Women’s Experience at Iowa State from 1960-1979

Women's History Timeline 1962-1979 (pdf)

Iowa State has always allowed both men and women to enroll from the very beginning. Despite accepting women, however, it has always contained a disproportional number of men. The administration at Iowa State has also enforced a strict gendered system. Women have endured restrictions that controlled their movement purely based on their sex while men were granted permission much earlier in the history of the school to do things like be outside of their dorms after hours, or to leave the city of Ames if they chose. In addition to explicitly gendered policies, women frequently faced bias in classrooms, the healthcare center, extra-curricular activities, and elsewhere that men did not. This exhibit is an overview on the discriminatory practices at Iowa State University and of the women in the 1960s and 1970s who chose to rebel against them. Click on the heading above to view a timeline of ISU women's history during these decades.