From consciousness raising to the transformation of academia, culture, and society, Women’s Studies grew from the bottom up to challenge male domination, sexism, homophobia, racism, economic inequality, ageism, and all the “ism’s” that created inequities and stifled equal opportunity. It promoted multiculturalism in its approach to the academic disciplines and inclusion and diversity in all social and political institutions. The global spread of Women’s Studies from the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century contributed to the rise of leadership of women, gay people. and people of color in politics, academia, business, medicine, law, to name just a few of the professional tracks, and has led as well to the alarming, powerful, and violent backlash we are now living through.

Dr. Sharon Leder taught Women’s Studies on three campuses of the State University of New York and published academic books on women writers, women in academia, and the literature of the Holocaust. In retirement, she writes memoir, fiction and poetry on trauma and addiction and biographies of groundbreaking Jewish feminists.

Learn more at 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2026. All are welcome.

• At the Chapel in the Pines, 220 Samoset Road in Eastham.  Doors open at 9:30.
• Also on Zoom via this Zoom program link.