Overview
This is a collection of documents that provide the basis for understanding how the University of California came into existence and grew to its present configuration. Part of that configuration is the process in which women became fully part of it as students, staff and faculty. While specific laws shaped the University as an institution other laws provided the scaffolding for women to eventually prosper within it.
At the same time as the University grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries to quickly define itself as a major research university, the struggle for women’s rights in California was building momentum. At the time of their entrance to campus in 1870 women were excluded by custom and law from many parts of society and the economy as well as on parts of the campus. The struggle for women’s rights concerned access to many kinds of employment, fair pay, controlling their own property before and after marriage, and the well-publicized fight for the right to vote. All of these issues were involved in the lives of the young women graduates as they left Berkeley to find their way in the world. In 1879 the passage of the new California Constitution gave women improved legal rights as well as insuring the autonomy of the University from political interference. By 1896 the University of California had become one of the limited number of US institutions offering doctoral degrees on a level equal to established research universities such as Yale and Harvard. The national movement to standardize degree content involving the approximately 30 doctoral granting universities was substantially led by women. They were among those who persuaded the President of the University of California, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, to convene a meeting to regulate doctoral education, a meeting which resulted in the creation of the Aerican Association of Research Universities in 1900. By that time women comprised nearly half of undergraduate enrollment, fully half of graduate enrollment at Berkeley. The subsequent politically Progressive climate and a change of governing party resulted in the constitutional amendment to give women the vote passing in 1911.
Two world wars greatly impacted women’s participation in education and the workforce, but did not secure them an equal position in these domains or in society and the economy broadly. While in the 1920s women more commonly attended college and the number of women faculty increased dramatically reaching twenty-seven percent by 1930 at Berkeley, they still suffered from many legal and social restrictions. US policy after WWII resuted in serious reversals of women’s position as veterans supported by the GI Bill flooded into college and displaced women who had already been displaced from their war-time employment. At the same time, postwar policy emphasizing science and higher education as the “new frontier” transformed colleges and universities by building new scientific facilities and laboratories providing the support to increase enrollment greatly. This strongly influenced the emergence of the University of California as a 20th century research powerhouse. While present, women were far from equal participants.
What ultimately changed women’s position in the University was a series of laws in the 1960s and 1970s specifically about equal access and treatment within higher education motivated by the broad civil rights movement. Men and women from backgrounds long excluded from mainstream American society fought with increasing force for equal treatment under the law from the end of the 1940s. The universal civil rights they fought for was ultimately reflected in a series of laws, the Equal Rights Law of 1964 being most comprehensive. Implementation required many further laws, of particular significance to women was the Higher Education Act on 1972, Title IX which gave clear jurisdiction to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over women’s rights. This was not enough, university women had to organize, file lawsuits, and push for equal access and fair hiring and promotion procedures, equal pay and benefits, and to be free from harassment of all kinds. This work continues . . .
Section I: External legal documents shaping the University and Women’s Rights
Section II: Data and documentation created by Berkeley Women Faculty
Section III: Firsthand testimony, oral histories
Section IV: Commentary on the situation of women within the University
Section V: Women Faculty Honors.
Section VI: Data on Women Students and Faculty
I. Introduction to Documents Shaping the University:
The shaping of the University of California and the status of women in it clearly owes much to the way in which California developed as a state. The first California Constitution was adopted in 1849 before admission into statehood in 1850. It established the groundwork for creating, financing and structuring the administration of a University, along with the state-wide creation of a common education system with a Superintendent of Public Instruction. It also codified the fundamental right for women to own and control their own property before and after marriage even if not much in force. Subsequent legal frameworks such as the Organic Act of 1868, and the constitutional revision of 1879 secured the independence and permanence of the University under which it still operates today. It also secured new rights for women.
California Constitution of 1849
This was created by a constitutional convention called by the US Army administrator for the Western Region after the end of Mexican rule and before California became a state. It is notable in many respects in defining what the State of California should be in terms of the rights of citizens, who was a citizen and establishing the administrative structure which the new State built. Two sections are particularly relevant: Article IX Education, Section 2: establishes the State need for the creation of a university; establishes a State Board of Education and a structure for universal public schools. This section also sets out how education, specifically the University was to be funded, anticipating the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862. Section XI, Section 14: Property rights of women: After some discussion, the convention adopted one of the few tenets of Mexican Law which enshrined the right of women to hold property in their own name, to keep their property on marriage and to dispose of their own property as they see fit. Unfortunately for women their apparent legal advantage was never enforced, and their rights were continuously eroded when California became a state. See Donna C. Schuele, "A Robbery to the Wife": Culture, Gender and Marital Property in California Law and Politics, 1850-1890. Dissertation, University of California Berkeley, 1999.
Constitution of California 1849 Downloaded from HeinOnline, 6.28.2025
- Article IX: Education. Extract from Constitution provided by HeinOnline
- Article XI: Miscellaneous, Section 14, “All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by her before marriage …” Extract from Constitution provided by HeinOnline
With introduction from the United States National Archives.
Citation: Act of July 2, 1862 (Morrill Act), Public Law 37-108, which established land grant colleges, 07/02/1862; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1996; Record Group 11; General Records of the United States Government; National Archives. (pdf)
Organic Act 1868 Chapter 244 of the Statutes of 1867-1868 Source: Statutes of California, Seventeenth Session. 1867-1868, ch. 244, §§ 1-26 (pdf) This document establishes the entire structure for the University of California and is celebrated on “Charter Day” as the founding document.
Resolution of the Regents 1870 This was a resolution introduced by Regent Samuel F. Butterworth at the Regents meeting on October 3, 1870 “That young ladies be admitted into the University on equal terms in all respects with young men.” It passed unanimously. The first woman admitted was Rosa Scrivner in 1870.
California Constitution of 1879
- Article IX: This makes the University of California a public trust, constitutionally equal to the other parts of California government. This guaranteed the autonomy of the University free from interference from the State Legislature and Executive, preventing the kind of hostile assaults like those in the 1870s attempting to reduce the University to a trade school. From this point on the University could develop its internal academic governance structure and academic colleges and focus on its mission to serve the state through research. See John Douglass, “How and Why the University of California got its Autonomy.” April 2015, CSHE Research and Occasional Paper Series.
Equally significant were the laws of importance to women which improved their property rights and employment opportunities along with the right to hold office contained in Article XX.
- Section 8 “All property, real and personal, owned by either husband or wife before marriage and that acquired by either of them afterwards by gift, devise, or decent, shall be their separate property.”
- Section 17. Eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s work on all public work.
- Section 18. No person shall, on account of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation or profession. (pdf)
Source: California State Portal https://archives.cdn.sos.ca.gov/pdf/suffrage/sca8-1911.pd
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Passed by the United States Congress July 2, 1964, signed by President Lyndon Johnson that day. Prohibits discrimination in a broad array of private conduct including public accommodations, governmental services and education. One section of the Act, referred to as Title VII, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion and national origin. Note: Does NOT include women as a protected group. Title IV stipulates equal access to education at all levels particularly referencing the ongoing segregation of African Americans from schools and colleges predominantly in the 17 former slave owning states. The Act, however, also prohibits segregation in restaurants, hotels and other public facilities.
Title VII applies to private employers, labor unions and employment agencies [including universities]. The Act prohibits discrimination in recruitment, hiring, wages, assignment, promotions, benefits, discipline, discharge, layoffs and almost every aspect of employment. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act#page-header
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a five-member, bipartisan commission whose mission is to eliminate unlawful employment discrimination. The law provides that the Commissioners, no more than three of whom may be from the same political party, are appointed to five-year terms by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Chairman of the agency appoints the General Counsel. EEOC is to open its doors for business on July 2, 1965 -- one year after Title VII's enactment into law. Text from EEOC website. https://www.eeoc.gov/history/civil-rights-act-1964 Full transcript of entire Act: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act#transcript
Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1972 rectified the omission of sex from the Civil Rights Act and established conditions requiring equal access within higher education institutions contained in Title IX.
“Examples of the types of discrimination that are covered under Title IX include but are not limited to: sex-based harassment; sexual violence; pregnancy discrimination; the failure to provide equal athletic opportunity; sex-based discrimination in a school’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and programs; discriminatory application of dress code policies and/or enforcement; and retaliation.” Source: Department of Education: https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/title-ix-and-sex-discrimination
Together the Civil Rights Act and the Higher Education Amendments provided the legal basis to 1. Permit women in collegiate sports to demand equal institutional support to that of men’s teams.
2. Enable faculty women to sue for equal access to hiring, promotion and tenure as well as equal pay, equal facilities, overall equal treatment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) created by the Civil Rights Act provides oversight of the law’s implementation. This enables complaints of discrimination to be filed with it, have these complaints adjudicated, and obtain redress. Its power rests not only on these functions but the power to withhold federal funding for non-compliance.
“Examples of the types of discrimination that are covered under Title IX include but are not limited to: sex-based harassment; sexual violence; pregnancy discrimination; the failure to provide equal athletic opportunity; sex-based discrimination in a school’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses and programs; discriminatory application of dress code policies and/or enforcement; and retaliation.” From Department of Education site above.
Unfortunately, in order to actually prevent these behaviors decades of protest and litigation have been involved. In this the women on the Berkeley campus have been very active in attempting to secure fair treatment as the following documents attest. See Sue Ervin Tripp (1995) below.
II. Documents about Women in the University
Documentation of women’s achievements, distinctions and awards with the University of California Berkeley is strikingly absent in much of the existing historical literature on the development of the University. Simple documentation of the numbers of women on campus as graduate students and faculty has also been missing over most of the history of the University. The first highly significant publication was the report below, commonly known as the Scott-Colson Report in 1970 which documented for the first time the number and situation of women by collecting extensive data on all graduate students and all faculty from 1920 to 1970. The mandate of the committee as summarized by June Starr in “Scholars and Controversy: a note on Elizabeth Colson’s Work against Sex Discrimination in Academia.” Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, 63, 64 (1984), p. 28
“AS its mandate, the subcommittee had attempted to understand the difference in opportunities faced by men and women in pursuing academic careers. It examined the situation of women academics, women scholars in research units (such as those at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory), and women graduate students. The nine-page text of the subcommittee’s report was followed by fifteen appendices, the report totaling 76 pages in all. The appendices examined such topics as nepotism policies which discriminate against married women who held doctorates; the percentages of women at different academic ranks; comparative rates of promotion and attrition; women on Academic Senate committees; discriminatory insurance policies; and other aspects of inequity. Seven of the fifteen appendices were devoted to women graduate student and covered such topics as financial support, degrees awarded by field and gender, relative success of women in obtaining degrees in distinguished departments, and a survey of the problems encountered by women graduate students.”
Report of the Subcommittee on the Status of Academic Women on the Berkeley Campus.
Elizabeth Colson, Elizabeth Scott, Herbert Blumer, Susan Erwin-Tripp and Frank Newman.1970 Berkeley, Calif.: Academic Senate, Berkeley Division, University of California. (pdf 7vd2t4pz)
Women Activists of Seventies: Multipole Routes to Affirmative Action
Commentary on the documentary history of Women Faculty’s fight for equal treatment, Sue Ervin-Tripp, UC Women April 28, 1995. Sue Ervin-Tripp papers (pdf)
Report on the University of California President’s Summit on Faculty Gender Equity November 6-7, 2002
Academic Affairs, Office of the President, University of California, (pdf)
Federal Lawsuit Filed in U.S. District Court, San Francisco February 15, 1972
Parties: League of Academic Women; Martha Maxwell; Harriett Amster; Clare Cooper; Anne Prah-Perochon; Pauline Fong; Jean Baker; Margaret Cunninghadm; Mary Theodorakis; Janet Gerkin; Isabel Marcus Welsh; Karen Nelson Hurn; and Karen Folger Jacobs, on behalf of themselves and all other similarly situated. Vs. Regents of the University of California; Albert Bowker, Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley division and Charles Hitch, President of the University of California. Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief (Civil Rights). Source: ERIC
Section III Firsthand testimony, Oral Histories
Students:
The Prytanean Society: The oldest honorary women’s society in the United Staes created in 1901 by President Benjamin Ide Wheeler at the urging of students Adele Gerard Lewis and Agnes Frisius with the help Mary Bennet Ritter. They argued that women should have their own honor society as they could not be admitted to the mens’.
The Prytaneans: An Oral History of the Prytanean Society, Its Members and their University, 1901-1920.
Vol. 1 The Prytanean Alumnae Incorporated, 1970. Online access through Bancroft Library https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/297555?v=pdf
Vol. 2 Prepared in honor of the centennial anniversary of the University of California Volume II, 1921-30. Dewell, Peggy Orchison Editor; Prytanean Alumnae, Incorporated 1977. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/297556?v=pdf
Vol. 3 Prepared in honor of the centennial anniversary of the University of California Volume III, 1931-1935. Gilmore, Adrienne Dewell Editor; Prytanean Alumnae, Incorporated 1990. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/297557?v=pdf
Vol. 4 Prepared in honor of the centennial anniversary of the University of California Volume IV, 1936-1940. Ruyle, Janet H. Editor; Prytanean Alumnae, Incorporated 2006 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/297558?v=pdf
Vol 5 Prepared in honor of the centennial anniversary of the University of California Volume V, 1941-1945. Ruyle, Janet H. Editor; Prytanean Alumnae, Incorporated 2001 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/297559?v=pdf
Women Athletes. See Cal Women’s Crew Interviews conducted by Jean Sacconaghi Strauss, Class of 1978. Five interviews and a documentary available on Youtube. [link]
Faculty and Staff Oral Histories
Faculty: See Also Section IV of Table of Contents: Women Faculty, Researchers
From the Oral Histories collected by the Bancroft Library: Selections
Margaret Wilkerson, “A Life in Theater and Higher Education” conducted by Nadine Wilmot 2003-2004. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2013. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/218828?ln=en&v=pdf
[Professor Wilkeson was one of the first Black women faculty at Berkeley. Ed.]
Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, “An Oral History with Jewelle Taylor Gibbs,” conducted by Leah McGarrigle, 2003-2004, Regional Oral History Office,
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2010. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/218562?ln=en&v=pdf
The Women's Faculty Club of the University of California, Berkeley, 1919-1982: oral history transcript / tape recorded interviews conducted by Suzanne B. Reiss in 1981 and 1982. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., 1983: and related material, 1981-1983. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/54694?v=pdf
Academic Pioneers: Women Faculty at Berkeley in the 1970s and 1980s. Interviews conducted by Paula Fass and Christina Maslach 2019-2021 See list of interviewees under Section 4 of Table of Contents. [Link]
Asian American Women Faculty: Interviews in 2020-2021. Conducted and recorded by Undergraduate Research Apprentices (URAP) See Section 4 [Link]
Asian American Women at Berkeley: Interviews with Asian American Faculty and Students. Filmed interviews hosted by Professor Renee Sung Fall 2020 with URAP students. See Section 4 [Link]
From the American Philosophical Society: Transcript of an oral history of Arlie Hochschild, UCB Sociology, conducted by Anna Doel, August 8, 2023. https://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/attachments/transcript-ohi-Arlie-Hochschild-08-09-2023final.docx.pdf
Section IV: Commentary on the Life and Experience of Women Faculty.
Chapter 1, Inside the Clockwork of Male Careers.
Arlie Russell Hochschild. In At the Heart of Work and Family: Engaging the Ideas of Arlie Hochschild
Edited by: Anita Ilta Garey and Karen V. Hansen. Preface by: Barbara Ehrenreich
Rutgers University Press: 2011 (pdf)
"Inside the Clockwork of Women’s Careers,"
A Speech to the Chautauqua Institution, July 21, 2004, by Carol Crist, President of Smith College, July 21, 2004
(pdf)
“Two Cheers for Equality.”
Vivian Koch, Speech to University of California’s sessions on “The Potential of Woman,” held in San Francisco in 1963 (pdf)
Section V: Berkeley Women Faculty and Alumnae Honors
Distinctions and Honors Bestowed on Berkeley Women Faculty: This is a tiny sampling of national and international honors and awards bestowed on Berkeley women. These listed are among the most well-known and induct fellows from all disciplines. The vastness of the structure of distinctions precludes more than a such sample. Honors flow from government and private entities, civil society institutions, foundations and many other sources at the national level. Disciplinary associations, the Berkeley campus and departments all award prizes and honors. There is no central UCB office which records even the most prestigious of these and only a few Berkeley colleges record the external honors awarded to its faculty,
These tables were compiled by Fernando Garcia Silva, ’26.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Source: https://www.amacad.org/directory( 7rk1r1fx)
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Source: https://www.aaas.org/fellows/listing
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American Council of Learned Societies.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Source: https://www.acls.org/fellows-grantees/
American Philosophical Society.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Source: https://members.amphilsoc.org/s/member-directory
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Berkeley Women Fellows.Source: https://www.gf.org/fellows
MacArthur Foundation.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Source: https://www.macfound.org/
National Academy of Engineering.
Berkeley Women Fellows.
Source: Source: https://www.nae.edu/20412/MemberDirectory College of Engineering source for all Fellows: https://engineering.berkeley.edu/research-and-faculty/faculty/national-academy-of-engineering-members/
The National Academy of Sciences.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Source: https://www.nasonline.org/membership/member-directory/?_member_directory_sort=last_name_asc
The Nobel Prize.
Berkeley Women Laureates, four out of the 63 Berkeley Nobelists. Source: Berkeley Inspire website: https://inspire.berkeley.edu/get-inspired/nobels/ (3h69s4bz)
Royal Society.
Berkeley Women Fellows. Sources:
https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/londons-royal-society-elects-four-berkeley
https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/doudna-named-foreign-member-uks-royal-society
https://qb3.berkeley.edu/news/eva-nogales-elected-as-fellow-of-the-royal-society/
Section VI: Data on Berkeley Women
Comprehensive data on the number and type of Berkeley women students, staff and faculty is not readily available in any one source for any time period. The first attempt was made by Elizabeth Coulson in her report to the Academic Senate in 1972
Table of All Women Students by Name, Class Year and Degree Level, 1870-1890.
Anne J. MacLachlan, Ph.D. compiler using annual President’s Annual Report to the Regents, Annual Register, the Blue and Gold, and The Golden Book.
Table of Women Graduate Students from 1898 to 1970.
Elizabeth Scott and Elizabeth Coulson, Report to the Academic Senate, 1972
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