Program History

The groundwork for establishing a Women's Studies Program at the University of Alberta was laid through the hard work of a generation of faculty members (female and male) and senior university administrators committed to improving the number of women among the professoriate. In response to growing interest in the academic study of women and women's issues, in the fall of 1984 the Vice-President (Academic) struck a fifteen member Advisory Committee on Women's Studies. The Committee's 1986 report recommended that the university establish an undergraduate degree program in Women's Studies, along with an Institute of Feminist Studies and an Interfaculty Council on Women's Studies.

Although the program was formally launched in 1987-88 when it offered its first fifteen cross-listed courses, it was in 1988-89 that the program appointed its first tenure track faculty member (Dr. Winnie Tomm), admitted its first students, launched its major and minor programs, and offered its first Women's Studies courses. In 1995-96 the program introduced an honors option.

Our core courses attract more than 400 students each year, and about a third of those students move on to take a major, minor, or honors degree in our program.