Forty years ago was a very different time for the proverbial “women in the workplace,” even in a progressive state like Hawaiʻi. In 1984, Ruth Dawson was an associate professor in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa women’s studies program, when she happily learned that she was expecting. Dawson went to the dean’s office to apply for unpaid maternity leave.
Instead, she was fired.
Since women’s studies was a program and not an official UH Mānoa department, its faculty were not granted tenure, affecting life issues that are highly protected today.
“I was really disappointed that, after working at Mānoa for 10 years and applying for maternity leave without pay, I was terminated,” said Dawson. “The administrators I spoke with said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ implying I would be rehired later, but that wasn’t reassuring.”
Dawson and others in the women’s studies program were eventually granted eligibility for tenure. But, decades ago, certain mindsets were still commonplace in Hawaiʻi and the continent, and Dawson remembers “married women struggling to hold real estate property or to obtain a credit card in their own names.”
That’s why, in February and March 2025, when the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) in the College of Social Sciences (CSS) celebrates its 50th anniversary, there is much to commemorate. There will be two days of events, including a keynote speech, panel discussions and a talk-story gathering.
“We hope to continue impacting students and the community about larger issues of equality and making sure that equality doesn’t go away,” said Lani Teves, associate professor and chair of WGSS, and a 2002 alumna. “It’s really asking what kind of world do we want to live in, how do we treat one another, and what do we prioritize as a society?”
In 2012, the UH Board of Regents granted official status to the program as it became the Department of Women’s Studies. In fall 2021, it was renamed the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, to expand the subject matter. And in 2022, Teves spearheaded the creation of the queer studies undergraduate certificate, which explores the histories of sexuality and “gender normativity” across various contexts. The BA degree and queer studies certificates can be earned online.
Other WGSS milestones and achievements:
- In 2007, there were seven women’s studies majors. Today there are close to 50 WGSS majors. Alumni enjoy successful careers in various professions and workplaces, ranging from healthcare to nonprofits to higher education.
- In 2019, Meda Chesney-Lind, WGSS professor emerita, former chair and major donor, served as president of the American Society of Criminology, an international organization whose members pursue scholarly, scientific and professional knowledge about crime and delinquency.
- The department is proud of its faculty who have won all three of the most prestigious awards in the UH System for teaching, research and service, and is the recipient of a three-year $250,000 Rockefeller grant on Gender and Globalization in Asia and the Pacific.
- The Hawaiʻi State Legislature honored WGSS in recognition of its significant impact on students and community.
See the entire story on the CSS website.
