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The women's studies program is committed to exploring issues for and about women, and about gender more broadly, including the social constructions of masculinity and femininity, sexuality, and the issues of power related to these.

Promoting Women's Equality at Union

After Union went co-ed in 1970, several efforts were undertaken to improve women's status on the campus. The President's Commission on the Status of Women at Union College, whose charter became effective on February 14,1975, was an attempt on the part of the administration to solve this problem. A group that included faculty, students and staff, this commission addressed various subjects like child care, education, awareness and prevention of sexual harassment, and the status and fair treatment of the women in the Union College Community. Special Collections holds minutes, memos, by-laws and other information from the Commission's lifetime.

One important outcome of the President's Commission on the Status of Women was an Affirmative Action program. In the school year 1978-79, of the 179 teaching faculty, there were 150 men and 29 women. The Commission looked at these numbers and decided that although the College had already agreed to adhere to the 1964 equal opportunity in employment law, Union needed a strong commitment to an Affirmative Action program in order to bring more women to the campus. The subcommittee on Affirmative Action was subsequently formed in 1979. By 1981, the college had hired an Affirmative Action officer, and a plan was in place. It has since been revised more than once. In 1994, a Sexual Harassment Policy for employees and students of the College was put into action. There is still an Affirmative Action office in the Campus Center today, almost twenty years later.

Concern for women's equality was reflected in the curriculum with the creation of the Women's Studies program. Union College first offered the major in Women's Studies in the fall of 1989, nineteen years after its gates were opened to women. Colleges all over the country began to institute Women's Studies in the1970's, when the academic discipline had started to gain credibility. Those who tried to establish departments in the discipline met with much opposition on many campuses. Special Collections has many records of the tortuous path towards establishing Women's Studies at Union College.

By Ellen Fladger and Sarah Henry
History 100: Union College History
Spring Term, 2001