The Department of Women's Studies grew out of the Institute of Women's Studies, which was established in 1994. Its primary aims were to make the diversity of women's experiences, ideas and values in all areas of human inquiry and to create structures, theories, and methodologies that make such visibility possible. The specifc approach in the program was: to help rectify the omission of women from the traditional curriculum; to approach the contributions and conditions of women from a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary perspective which is exciting in a world of specialization; to encourage students to look critically at androcentric scholarship and its assumptions about institutions, ideologies, human nature, sexuality, and language; and to emphasize the necessity of women's self-perception and self-definition.
In 1999 Sue Hendler became Director of the Institute of Women’s Studies and then in 2003 it’s first Head. Sue recognized that it was important for Women’s Studies to become a department within the Faculty of Arts and Science. She oversaw the growth of the Department in terms of courses and concentrators into a Major degree program. Under Hendler’s leadership, the LGBT(later Sexual and Gender Diversity (SXGD)) Certificate was created; she wrote the first draft proposal for a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies; and she navigated through the departments first Internal Academic Review. The Department of Women’s Studies added an M.A. program in Gender Studies in September 2009.
