Pamela Roby, Professor of Sociology Emerita and Affiliate of Women’s Studies/Feminist Studies Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz, June 6, 2025 1
In its entry on “the Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz,” Wikipedia reported that the “influential … department is significant for its numerous notable faculty, graduates, and students” (May 27, 2025). On June 6th, 2025, University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), current and former Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies students and faculty, among others, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Women’s Studies major.2 Because the UCSC Feminist Studies department will be “disestablished … effective July 1st, 2025,” this is a good time to revisit the founding of the Women’s Studies major.3
The Women’s Studies major was established in 1974.4 The first six students to graduate with a UCSC degree in Women’s Studies did so in June 1975. Before graduating, seven students co-taught “Introduction to Women’s Studies” as a student directed class under the sponsorship of their faculty advisors. Five years later, Bettina Aptheker, a UCSC doctoral student in the History of Consciousness, who had formerly taught African-American and Women’s Studies at San Jose State University, began to teach “Introduction to Feminism.”5 Bettina significantly contributed to the major, and later the major and the department by teaching “Introduction to Feminism” to thousands, chairing the department, and assuming major responsibility as a faculty member for building the department. Twenty-two years after the establishment of the major, Women’s Studies gained departmental status in 1996.6 In 2005, five years after the Women’s Studies major’s 25th anniversary, its faculty members renamed the Women’s Studies major and the Women’s Studies department as the Feminist Studies major and the Feminist Studies department.7 Over the past 50 years, every student, staff member, and faculty member affiliated with the major and/or department contributed to as well as benefitted from them.
Students Creating The Major
On April 12th, 2000, at the time of the 25th anniversary of UCSC’s Women’s Studies major, Jessica Lyons reported in the Santa Cruz Good Times on “Women’s Work” in relation to the creation of the major. She wrote, “After taking classes about women’s issues from different departments, [seven] pioneering UCSC students decided that women’s studies should have a home base – Kresge College – and be made an official major. In 1974, the seven women … fought for a women’s studies major…”8
As Lyons noted, students played major roles in the creation of UCSC’s Women’s Studies major. First, many took as many newly emerging courses related to women as they could between 1972 and 1974.
Second, in 1974, Grace Hammond, Kate Benn, Nancy Lemon, and other students obtained over 1,000 UCSC undergraduate student signatures on a petition seeking the creation of a Women’s Studies major. At the time, the campus had 5,000 undergraduate students. Thus, approximately one out of five undergraduate students signed the petition. In order to obtain this many signatures, the students who initiated the petition enlisted other students to do so. Every student who invited others to sign, and every student who signed the petition publicized students’ desire for the major.
Third, every student who developed an independent major with a focus on Women’s Studies, and every student who took a class related to it prior to the creation of the major, contributed to demonstrating a collective mandate for it.
Fourth, seven students – the late Carol Shack-Lappin, the late Cheryl Peake, the late Deanne Pernell, Grace Hammond, Kate Benn, Nancy Lemon9, and Zenobia Lori Grusky, PhD. (Zoe)10 - co-taught UCSC’s first “Introduction to Women’s Studies” class as Kresge College student directed seminars. Kate recalls that the seven students formed a collective that prepared and taught this first class. Their doing so was a three-quarter process. The group “divided up subject areas to study in ones and twos, regrouped weekly to teach each other and prepare lesson plans, and then in the final quarter presented the class.”11 About forty students took the class.12
Faculty Creating The Major
During the early to mid-1970s, while women students contributed much to the creation of the Women’s Studies major in these and other ways, women faculty also contributed to its creation. First, each and every faculty member who created and taught one or more departmental or college classes that counted toward independent majors focused on Women’s Studies helped demonstrate the viability of a possible and later a proposed “Women’s Studies” major. The late assistant professor of literature Madeline Hummel (Moore), the late assistant professor of sociology Norma Wikler, the late professor of anthropology Diane Lewis, the late professor of literature Priscilla Shaw, and I, Pamela Roby, an associate professor of sociology, were among those who did so.
Second, along with others outside of UCSC, assistant professor of community studies Nancy Stoller Shaw, assistant professor of anthropology Carolyn Shaw, Madeline Hummel (Moore), the late May Diaz, Diane Lewis, and I, among others did research, wrote, and published articles and books that were foundational for Women’s Studies classes and future research at UCSC and elsewhere.
Third, faculty members advised increasing numbers of students who wanted to major in Women’s Studies. They chaired their advisees’ “independent majors” focused on Women’s Studies, which were comprised of newly offered courses related to the study of women.
Fourth, those of us who were the independent major advisors of the students, who co-taught the “Introduction to Women’s Studies” class as student directed seminars, served as their seminar advisors as they did so and as faculty sponsors responsible for the class.
Fifth, faculty who were not officially teaching classes for Women’s Studies credit also contributed by welcoming student research and writing about topics related to women in their courses. For example, Nancy Lemon recalls writing a paper on “The Great Goddess.” A professor of a Religious Studies class was pleased to have learned from it.13
Sixth, in 1974, Madeline Hummel (Moore), Priscilla Shaw (Tilly), and I wrote a required proposal to the Academic Senate’s Committee on Budget and Planning (BAP) for the creation of a Women’s Studies major. After submitting the proposal, BAP invited Madeline, Tilly and myself to a BAP meeting to discuss it. At the meeting, we successfully argued for the major.14 BAP recommended it for approval.
In 1974, UCSC appointed May Diaz, who was a faculty member in UC-Berkeley’s department of anthropology, as a professor of anthropology and provost of Kresge College. She was the first woman to hold a UCSC provostship. In her capacity as provost and building on her experience of founding and serving as the first director of the University of California, Berkeley’s Women’s Center, May did much to support UCSC’s Women’s Studies. She provided an office for the major’s part-time administrative assistant Dale Strong.15 Although the major did not gain departmental status for twenty-two years, because of this office, students and faculty affiliated with the major felt that they had, and did in fact have, a home in Kresge. Additionally, with her good humor and ready smile, May encouraged everyone.
Students and Faculty Working Together
Without students’ enthusiastically taking our courses related to Women’s Studies and organizing a petition for the major, the three of us women faculty would not have written the proposal for the major, at least at that time. If these students hadn’t had the three of us faculty members who wrote and argued successfully for the major while meeting with the Academic Senate’s Committee on Budget and Academic Planning, the major would not have been created in 1974 or perhaps at all. Thus, the Women’s Studies major became a reality because of both women students and women faculty. We were all “founders” of Women’s Studies at UCSC.
We as women faculty not only devoted time and energy to participating in the creation of the major, but also benefitted from the collegiality offered by Women’s Studies students and faculty, doing research, writing, publishing, and teaching about women. The major, brought together faculty and students who validated and contributed to one another’s studies, research, and teaching.
Women’s Studies 25th Anniversary
At the time of Women’s Studies’ 25th Anniversary celebration in April 2000, Madeline Moore, May Diaz, Priscilla (Tilly) Shaw, and I all appreciated the Women’s Studies Department inviting the four of us to form a panel of Women’s Studies faculty founders, which was held in Kresge’s Town Hall. What a joy this panel was for the four of us! It was simply wonderful to be together again following Madeline’s, May’s, and Tilly’s retirements!
At the conclusion of the faculty panel then Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood and the then Women’s Studies department chair and professor Bettina Aptheker recognized Madeline Moore, May Diaz, Tilly Shaw, and myself by presenting us with certificates, which read:
We appreciated their acknowledgement of what we had done.
Fifty Years of Achievements
Looking back over 50 years, those of us who are still alive can see that the Women’s Studies major and department, which became the Feminist Studies major and department, have graduated thousands of undergraduate students. These alumnae/i have contributed greatly to their communities. Additionally, UCSC’s Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies majors and departments expanded to doctoral studies. Its graduate Ph.D. are now teaching in colleges and universities across the nation as well as taking major leadership roles in other arenas. Additionally, and surely not finally, UCSC’s Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies programs inspired other colleges and universities to create Women’s Studies or Feminist Studies majors and departments.
Footnotes
1 I thank University of California, Santa Cruz, alumnae Grace Hammond, Kate Benn, Nancy Lemon, and Zoe Grusky, who co-taught UCSC’s first “Introduction to Women’s Studies” class in 1975, for their contributions to earlier versions of this paper, and Nancy and Kate for their thoughtful reviews of it. Of the seven students who co-taught the class, I appreciate that all four who are still alive contributed to this paper. I also thank Marilou Moschetti of my Osher Lifelong Learning Institute special interest writing group for her thorough editing.
2 The event, “Through the Decades: 50 Years of Feminist Studies at UCSC” will be moderated by Bettina Aptheker and will include eight Women’s Studies and Feminist Studies alumnae speaking about ways in which they have applied what they learned from their major.
3 Hillary Ojeda, “UCSC Faculty Mourn Loss of Feminist Studies Department,” Lookout Santa Cruz, December 12, 2024, https://lookout.co/uc-santa-cruz-feminist-studies-faculty-mourn-loss-of-department/story ; “Feminist Studies Departmental Transition Statement,” UCSC News, November 24, 2024, https://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/news-events/deparment-news/dept-statement.html ; Public Affairs, “After 50 Successful Years, Feminist Studies Faculty Vote to Disestablish the Formal Department,” UCSC News, November 25, 2024, https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/11/feminist-studies/ ;
4 Hillary Ojeda, ibid.; Public Affairs, ibid;
5 Bettina Aptheker, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, May 27, 2025.
6 Ojeda, op cit.; Public Affairs, op cit.; Dan White, “Three University of California, Santa Cruz Professors Receive Mellon Foundation Affirming Multivocal Humanities Grants,” UCSC News, April 29, 2024, https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/04/mellon-multivocal -grantees-dw/
7 Ojeda, op cit.; Public Affairs, op cit.; Dan White, ibid.
8 https://www.goodtimes.sc/archives/cruz/04.12.00/women-0015.html
9 After completing her law degree at U.C. Berkeley, Nancy D. K. Lemon practiced domestic violence law. In its description, the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law notes that Herma Hill Kay Lecturer Nancy Lemon became “a leading authority on domestic violence for more than 35 years, pioneered its study in law schools, and is the author of Domestic Violence Law, the premiere textbook on the subject.” In 2024, West Academic, Eagan, MN, published the 1035-page sixth edition of Domestic Violence Law. The volume, which “fosters critical thinking by presenting opposing viewpoints and critiques of existing law, …explores the law of domestic violence in the United States through interdisciplinary articles, book excerpts, historical cases, studies, policy papers, and statutes.” https://faculty.westacademic.com/Detail?id=339225 The UCB School of Law adds that as a member of the California “Partnership to End Domestic Violence,” formerly the California Coalition Against Domestic Violence, since 1983, Nancy “has worked on numerous pieces of legislation in the California legislature. She has published dozens of books and articles. She wrote domestic violence curricula for judges and court employees, and a benchbook for California criminal court judges. She has trained hundreds of people on domestic violence dynamics and laws.” In 2012, Nancy “co-founded the Family Violence Appellate Project, a non-profit agency, and serves as its Legal Director. This is the only statewide agency in the US focusing on appealing family law cases involving domestic violence and child abuse. FVAP serves clients in both California and Washington state. Through co-counseling with hundreds of pro bono attorneys, FVAP appeals and defends custody and restraining order decisions and other cases involving domestic violence. It also petitions for publication of key appellate cases, trains attorneys, advocates, and judges, and produces the next generation of domestic violence attorneys through supervising law student interns and recent graduates.”
10 Dr. Grusky completed her Ph.D. at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco. Zoe’s therapy office is at 255 Jersey Street, San Francisco, CA 94114-3822. She specializes in therapy for adults with all kinds of issues, and co-authored with Steven Goldberg “The Dark Side of Analytic Conviction: Impasses of Omniscience and Complacency,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association, Vol. 52, No. 4, Fall 2004, 1095-125. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gove/156860871 .
11 Kate Benn email to Pamela Roby, May 28, 2025.
12 Student taught seminars were limited to 12 students. By seven students co-teaching their seminars, they were able to have a class of this number.
13 Nancy Lemon email to Pamela Roby, May 25, 2025.
14 We and other women faculty had gotten to know one another’s interests in Women’s Studies at monthly potlucks that women tenure-track faculty held in one another’s homes beginning in 1972. At that time, we tenure track women faculty were small enough in number to fit in one another’s living rooms. During the potlucks we celebrated one another’s successes and thought together about how to address challenges and/or work toward goals.
15 Nancy Lemon email to Pamela Roby, April 11, 2025.
