NWSA organizational development: a view from within, at 25 years.(National Women's Studies Association)

NWSA was founded in a time when there were few, if any, competing theoretical frameworks or feminist analyses. No how-to-begin-feminist-organization manuals were available to the women who provided the initial impetus, not to mention the work to carry it off. Not until the 1990s when sociologists, in particular, began to address these issues, did I take serious note of my own participation in the evolution of NWSA governance. (1)

Organizational events take place over time, and are subject to participants' and analysts' interpretations; therefore, there will be specifics of any one person's recall of an event which will differ from another's view of that event. Because I have always been interested in how things got to be what, and how they are, I learned early to value personal records regarding events in the past. It is still amazing to me to find very contrasting stories about a family event among parents and siblings in therapy. Similar circumstances prevail among unrelated people who happened to be present at a particular event, as illustrated in various individual testimonies about an accident.

I retired in 1998, and am attempting to complete the responsibilities I have assigned myself with respect to NWSA. Since I am not a professional historian, I have chosen to record--often from supporting materials, often from personal recollection--observations and experiences I had from working with the women who, in some senses, crafted the organization. Had I been a trained ethnographer, I might have thought to systematically collect notes about NWSA governance within some framework and as they occurred; however I did not. Fortunately, I do have some notes, minutes, and correspondence, as well as a fairly reliable memory.

When I began working within NWSA I had no idea I was going to stay involved for the long run, no idea that NWSA was to become a major element in my life and career, nor that I would one day be attempting to chronicle the evolution of NWSA from my personal experience focusing on governance and organizational changes over the period of 25 years.

These, then, are the observations and analyses of one woman, whose membership in the NWSA has been continuous since the founding convention and whose involvement began in 1976, helping to organize even before the founding convention. My involvement has meant, over the years, attending numerous meetings in College Park, Maryland (home of the national office) and around the United States. It has also meant wonderful friendships, hard work, and many opportunities to learn from an experience that has rivaled any doctoral program in intensity and emotional hurdles to overcome.

The Founding Years

In 1973, at the closing session of a conference on Women's Studies, at the University of Pennsylvania, Catherine Stimpson, a women's studies pioneer, called for the founding of a national organization that would serve Women's Studies. At that time there were a few regional groups that had Women's Studies as a focus, but no representative national organization. In following years, many others echoed her call in both formal and informal settings where women met to discuss the responsibilities of academic women, in particular. During the winter of 1975, another meeting was held in Philadelphia at which debate and discussion began about a women's studies organization. Major issues debated there, and in other venues, during the following two years centered on purpose, the source of the organization's voice, and the locus of power.