The curricula in most women's studies programs, whether housed in separate departments or simply offered as adjunct courses in traditional fields, were predicated on teaching students, both men and women, to understand one or more of the following issues:

Patriarchy in historical perspective; biological/ psychological gender differences; socialization and sex roles; women in history, post-Freudian psychology and control of female sexuality; the history and function of the family; women in the workforce and the economy; laws affecting women; the history of women in social movements.

By the end of the decade nearly every campus offered one or more courses in which women wrote the texts, taught the courses, and offered insights into heretofore ignored perspectives on traditional subject matter.

Title IX and Other Statutes.

Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972, which guaranteed equal access for women in the academic world...