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About

WOMEN’S STUDIES AT THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES

A Short History

Feminist organizations within American universities and colleges tend, in terms of their primary focus, to fall into one of three categories: 1) Women’s Centers providing extra-curricular support and activities for women students; 2) research centers, serving feminist scholars; and 3) Women’s Studies programs offering a major, minor and sometimes a graduate degree. Within this schema, the Claremont program, like those at over 600 other institutions of higher education, clearly falls into the third category: It is primarily academic. It is distinguished from almost all other programs, however, by its particular intercollegiate character.

In 1977, the year the National Women’s Studies Association was founded, there were 276 Women’s Studies programs in existence, including one in Claremont. Pitzer had established a major in 1975; created ID26, “Women in American Society” as an introduction to the concentration in 1976; and was offering about 8 other “Study of Women” courses (plus numerous ‘related’ ones) each year. By contrast, no courses were being offered at the Graduate School, Claremont Men’s or Harvey Mudd, and only three were available at Scripps. Pomona also offered only 3 or 4 courses a year, but had possessed since 1972 a Commission on the Education of Women, temporarily funded by contributions from an anonymous donor and the LeBus Foundation.

Spotlight on Staff

Sue Castagnetto, director of the Intercollegiate Feminist Center (IFC) at The Claremont Colleges and teacher of feminist philosophy. Read here.

Susan Castagnetto on the Power of Collaboration. For Sue Castagnetto, feminism has a whole new look… Continue Reading here.

About Us

The Intercollegiate Feminist Center for Teaching, Research and Engagement offers programs and support for students, faculty and staff interested in feminism and gender issues, as well as those active in women’s, gender and feminist studies at the Claremont Colleges. We sponsor and co-sponsor lectures, symposia, workshops, conferences, and community-building events. We offer:

• Teaching resources.

• A complete lending collection with books and films, as well as senior theses and magazines, open daily for browsing or studying.

• An events calendar of feminist/gender/women’s studies at the Claremont Colleges.

• A list of gender and women’s studies courses offered each semester, with detailed descriptions.

• A mailing list with information about events and other opportunities to get involved.

• An up-to-date list of conferences and calls for proposals and papers.

The IFC steering committee includes one or more faculty representatives from each of the undergraduate colleges and several student representatives.

The IFC offices and library are located in Vita Nova Hall at Scripps College.  Our hours are 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday.  Please drop by to visit!

IFC Timeline

Getting Involved

Interested in coming to the Center? Drop in during our open hours to hang out or study. Follow our Facebook page or Instagram page to be regularly updated on IFC events.