The Women's Studies Program at Duke University started in 1983 and grew rapidly into one of the largest interdisciplinary programs at the University, now called Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. The Women's Studies Program Records contain materials related to the foundation, growth, activities, and alumni of the Women's Studies Program.

The Women's Studies Program Records contain materials related to the foundation, growth, activities, and alumni of the Women's Studies Program. Included are correspondence, minutes, reports, newsletters, flyers, budgets, programs, surveys, and many other materials. Topics include the development of the Women's Studies Program from a certificate program to an undergraduate major and minor as well as the growth of graduate scholarship; the curriculum of the Program and the inclusion of women's studies and women's topics in other areas of the University; outreach to and fundraising with Duke alumni women and others; programs and events organized by Women's Studies, especially the Graduate Research Conference and other large conferences hosted by Women's Studies; the work of the Council on Women's Studies; and a survey given to all women alumni of Duke from the 1920s through the 1980s including questions related to their Duke experience, activities since graduation, and perspective on women's issues, among many other subjects. The majority of the materials date from Jean O'Barr's tenure as director of Women's Studies.