The Development of Women and Gender Studies Curriculum at Towson University: 1971-76

The 1970s was a significant period of women's history because of the rapid increase in women's movements sparked by the second wave of feminism. Women and Gender Studies curriculum at Towson University can be credited to the women faculty of Towson in 1971, who began the movement at Towson State

College to include women in the college's programs and courses. Out of this push for inclusion the first women studies course, Biographical Studies in History: American Women, was formed. This course was to be taught in the fall of 1971 by history professor Fred Rivers.

The Fall 1972 semester brought on three more new courses, Topics in American Literature: The Southern Woman of Letters since World War One, taught by George Friedman, The Idea of Woman in Philosophy taught by Jo-Anne Fuchs, and The Image of Woman in American

Literature taught by Elaine Hedges. The 1973 minimester, the semester taught over winter break, introduced Women in the Literature of the English Renaissance taught by Annette Flower,

and The Ideological Origins of Radical Feminism in the US taught by Fred Rivers in spring of 1973. The Sportswoman in American Society was first taught by Darlene Kelly in the fall semester of 1973.

Women's Studies was first created as a concentration under the General Studies major. This semester also launched three new courses, The Image of Women in Art, taught by Eric Miller, Women in Foreign Literature in

Translation, taught by Madeleine McDermott, and the first interdisciplinary Women's Studies course, Women in Perspective, taught by Elaine Hedges and Judy Markowitz. Women in Perspective became a foundational course for the Women's

Studies program and remains part of the required courses for the Women and Gender Studies major and minor at Towson University. In the spring of 1974, Sarah Coulter, Annette Flower, Elaine Hedges, and Jacqueline Wilcotz taught Topics in Women's Studies:

Women Writers. Elaine Hedges, Eric Miller, and David F. Guillaume taught Women in Art and Literature, and Jo-Anne Fuchs taught Philosophical Systems: Simone de Beauvoir. Fall of 1974 established the courses Topics in Women's

Studies: Women in Drama taught by Sarah Coulter, Historical Themes: Afro-American Women in History taught by Perra Bell, Concepts of Women and Historical Approaches taught by Jo-Anne Fuchs, and Psychology of Women taught by Joan

Rabin. The spring of 1975 brought about the new courses Historical Themes: The Place of Women in a European History taught by Jenny Jochens, Women in Foreign Literature in Translation,

and European Fiction by Women taught by Jane Sheets, and Philosophical Systems, 20th-Century Women Philosophers taught by Jo-Anne Fuchs. The fall semester of 1975 saw the biggest boom in new women's studies courses. This semester introduced Sex Roles in Cross-Cultural Perspective taught by

Frances Rothstein, Gender Identity and Education taught by Helen Lindsay and Elaine Solez, Topics in Women's Studies: Female Characters - Folklore and Fiction taught by Elizabeth Hatcher. Women in Foreign Literature in Translation:

European Women Poets, Mainly 20th Century, taught by Jane Sheets, Biographical Studies in History: British and American women, taught by Fred Rivers, and Special Topics in Political Science:

Women in the Law taught by Paige Marvel. The following minimester of 1976 saw the first Up the Down Stereotype: Dialogues With and About Women in Art course taught by Carmen Robb. Four new women's studies courses were offered in the spring semester of 1976.

The upper level interdisciplinary course, Women in Society taught by Jenny Jochens, Francis Rothstein and Joan Rabin, Practicum in Women's Studies taught by Elaine Solez, Topics in Women's Studies:

Women Poets of England and America, taught by Elaine Hedges, and Women Writers in Translation: Fiction, taught by Jane Sheets. In 1976, the Women's Studies minor was first offered at Towson.

From the fall of 1971 to the spring of 1976, thirty new Women's Studies courses were introduced at Towson University across many disciplines. Through the hard work of a group of Tausen faculty,

this development of courses became the foundation for Women and Gender Studies Department at Towson University. The work of Towson faculty in the '70s pioneered Women's Studies program development.

In the 1980s, the Women and Gender Studies Program was awarded two grants by the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education for curriculum transformation. Through these grants, the Towson University Women's Studies

Program contributed heavily to the development of Women's Studies curriculum at community colleges across the Baltimore-Washington area.