In the patriarchal halls of 1970s academe, women who spoke their minds risked their careers. Yet intrepid women -- students, faculty, administrators, members of the community -- persisted to create women's studies. The Politics of Women's Studies is an unprecedented volume that captures both the history of a watershed era and the drama of personal risks, triumphs, and losses, as thirty scholars and activists document their work to establish women's studies programs across the United States and Canada.

These essays chronicle the exhilaration of building a new kind of institution, of constructing a new curriculum and unearthing a new body of knowledge. The "founding mothers" grappled not only with issues of gender, but with those of class, race, and sexuality, in a decade infused with political unrest. They also give voice to the pain of successive defeats in the face of sexist attitudes and structures that refused to give way. Yet their stories remain both inspiring and instructive.

The first volume in the Women's Studies History series, The Politics of Women's Studies takes an important step towards preserving an essential history for those teaching and studying about women today.