers various awards, including NWSA Book Prizes, Women's Center Committee Awards, and Student Awards and Prizes. [8]
In 1973, women's studies pioneer Catharine R. Stimpson called for the founding of a national women's studies organization. [9] Discussions took place over the next three years in women’s studies spaces. In 1976, Sybil Weir from San Jose State University called an official meeting for people interested in creating plans for a national organization. [3]
Following a grant from the Ford Foundation, the first NWSA conference was held in January 1977 at the University of San Francisco, co-sponsored by San Jose State University and the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women. [10] Over 500 people attended the three-day convention. According to Barbara W. Gerber, who served on NWSA's Coordinating Council, NSA aimed to be inclusive of all women, with a subset of regional groups, and agreed upon a leadership group known as the Coordinating Council. [3]
NWSA was formed to further the social, political, and professional development of women's studies throughout the world. The organization centers open dialogue and communication among women for positive social change and was founded upon the women's liberation movement. It promotes freedom from sexism, racism, homophobia, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and from all suppressive ideologies and institutions. Its goals are to equip women to enter society and transform the world to one without systemic oppression. [11]
The WoCC encourages employment and student participation by women of color in women's studies, by offering positions of leadership at the organization. [13]
Women of color protested racism within the organization during its early years, as did immigrant women. Men also reported being treated as if they had no right to participate. [14] In 1979, after attending the conference, Nupur Chaudhuri wrote an article A Third World Woman's View of the Convention, outlining her negative experiences. [15] As a result, the NWSA created the Third World Caucus, later the Women of Color Caucus, and established a coordinating council of the group. Chaudhuri drafted guidelines for inclusiveness to eliminate sexism and racism in future conferences, which were implemented in 1980. [16] During NWSA's 1981 conference in Storrs, Connecticut, poet Audre Lorde gave the keynote address admonishing conference-goers that if "women in the academy truly want a dialogue about racism, it will require recognizing the needs and living contexts of other women." [4]
The 1981 conference was further criticized by Chela Sandoval for its classism, as travel fare and conference fees were difficult to afford. This coupled with the theme of racism caused attendance rates to suffer. The lack of inclusivity for women of color led to the Third World Women's Consciousness Raising group to discuss issues of racism and classism in NWSA. [17]
During the closing of the 1981 conference Barbara Smith, a member of the Combahee River Collective (CRC), asserted that for all the white women within NWSA tired of hearing about racism, there were just as many women of color who were sick of experiencing it. She criticizes NWSA for the disconnect between their goals and actions by stating their definition of feminism fails at being inclusive of all women. [5] Smith's work within the CRC argues not to separate race from class or sexual oppression because they are experienced simultaneously. [18]
Former NWSA president Beverly Guy-Sheftall noted, "I wanted NWSA to be an inclusive, multiracial, multicultural organization where women of color and their feminisms would not be marginalized." [6] Led by feminists like Guy-Sheftall, NWSA has worked to center intersectionality in its institutional practices and leadership structure with the support of a Ford Foundation grant. [19]
During the 1977 conference, lesbians spoke about their invisibility in NWSA. Lesbians during this time were combating internal and external homophobia along with their racist and classist issues. This birthed the Lesbian Women's Caucus which sought to address issues of homophobia from within the organization and the media. [20]
In 2015, the NWSA membership voted to "back the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel" along with other major academic organizations. [21] [22] In response to critiques of antisemitism following their support of member Jasbir K. Puar, NWSA responded by stating the organization holds firm in their conviction. [23]
NWSA offers individual annual memberships with cost bands based on employment, income, and student status. Individuals members can find colleagues in the member directory, present at the annual conference, receive reduced registration rates, apply for scholarships and conference grants, apply for NWSA awards and prizes, and participate in the discussion forums. Benefits of being an individual membership include being able to be a representation member and have the ability to discuss ideas. [24]
Institutions can list their program, department, or nonprofit organization in the public member directory, receive three complimentary student memberships annually, post employment listings related to women's studies, and participate in the discussion forum. [24]
The National Women’s Studies Association held its annual conference. The conference that was held in November year of 2013. The conference was called “ Negotiating Points of Encounter”. The conference focused on sub themes such as “the sacred and profane”, “border and margins”, “futures of the feminist past”, and “body politics”.
NWSA membership offers the ability to join several constituency groups, including: [25]
Caucuses
| Interest groups
| Task forces
|
NWSA publishes Feminist Formations , a journal that cultivates feminist conversations from around the world regarding research, theory, activism, teaching, and learning. The journal changed its name from NWSA Journal in 2010 to be inclusive of both NWSA conference papers and works from academic sources and individuals globally. [26]
Every year during the months of April–June, NWSA presents awards and prizes for books, students, and women's centers: [27]
Book prizes [28]
| Student prizes [29]
| Women's center awards [30]
|
Prior to 1983, the board of directors was styled as a coordinating council without a hierarchical structure. There was no defined leadership and the size of the council made conducting business difficult. [3] : 10–12 Council members included faculty, staff, and students elected from twelve regional divisions as well as special focus areas like, representatives of the Global South, lesbians, staff, and pre-K-12 teachers. [3] : 6 Members who served from 1977 to 1983 included:
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics and to administer national championships. During its existence, the AIAW and its predecessor, the Division for Girls' and Women's Sports (DGWS), recognized via these championships the teams and individuals who excelled at the highest level of women's collegiate competition.
Florence Rosenfeld Howe was an American author, publisher, literary scholar, and historian who is considered to have been a leader of the contemporary feminist movement.
Barbara T. Christian was an American author and professor of African-American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Among several books, and over 100 published articles, Christian was most well known for the 1980 study Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition.
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Barbara Anne Macdonald was an American social worker and lesbian feminist activist. She is best known for her activism against ageism.
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Lois Scharf is an American historian and writer specialized in women's history, family organization, and feminism. She served as the executive director of the National History Day program from 1978 to 1992. Scharf has taught at John Carroll University and Case Western Reserve University.
Barbara Hillyer or Hillyer-Davis was an American academic and feminist activist. She was the founding director of the Women's Studies courses at the University of Oklahoma. Her 1993 book, Feminism and Disability was the 1994 Emily Toth Award winner for the best feminist publication of the year and was also named as Outstanding Academic Book by the Association of College and Research Libraries's Choice Magazine. Her work explored the response of the disability and feminist rights movements to aging, chronic illness, disability, and mental health.
Nupur Chaudhuri is an Indian academic who has lived and worked in the United States since 1963. She was one of the early members of the Coordinating Council for Women in History and served as editor of its newsletter from 1975 to 1980; as executive secretary and treasurer from 1981 to 1987, and president from 1995 to 1998. Chaudhuri drafted the guidelines to increase diversity and inclusion and eliminate racism and sexism for the National Women's Studies Association in 1979. She was elected to membership in the teaching division of the American Historical Association in 1997. Since 2010, the Coordinating Council for Women in History annually awards a prize in her honor.
Shauna Adix was an American educator and college administrator. She taught at the University of Utah, where she founded the Women's Resource Center on campus in 1971, and served on the coordinating council of the National Women's Studies Association in its early years. She was also national president of Mortar Board, a collegiate honor society.
Maija Sibilla Blaubergs was a German-born Latvian educational psychologist, feminist scholar, and lawyer, raised in Canada. She taught at the University of Georgia, where she was the first coordinator of the school's women's studies program, and at the center of a national controversy over tenure decisions.
Marlene Blaney Longenecker was an American college professor and literary scholar. She was a member of the English department faculty at Ohio State University from 1972 to 2008, and director of the school's Center for Women's Studies. She was chair of the National Women's Studies Association from 1989 to 1991.
Rosemary Keefe was an American nun, university professor, and lesbian author. She was the co-editor of a best-selling book Lesbian Nuns Breaking Silence, which she wrote under her married name of Rosemary Curb. She pioneered the women's studies program at Rollins College in Florida and served as president of both the Orlando chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Southeast Women's Studies Association. She was also a board member of the National Women's Studies Association and chair of the organization's Lesbian Caucus.
Patricia Andrea Gozemba is an American academic and activist. She grew up in Massachusetts and was involved in the political movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Liberation Movement and protests against the Vietnam War.
Susan Cayleff is an American academic and emeritus professor at San Diego State University, having taught there from 1987 to 2020. She was one the inaugural members of the National Women's Studies Association Lesbian Caucus and served on the organization's Coordinating Council between 1977 and 1979. She founded the Women's History Seminar Series at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, Texas; the Graduate Women's Scholars of Southern California in 1989; and was a co-founder of the SafeZones program at San Diego State University.
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Elizabeth R. Baer is an American academic whose work specializes in women's and Holocaust studies. She was a member of the Coordinating Council of the National Women's Studies Association from its founding in 1977 through 1979. She was appointed as the Raymond and Florence Sponberg Chair of Ethics at Gustavus Adolphus College in 2000. In 2004 and again between 2016 and 2017, she was the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Holocaust studies for Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey. She has written numerous books and articles evaluating the impact of war and conflict on women's lives. She is currently a research professor for English and African studies at Gustavus Adolphus College and a senior researcher with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Myra Dinnerstein was the founding director of the women's studies program at the University of Arizona. After completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate at Columbia University, she began teaching at the University of Arizona. In 1975, she started the women's studies program as an academic minor, and grew it into a full department with accredited undergraduate and master's degrees. She successfully fought an attempt to remove the program launched by the Arizona State Legislature because lesbian history and achievements were included in the curriculum. She retired in 2003 and was honored in 2005 the Women's Plaza of Honor.