Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Women's History Month

March 3, 2025

Dear Brandeis Community,

We invite you to celebrate Women’s History Month in March! During this month, we honor contributions women have made and continue to make in the evolution of our country and the world.

According to the Women’s History Month website, “Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as ‘Women’s History Week.’ Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as ‘Women’s History Week.’” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.”

Here at Brandeis, the roots of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) Department can be traced back to 1975 when Women’s Studies began with a single course. Transitioning from a robust program to a full-fledged department in 2020, WGS now offers a minor, major, and several joint master’s programs. Its mission is to explore how gender and sexuality—as they intersect with race, ethnicity, class, religion, and age—form a crucial dimension of identity, society, and politics in different cultural and historical settings. Please view this WGS timeline at Brandeis for more information.

Brandeis enjoys a long and storied feminist history and legacy. We are proud of the notable genealogy of canonical Black feminist thinkers who were students and faculty (including current professors) at the university: Pauli Murray, Angela Davis, Julieanne Richardson, Hortense Spillers, Patricia Hill Collins, Karen E. Fields, M Jacqui Alexander, Anita Hill, Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman, Jasmine Johnson and Faith Smith, among others. Our current Black feminist scholar Shoniqua Roach is a pioneering academic and public intellectual in the fields of Black feminist theory, Black queer studies, and Black popular and quotidian performances studies

Brandeis feminist alumnae have also been prominent trailblazers in their fields including literary critic Elaine Showalter, sociologist and psychoanalyst Nancy Chodorow, physicist Evelyn Fox Keller, historian Joan Wallach Scott, and many more. Letty Cottin Pogrebin is best known as the founding editor of Ms. Magazine. These are but a few of the prominent feminist names that are associated with Brandeis University

In the spirit of celebration, we are excited to offer the following events on campus:

For more information about these events, please see the Women’s Studies Research Center website as well as the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies website.

With joy,

ChaeRan Y. Freeze
Chair, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Professor, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Faculty Associate of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry

Harleen Singh
Senior Associate Provost for Faculty & Global Affairs
Director, Women's Studies Research Center
Associate Professor of Literature, South Asian Studies, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

LeManuel Lee Bitsóí
Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Associate Research Professor of Health: Science, Society and Policy