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The University of Colorado Boulder’s Women Studies Program was established in 1974 when Betsy Graef, a student and member of the founding committee, collected nearly 3,000 signatures in less than five days endorsing the program. There is no stopping an idea whose time has come and fifteen faculty members offered to teach courses, including: Doris Havice, Religious Studies; Joyce Frost, Communication; Suzanne Foster, Fine Arts; Gary Metz, Fine Arts; Tom Mayer, sociology; Ruth Cline, Education; and Dennis Eckart, Political Science. By mid-May the Affirmative Action Office, the Center for Student Life Programs and Studies, the three co-presidents of UCSU and the Faculty Council Committee on Women endorsed the idea for a women studies program. Though the initiative received far-reaching support, the struggle to create a program had only begun.

Chancellor Lawson Crowe approved a proposal to fund the position of a director in mid-July. The proposal was led by Betsy Graef, Betsy Jameson, Martha Gimenez, Hardy Frank, Shirley Nuss, Carol Pearson, Marilynn Sawin, Lee Redfield, Chris Smith, Linda Wingle, Linda Collins, and Kathi George. Shortly thereafter, the Dean of Arts & Sciences appointed Betsy Graef, Betsy Jameson, Martha Gimenez, Hardy Frank, Shirly Nuss, Connie Wright, Phyllis Kenevan, Ann Markusen and Tom Meyer to begin a national search for a director beginning fall semester. Carol Pearson, an assistant professor in English, was selected as the first director of women studies from nearly 40 applicants. On September 17, 1974, the Women Studies Program, now the oldest in the State of Colorado and one of the oldest in the nation, moved into its new office at #7 Hillside Court, 17th and University.

Although the women studies curriculum began in 1974, it was not until 1983 that the program was able to offer students a non-independently structured major in women studies. That year, the program was granted a major by the Colorado Commission of Higher Education, with the approval of the Board of Regents. The Director of Women Studies, Janet Jacobs, worked closely with Dean Peter Speer and Provost Phil Di Stefano to present the case to the state. After more than a year of discussion and preparation, the major was institutionalized under the auspices of American Studies. In the fall of 1995, the program began to fight a stand-alone major. A new group of faculty, students and staff took up the challenge for academic legitimacy, led by program directors Janet Jacobs and Alison Jaggar. The program was finally granted its own major in spring of 1998 by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. 

In 1989, under the leadership of program director Marcia Westkott, the Women Studies Program relocated to Cottage #1. Built in 1884, the building, originally housed the women’s dormitory. At the time of the move, exterior was well-preserved, but the interior was in shambles. Restoration began in 1993 with a fundraising campaign, and 4 years later the $1 million renovations were completed. The building was then named for Hazel Gates Woodruff, who attended CU from 1932 to 1934. After her death in 1994, her husband Cmdr. James A. Woodruff, Jr. sought to preserve and honor the memory of his wife, and the university dedicated the building as the Hazel Gates Woodruff Cottage. 

In September 2006, a unanimous vote by the CU Board of Regents allowed the program to change its name to “Women and Gender Studies Program”, which more accurately represents the broader issues of gender that the program, its faculty, and its courses examine. In June 2015, the Regents voted 7-1 to approve a proposal to change the status of CU Boulder’s Women and Gender Studies from program to department. In the Fall of 2017, the department adopted a new course prefix of 'WGST' to reflect the department's name change in the course catalogs. 

In Spring of 2024, our new Master of Arts in Gender and Sexuality, many years in the making, was fully approved by the Board of Regents. Our MA, the only graduate degree program in Gender and Sexuality in the state, will center intersectional, decolonial, transnational, and social transformation frameworks in the study of gender and sexuality and will provide students with an interdisciplinary education using a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches across the humanities and the social sciences to examine gender and sexuality. 

Today, this dynamic interdisciplinary Department of Women and Gender Studies offers degrees and courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The faculty and curriculum provide a visionary challenge to the academy’s traditional approach to education. The department sponsors a diverse range of events on campus in collaboration with other departments, offers a rigorous honors program, and promotes a speaker series that melds academic and community intellectuals as well as an annual scholarship and awards luncheon. 

Our history is dynamic with a focus on action and change, while respecting our mission and responsibilities. We honor this tradition by recruiting esteemed faculty to challenge and respond to outstanding undergraduate to doctoral-level students representing diverse backgrounds and talents.