Author and activist Barbara Slaner Winslow grew up in a conservative New York City suburb and attended Antioch College for her undergraduate degree which offered the open-mindedness and radicalism she desired. As a newlywed in 1967, Winslow accompanied her husband to Seattle to complete his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Washington. Winslow also attended UW as a graduate in History and finished with the class of 1971. During her tenure as a student, she encountered a culture of sexism and racism on campus, especially in the History Department which was dominant by white males. In efforts to combat the racial and narrow-minded atmosphere, she became involved with groups such as the Women’s Liberation-Seattle, Students for a Democratic Society, UW Vietnam Committee, and Seattle Radical Women. The groups specifically focused on fighting for workers’ rights, women’s right, civil equality, childcare and abortion rights, birth control resources, and anti-war efforts. Winslow participated in a series of main stream movements that infamously still inspire change like the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Movements and Feminist Movement.

Barbara Winslow pushed the issue of unjust oppression of minorities into the spotlight when she became a spokesperson and advocate. After speaking out against a Playboy bunny who was invited to campus by administration, she became a recognized face and voice for the public. She was also a founding and essential member of the Women’s Liberation Movement that swept through Seattle, and was the catalyst that created the Women’s Studies Department at UW, known today as Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS). Winslow is proud of the work and achievements her generation was responsible for, which lasted throughout the decades. Winslow was a professor in the School of Education at the Brooklyn College and the City University of New York.