Women Studies Program Records, 1980-1983

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the WSU Women Studies Program was involved in four grant projects: Women and Law, Futures in Science for Women, On Stage with Washington Women, and Washington Women's Heritage Project.

Women and Law was a program held at Washington State University in 1978 for the purpose of informing audiences of women about their legal rights. The Washington Commission for the Humanities provided funding and Faye Bancroft, Assistant Professor of Business Law at WSU directed the program which included workshops on citizenship and alien rights, due process and the woman defendant, domestic relations, physical abuse, employee rights, and credit and finance.

Futures in Science for Women was a science career workshop sponsored by the WSU Women Studies Program and directed by Dr. Aldora Lee. The National Science Foundation funded the program which was held on at Washington State University in 1979. Women scientists, career counselors, and specialists participated in the two day program.

On Stage with Washington Women was a one hour dramatic presentation based on letters, diaries, and oral histories of eastern Washington women. The Washington Commission for the Humanities provided funding, and Assistant Professor of History, Susan Armitage, directed the project. The play traveled with the "Working and Caring" photographic exhibit which was sponsored by the Washington Women's Heritage Project.

The Washington Women's Heritage Project began in 1980 under a National Endowment for the Humanities grant that permitted organizers to collect histories of Washington women. Researchers consulted diaries and letters, conducted oral history interviews, and obtained photographs. These sources, reflective of women's experiences with various ethnic groups, enabled the project team to produce "Working and Caring," a photographic exhibit that along with a series of programs, concerts, dramatic presentations, and films, that toured Washington state in 1982. Evaluators judged the project successful because it illuminated øøthe vital roles women have played at work inside and outside the home, in community organizations and women's clubs, and through their caring about people and issues, . . . [most of which] traditional histories had overlooked."