Achieving 'Gender Parity' at Wesleyan University: Admitting Women, Maintaining Patriarchy, 1969-1989

In this work I show how an emphasis on the profitability of statistical "diversity" stifled productive discussion and activism about women and feminism at Wesleyan between 1969 and 1989. Feminist and women's organizing became the primary location for student reactions to patriarchal practices and anti-women actions. The Women's Studies Program began as a faculty response to Wesleyan's patriarchal structures, inviting students to join the initiative within a few years. However, the Program lacked adequate resources and was given an insurmountable task. As a result, a school originally constructed to create an elite class of white men managed to make minimal structural and social changes during the 1970s and 1980s.