{"id":211317,"date":"2025-02-25T14:47:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T00:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=211317"},"modified":"2025-02-25T15:26:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T01:26:48","slug":"wgss-celebrates-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/25\/wgss-celebrates-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies celebrates 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_19921\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IPqXkIJZwII?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"50th Anniversary | Department of Women\u2019s Gender and Sexuality Studies\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Forty years ago was a very different time for the proverbial &ldquo;women in the workplace,&rdquo; even in a progressive state like <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. In 1984, Ruth Dawson was an associate professor in the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa women\u2019s studies program, when she happily learned that she was expecting. Dawson went to the dean\u2019s office to apply for unpaid maternity leave.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, she was fired.<\/p>\n<p>Since women\u2019s studies was a program and not an official <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa department, its faculty were not granted tenure, affecting life issues that are highly protected today.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I was really disappointed that, after working at M\u0101noa for 10 years and applying for maternity leave without pay, I was terminated,&rdquo; said Dawson. &ldquo;The administrators I spoke with said, &lsquo;Don\u2019t worry about it,&rsquo; implying I would be rehired later, but that wasn&#8217;t reassuring.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Dawson and others in the women\u2019s studies program were eventually granted eligibility for tenure. But, decades ago, certain mindsets were still commonplace in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the continent, and Dawson remembers &ldquo;married women struggling to hold real estate property or to obtain a credit card in their own names.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why, in February and March 2025, when the <a href=\"https:\/\/wgss.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies<\/a> (<abbr>WGSS<\/abbr>) in the <a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a> (<abbr>CSS<\/abbr>) 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.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We hope to continue impacting students and the community about larger issues of equality and making sure that equality doesn\u2019t go away,&rdquo; said Lani Teves, associate professor and chair of <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr>, and a 2002 alumna. &ldquo;It\u2019s 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?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Board of Regents granted official status to the program as it became the Department of Women\u2019s 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/wgss.manoa.hawaii.edu\/queer-studies-certificate\/\">queer studies undergraduate certificate<\/a>, which explores the histories of sexuality and &ldquo;gender normativity&rdquo; across various contexts. The <a href=\"https:\/\/wgss.manoa.hawaii.edu\/ba-requirements\/\"><abbr title=\"Bachelor of Arts\">BA<\/abbr> degree<\/a> and queer studies certificates can be earned online.<\/p>\n<p>Other <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> milestones and achievements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2007, there were seven women\u2019s studies majors. Today there are close to 50 <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> majors. Alumni enjoy successful careers in various professions and workplaces, ranging from healthcare to nonprofits to higher education.<\/li>\n<li>In 2019, Meda Chesney-Lind, <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> 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.<\/li>\n<li>The department is proud of its <a href=\"https:\/\/wgss.manoa.hawaii.edu\/faculty\/\">faculty<\/a> who have won all three of the most prestigious awards in the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> 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.<\/li>\n<li>The <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Legislature honored <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> in recognition of its significant impact on students and community.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/50-years-of-defending-rights\/\">See the entire story on the <abbr>CSS<\/abbr> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_211324\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-211324\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-css-wgss-50th-anniversary.jpg\" alt=\"three people standing and smiling with an award\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-211324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-css-wgss-50th-anniversary.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-css-wgss-50th-anniversary-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/manoa-css-wgss-50th-anniversary-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-211324\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Legislature honored <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> in recognition of its significant impact on students and community. State <abbr>Rep<\/abbr>. Representative Amy Perruso presenting the proclamation to Professor Kathy Ferguson and <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> Chair Lani Teves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2007, there were seven women\u2019s studies majors. Today there are close to 50 <abbr>WGSS<\/abbr> majors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[643,301,1466,1467,911,1026,9,56,1540,552],"class_list":["post-211317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-anniversary","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-program-recognition","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","tag-women-gender-and-sexuality-studies","tag-womens-studies","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211350,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211317\/revisions\/211350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}