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 UH 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, ʻDon’t worry about it,ʻ implying I would be rehired later, but that wasnʻt 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’s 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. “Itʻs 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?”
WGSS is one of the oldest women’s studies departments in the U.S., according to the National Women’s Studies Association. Its focus is the “interdisciplinary study of women and the workings of gender as it intersects with race, class, colonialism, nationalism and other vectors, with a strong emphasis on the Pacific and Asia,” according to the department.
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.
“I think the fact that there’s still a women’s studies department is a victory in itself,” said Meda Chesney-Lind, WGSS professor emerita, former chair and major donor. “There was a strong push early on to get rid of us and now we’re one of the most popular majors in CSS. The growth, support and enthusiasm of our students is hard to miss. Here’s to another great half-a-century that lies ahead!”
In the 1970s Chesney-Lind is credited with bringing the issues of campus sexual assault and sexual harassment to the attention of UH administration via news coverage in Ka Leo O Hawaiʻi, the student-led campus newspaper. “My partnership with Ka Leo was critical, because I could get student reporters to talk to (interview) students who were victims of sexual assault and harassment. This was not an issue that the campus (administration) cared about. It pushed the student services crowd to create programs that responded to student needs.”
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, Chesney-Lind 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 Legislature honored WGSS in recognition of its significant impact on students and community. The congratulatory resolution was sponsored by state Representative Amy Perruso, who earned her PhD in Political Science, another CSS department.
Today, in 2025, WGSS students, employees and alumni join together to celebrate the area of study that cultivates respect for all.
“To the faculty and staff, thank you for your dedication and time, and for creating spaces that allow us to pave a path forward,” said Sarah Hamid, who graduated with a WGSS bachelor’s degree in 2022. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”
Added senior Sophia Vertido, a Filipina from Colorado double-majoring in WGSS and Political Science, “Since I grew up in a predominantly white suburban community, I wasn’t surrounded by a lot of people who looked like me. So when I came to this campus, I felt a real sense of community, like I belonged. That is the beauty of WGSS. We are in a moment of time when these issues are coming up in terms of the political, in our own government. WGSS brings a good foundation to think critically about all of the ways that gender and race impacts our lives.”
