Timeline
| 1860s | |
| 1867 | University of Illinois founded as the Illinois Industrial University. |
| 1870s | |
| 1870 | Trustees agreed to admit women in a 5-4 vote. (A) |
| Twenty-four women admitted to the U. of I. (3 years after its founding). (B) | |
| The Board of Trustees voted to allow women to enter the school under restriction. Social life for women was restricted to weekends, chaperones were required for outings, and co-eds had to be home by midnight unless a faculty member had given permission for a later curfew. Twenty four women were admitted to the University. (C) | |
| 1871 | Twenty-two women were reported to be in attendance at the school. (A) |
| University women organized Alethenai literary society. (A) | |
| 1874 | University hired elocution instructor Jennie C. Bryant. (A) |
Louise C. Allen joined the faculty and established a domestic science course. In 1879 she married the recently widowed Regent Gregory. (A) She developed the first school for domestic science. (C) |
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| 1880s | |
| 1882 | Dora Andrus became the first woman to head the College Government. (A) |
| 1888 | A college yell was adopted: “Rah Hoo Rah, Zip Boom Ah, Hip Zoo Ra Zoo, Jimmy blow your Bazoo, Ip-sid-di-i-ki, U. of I., Champaign.” (A) |
| 1889 | University women sought a gymnasium from the Trustees. Board decided that it was inadvisable for women to take calisthenics. (A) |
| 1890s | |
| 1891 | Philomathean and Adelphic societies founded Star Course. (A) |
| 1892 | Katherine Merrill becomes the first female professor at the U. of I. (Assistant Professor of Literature). (B) |
| 1893 | Graduate School of Library and Information Science founded. Katherine Sharp head mistress of the school. GSLIS women were pioneer librarians upon graduation, settling the wild west with culture. (D) |
| 1895 | Women's glee club formed and the physical training deparment is re-organized to include both men and women. (A) |
| Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta were the first sororities on campus. (C) | |
| 1896 | Women competed in first basketball game held on campus.(A) |
| Female faculty members and faculty wives organized Woman's League of the University of Illinois to further the welfare of women students. (A) | |
| 1897 | Office of Dean of Women created. Violet DeLille Jayne appointed to position. Ms. Jayne is the first Dean of Women. (A) |
| 1898 | First woman's edition of Illini published. (A) |
| First May Fete (with May Pole dance) occurred. (A) | |
| Local sorority Gamma Sigma organized. (A) | |
| Watcheka League established to facilitate “ the aim of united action on the part of the women students of the University.” (A) | |
| 1900s | |
| 1900 | Omicron chapter of Chi Omega established.(A) |
| Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma installed in chapter houses. (A) | |
| Domestic Science Department reopens under Professor Isabel Bevier. (C) | |
| 1901 | Pan-Hellenic Council organized for purpose of adopting “inter-sorority rushing compact.” (A) |
| 1904 | Dean of Women Violet Jayne resigned.(A) |
| 1905 | Woman’s Building (now known as the English Building) dedicated.(A) |
| Responsibilities of Dean of Women divided between Eunice Daniels and Martha Kyle. (A) | |
| State legislature appropriated $80,000 for a building strictly for women. The Women’s Building (currently the English Building) was built to resemble a home since it would also be the center for Home Economics. The third floor housed a personal living spaces for several female students; the second floor had a chemistry lab, practice kitchens, and a dining room. The basement had a gym and later a swimming pool. The main floor had plush parlors and clubrooms used for guest lectures and formal dress occasions. The white pillars were added in 1912. (C) | |
| 1906 | Maudelle Brown graduates with honors in mathematics in 3 years from the U. of I. She was the first African-American woman graduate. (B) |
| Chapter of Sigma Kappa formed. (A) | |
| Council of Administration allowed men to visit Woman’s Building from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. if they applied to the head of the Woman’s Hall. (A) | |
| Council of Administration allowed men to visit Woman's Building from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. if they applied to the head of the Woman's Hall. (A) | |
| 1907 | Lily Kollack appointed Dean of Women. (A) |
| 1908 | Women’s basketball team received sweaters from Seniors. (A) |
| 1910s | |
| 1910 | Mary E. Fawcett appointed Acting Dean of Women.(A) |
| 1911 | Women's suffrage at May Fete. (C) |
| 1912 | First annual mass meeting for women held. ( A) |
| Pan-Hellenic Council voted against hazing. (A) | |
| 1913 | Phi Beta sorority became Gamma Phi Beta. (A) |
| 1914 | First African-American sorority–Alpha Kappa Alpha--on campus was organized. (A) |
| Martha Kyle appointed Acting Dean of Women. (A) |
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| 1915 | Louise Freer appointed director of physical training for women. (A) |
| 1916 | Fanny Cook Gates appointed Dean of Women. (A) |
| Lorado Taft, '79, and Roland Conklin, '91, announced gift of bronze Alma Mater statue. (A) The story of the Alma Mater as fostering mother for academic woman throughout history begins here. (C) | |
| A short-lived ban on dancing was put into operation, in an attempt to stop suggestive movements by students at campus events.(C) | |
| 1917 | YMCA and new Women’s Residence Hall used as barracks. (A) |
| 1918 | Dean of Women Fanny Gates resigned and was succeeded by Ruby Mason. (A) |
| Woman’s Residence Hall (Busey Hall) completed, the first residence hall built by the University. (A) It was first used as Barracks No. 2 for the School of Military Aeronautics during WWI before women moved into it a year later. (C) | |
| 1919 | Women’s Residence Hall opened to students.(A) |
| Daisy Blaisdell was the first social director of the Women’s Residence Hall. She taught social graces and cultural development, which included a 10:30 curfew. The hall, with its sun porches and hospital suite, provided housing for 104 women. (C) | |
| 1920s | |
| 1921 | First Mom’s Day held.(A) |
| There were 92 fraternities and 33 sororities on campus. (C) | |
| 1922 | Mother's Association established. (A) |
| 1923 | Maria Leonard named Dean of Women. (A) |
| 1924 | Freshman women’s honor society Alpha Lambda Delta formed.(A) | 1926 | Number of sororities on campus reached 36, up from 20 in 1920.(A) | 1928 | Phi Omega Pi sorority quarantined for smallpox.(A) | 1929 | Alma Mater statuary group dedicated during ceremony held on commencement day. (A) |
| 1930s | |
| 1930 | The Rifle and Pistol Club was formed exclusively for women students (except for their advisors.) (C) |
| 1931 | Women’s Gymnasium (Freer Gym) completed.(A) 1932-Organization of independent women formed. (A) |
| 1932 | Delta Sigma Theta, the second black sorority, was established. (C) |
| 1934 | Women allowed to join Block I. (A) |
| 1936 | Dolores C. Thomas named first Homecoming queen.(A) |
| 1939 | Hilda H. Lawson became first African-American woman to receive Ph.D. from UI.(A) |
| 1940s | |
| 1940 | In loco parentis was instated. This assigned the role of parents to the University. (C) |
| Frances Nelson, Champaign, (for whom the Frances Nelson Community Health Center is named) opens her home to African-American children in need. (B) | |
| 1941 | The Child Development Laboratory began as a half-day program for preschool children housed in the English Building. (C) |
| 1942 | Women get involved in Signal Corps. “Our women work with radio equipment!" During the war women trained at the University of Illinois to be civilian radio technicians of the Army Signal Corps. (A) |
Women took over many traditionally male-dominated activities. For the first time, women were the editors of The Daily Illini and Illio. They also maintained the concert band, practiced first aid and home nursing, promoted blood banks, and sold war bonds. (C) |
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| 1943 | Idele Stith portrayed Princess Illiniwek. (A) |
| Women marched for the first time as members of the Army’s Women’s Auxiliary Training Corps. (C) | |
| 1946 | Members of the Student Community Interracial Committee asked campus restauranteurs to sign statements saying they do not discriminate. Six restaurants refused to sign. Following a picketing campaign and a threatened lawsuit, these restaurants agreed to end discrimination against African-Americans. (A) |
| The University began a “nursery school” for children of veterans enrolling in UI. The school continued until the early 1950s (when presumably all veterans were graduated and working wives were then freed for child care duties.) (C) | |
| 1947 | Panhellenic Council unanimously voted to admit African-American sorority as member.(A) |
| 1948 | Margaret O’ Donnell (Metallurgy and Mining Science) was the first female graduate student. (C) |
| 1949 | Lincoln Avenue Reisdence Hall completed. (A) |
| 1950s | |
| Circa 1950s | Six Minute Cake Recipe and How to Truss a Chicken, two inovations in Home Economics scholarship. (C) |
| 1950 | First womencheerleaders appointed. (A) |
| Four women take the field in an Ohio v. Illinois game as the first co-ed cheerleaders in the history of the University. (C) | |
| 1952 | The first African-American homecoming queen at Illinois, Clarice Davis, crowned.(A) |
| YWCA launched babysitting program that connected university “girls” with married students, faculty, and people in the community for childcare services for 35 cents an hour. The “girls” had a curfew of 10:30pm on weekdays, and 1am on Friday and Saturday nights. (C) | |
| 1953 | “Panty-raid” fad sweeps campus. (A) |
| 1955 | The Child Development Laboratory (CDL) building was built. (C) |
| 1957 | Bevier Hall and Child Development Laboratory dedicated.(A) |
| 1957 | Bevier Hall and Child Development Laboratory dedicated.(A) |
| 1957 | Bevier Hall and Child Development Laboratory dedicated.(A) |
| 1958 | Allen Hall opened to accommodate 669 women.(A) |
| 1959 | Married student housing was an option in the newly-constructed married housing apartments on campus. (A) |
| Illiniwise is given out to freshman women. A handbook for ettiqutte and deportmant for the new female student. (d) | |
| 1960s | |
| 1961 | Revision in state law raised drinking age for women from 18 to 21, the same age as men. (A) |
| 1962 | Mary Alexander and other women members of the African American community in Champaign organized a picket of J.C. Penney’s to protest the store’s racist hiring policies and treatment of customers. (B) |
| The Alma Mater statue moved to its current location after standing for over thirty years behind Foellinger Auditorium.(A) | |
| 1963 | Students conducted week-long silent vigil memorializing four African-American youths killed in bombing of Birmingham Sunday school. (A) |
| 1967 | Black Student Association founded. (A) |
| 1968 | The university instituted affirmative action with Project 500, which admitted 500 black students to the U of I for fall semester. |
| 1969 | Charlynn Chamberlin is crowned homecoming queen. 2nd black woman to be crowned. She was interviewed by the Black Rap the Black Student Assoc.’s newspaper. (C) |
| Students from the Women’s Liberation Cadre established the People’s Day Care Center. (C) | |
| 1970s | |
| 1970 | University offers its first Women’s Studies course. (A) |
Alpha Kappa Alpha, African American women’s sorority, helps at the Frances Nelson Health Clinic, a clinic that serves low income families. (C) |
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Orchard Downs Day Care Nursery opened “for working mothers”. Orchard Downs and Winfield Village have child care centers, designed for married students. Orchard Downs requires that a parent spend one half day a week at the nursery, which is difficult if both parents are students.(C) |
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| The Child Care Committee of the Women’s Liberation Cadre (WLC), a student group, submits a report to the Board of Trustees stating a need for a campus-based child care center to serve students, staff, and faculty. The Board of Trustees does not approve the proposal but W. Clement Stone indicates that if the WLC could raise $40,000 towards costs of the child care facility, he would provide matching funds. The WLC solicited support for child care and explored with Mrs. Levis the possibility of contributing funds to the center. The decision was made instead to build Levis Faculty Center. (C) | |
| “The lack of inexpensive day care is one of the married students’ biggest problems. says Betty Hembrough, assistant dean and director of the Office of Women’s Resources and Services. (C) | |
| Beth Stafford begins acquisition of Women’s Studies materials for the Women's Studies Library.(C) | |
| 1971 | Jacqueline Flenner and Cheryl Frank purchase a duplex at 401 W. California in Urbana, for women in transition. This becomes the first domestic women’s shelter in the United States. Champaign County Women Against Rape, later A Woman's Place, is formed. It also offered a lesbian support group. (C) |
| Irepodun–the first African-American students’ yearbook– published. (A) | |
| Women’s Week held on campus. (A) | |
| Women admitted to the UI band. (A) | |
| The UIUCC Committee on the Status of Women is initiated by the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee to examine the effectiveness of the campus affirmative actions plan as well as to evaluate its own role in bringing about needed changes in the status of women on campus. (C) | |
| The first known gay group on campus organizes the Gay Liberation Front (a branch of the New York originated group.) It remains closeted until 1973. (C) | |
| 1972 | The Student Personnel Office for Married Students and Continuing Education for Women develops “Continuing Conversations,” an informal newsletter devoted to continuing education for women. (C) |
| 1973 | Women's Health Activism lead by the RSO the Women's Student Union raises the issue of family planning services at McKinley Heath Center. Access to adequate birth control and respectful treatment are some of the demands women make. The group is active until 1980. (C) |
| The Committee of the Status of Women’s study proved the percentages of women and men faculty/staff in various ranks showed virtually no improvement in women’s status. The Committee suggested new maternity and parental child-rearing leave policies. (C) | |
| WOMANSPACE, a women’s studies seminar, was designed for women of all age groups, interests, and backgrounds. (C) | |
| The Gay Student Alliance was formed. (C) | |
| 1974 | The first Annual National Women’s Music Festival takes place. It draws 250 women. (C) |
| Women’s Wheels started. Program offers rides for women at night and later becomesNiteRides. (A) | |
| 1975 | United Nations declares 1975 to be International Women’s Year. The Office of Women’s Resources organizes campus wide events. (C) |
| UIUC Library establishes Women’s Studies fund for monographs. (C) | |
| The Student Personnel Office for Married Students and Continuing Education for Women became The Office of Women’s Resources and Services; it offered counseling programs for re-entering students, seminars for women, and a library of material on women’s issues. (C) | |
| The Office of Women’s Resources and Services offered the first Verdell-Frazier Young Award. (C) | |
| The first proposal for a Women’s Center is presented on campus. (C) | |
| Lavender Prairie News, one of the longest running lesbian newspapers in the United States, starts. It serves both the community and the campus until 2000. (C) | |
| The Gay Illini and the Gay Illini Resource Center are established. (C) | |
| 1976 | The Women’s Student Union formed and had its first meeting on Tuesday, January 20, 1976. (C) |
| Returning Students events held each fall for women returning to campus after maternity leave, raising a family, or changing jobs. These events make the transition a little bit easie for the women of all ages returning to campus. (C) | |
| A switchboard was established for gay and lesbian resources and information. It operated three hours each evening and on Saturday mornings until SORF funding was cut in early 1990. (C) | |
| The McKinley Foundation houses the Metropolitan Community Church, a gay Christian organization. A gay new student orientation is also held. (C) | |
| 1977 | Illini Pride founded. (A) |
| A Task Force to establish a Women’s Center involving 20 different women’s interest groups starts. (C) | |
| The first Gay Week, sponsored by Gay Illini, is held on campus as a series of talks and presentations on homosexuality. (C) | |
| Chances R (later The Bar, currently Chester Street on C-Street), opens. It is a gay owned and operated discotheque. (C) | |
| Older women students returning to college represent one of the fastest growing groups of college students. These women report that their greatest need is inexpensive and reliable day care. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that 12 million students are women beyond the usual college age. (Susan Catania, Chairwomen, letter to the president) (C) | |
| 1978 | The first Take Back the Night March is held in C-U, starting on the steps of the Wesley United Methodist Church. (B) |
| Anti-apartheid protesters place chains on arms of Alma Mater in symbolic statement. (A) | |
| Three social work graduate students wrote piece critical of Chief Illiniwek in Daily Illini Forum.(A) | |
| Feminist Women’s Scholarship Conference held. Represents and advancement in the discipline and discourse of women’s studies.This conference helped develop the University of Illinois Women’s Studies Office. (C) | |
| Women’s Studies Office founded in the School of Humanities with half-time director, Joan Huber. (C) | |
| The Committee on the Status of Women eliminated. It is later replaced by Committee on the Status of Special Interest Groups. (C) | |
| The Women’s Center found a permanent space at Wescoga House. (C) | |
| The Illinois Men’s Festival statement read: “Feminism, sexism, and sexual equality are not simply women’s issues. We believe that the same sexism that exploits women... forces men into stereotypical masculine roles that are damaging.” (C) | |
| 1979 | University of Illinois Women’s Studies Program founded. and the Feminist Scholarship Series initiated. (B) |
| The UIUC Library provides an office for Women’s Studies collection. Beth Stafford is the official Women's Studies Librarian. (C) | |
| The Native American Women Conferences was held. More than 4000 people attended twelve events. (C) | |
| The Women’s Festival featured entertainment and a showcase of Elena Cornaro, the world’s first college woman graduate. RAs, student groups, and people from Student Affairs staff offered workshops on sexism and gender roles. (C) | |
| Students at Orchard Downs Family & Graduate Housing, Campus Committee on Women’s Concerns, and Student’s for Child Care submit reports to the Administration stating a need for a campus-based child-care drop off center based on a survey of married students. (C) | |
| 1980s | |
| 1980 | Marianne Ferber, Director of Women’s Studies program (C) |
| Two core courses in Women’s Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (C) | |
| The National Women’s Music Festival was cancelled. (C) | |
| First Champaign meeting of the National Council of Negro Women. (C) | |
| 1981 | One of the longest running radio shows in the area, “Wymyn Making Waves”, first airs on WEFT. You can still tune in on Sundays from 1-3 p.m. at 90.1 FM. (C) |
| 1982 | Jenny Southlynn, Peggy Shaw, Barbara DeGeneive, Susan Smith, Pauline Kayes, and a collective of 42 other women open the New Muse Art Gallery on Chester Street. The space operated as a professional gallery for one year, then fell apart due to divergent feminist views. Southlynn moved what remained of the collective to her studio at 115 W. Main in downtown Urbana. The New Muse enjoyed one more year of shows and events there. The UIUC’s Gallery 9 was spawned from the New Muse concept. Gallery 9 moved to Chicago and became I Space, which has since closed. (C) |
| 1983 | The Ms. Kids won the national wheelchair basketball title. (A) |
| A conference “Common Differences: Third World Women and Feminist Perspectives” is held. (C) | |
| The Committee on the Status of Women submits a report to the Chancellor with three requests; 1) to assign the child care issue to one person in one campus office, 2) immediately establish a child care referral service, 3) to create a campus child care center as a long-term goal (C) | |
Women's Studies moves to Stiven House (C) |
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| 1984 | Flora Faraci opens Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign. The store is a general antiquarian store with an outstanding Women’s Studies section. (C) |
| Berenice A Carroll becomes the Director of Women’s Studies (C) | |
| 1985 | Universityof Illinois Press publishes "For Alma Mater: Theory and Practice in Feminist Scholarship." (C) |
| 1986 | National Women's Studies Association Conference:Women Working for Change Conference held on campus. (C) |
| Women’s Studies officially becomes a program (C) | |
| First joint appointment in Women's Studies. (C) | |
| 1987 | Susan Faupel, at this time Program Director of A Woman’s Place, walks from Chicago to the Arkansas state capital to increase awareness of domestic violence issues. The walk was dubbed “Off the Beaten Path”. (C) |
| Jean Peterson is the Women’s Studies Director (C) | |
| WS Minor approved (C) | |
| 1988 | Charlene Teters stands alone outside an Illini game to demonstrate her indigence at the use of “The Chief” as the team mascot, after it became evident that her teenage children’s self esteem was undermined by this use of the Native American image. A movement is born. (C) |
| Paralympians, Sharon Hedrick and Ann Cody Morris, dazzle at the Olympics in Seoul Korea and at the Paralympian Games also in Seoul. (C) | |
| 1989 | Women of Color Conference begins. “The purpose of Women of Color is to educate, uplift, and unite minority women on the University of Illinois campus and in the Champaign- Urbana community.” (C) |
| 4 Women’s Studies minors graduate. (C) | |
| 1990s | |
| 1990 | Six new courses including WS 250/AfroAm 250 - Black Women: Histories and Cultures; and 2 graduate courses, 401 and 402 are offered in Women's Studies Program. (C) |
| 1991 | University announced Chief Illiniwek would no longer appear in Homecoming parade or pep rally. (A) |
| Marianne Ferber is the Women's Studies Director (C) | |
| 1993 | Cheris Kramarae is the Women's Studies Director (C) |
| Graduate Minor in Women's Studies instituted. (C) | |
| 1994 | Bonnie Blair, Champaign native, captures her sixth career Olympic medal and emerges as the most decorated American winter athlete in U.S. history, as well as the record holder for the most gold medals (5) won by an American woman in any sport. (C) |
| Women's Studies Program moves to current Women's Studies House at 6th & Chalmers. (C) | |
| 1995 | Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Gunsalus & Assistant Dean of Students O’Shaughnessey formed a working group to look at the child care issue. They made site visits to University of Minnesota, Pennsylvania State University, Michigan State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. The Wasserman Report concluded that the University could build a child care facility for $6.7 million that would accommodate 116 children. (C) |
| 1996 | GirlZone offers its first workshop. GirlZone is a volunteer-run, non-profit, grassroots feminist organization in Champaign-Urbana which uses local resources to encourage and support girls in exploring, challenging, and celebrating their individual abilities and interests. (C) |
| A Woman’s Place moves into a new facility at 1304 E. Main, Urbana, under the directorship of Shirley Stillinger. (C) | |
| Sonya Michel is the Director of Women's Studies. (C) |
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| 1997 | SisterNet, a network of African-American women community leaders and activists dedicated to promoting women’s physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional health, is organized by Imani Bazzell of Champaign. (C) |
| The Provost’s Office recommended that a child care facility be given priority of 12th on a list of 19 for new building projects in 1997. (C) | |
| Women’s basketball team reached the Sweet Sixteen.(A) | |
| Jay Rosenstein’s “In Whose Honor?”–a documentary critical of Chief Illiniwek and featuring MFA candidate, Charlene Teters, airs.(A) | |
| 34 Women's Studies minors graduate (C) | |
| 1998 | Women’s basketball team reached the Sweet Sixteen for second year in a row. Media named Theresa Grentz Big Ten Coach of Year for the second year in a row. (A) |
| Women's basketball team began to play at Assembly Hall, moving from Huff Gym. (C) | |
| 1999 | “Good Girls Read Cosmo, Bad Girls Read Pandora’s Rag.” Pandora’s Rag, a Riot Grrl magazine, started. Weekly meetings held at the Gender and Women’s Studies House. Editions were given away free on the Quad. (C) |
| 2000s | |
| 2000 | Patricia Avery becomes the first female and first African-American chairman of the Champaign County Board. (B) | Jean Driscoll of Champaign is the only eight-time champion of the Boston Marathon in its 100+ year history, and is ranked #25 of the top 100 female athletes of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated for Women. (B) |
| 2001 | Nancy Cantor appointed first female chancellor at UIUC. (B) | 2002 | Native American House established.(A) |
| Illinois 3D event held to honor women athletes and give them their varsity letter Is. These women played sports for the University of Illinois before Title IX put women’s athletics on equal footing for funding. (C) | |
| 2003 | The Early Child Development Laboratory (ECDL) opens. It is primarily a research facility but it does provide childcare for families affiliated with the University. (C) |
| 2007 | University announced Chief Illiniwek would no longer perform at sporting events on campus. The Chief’s last dance occurred on February 21st at halftime of the men’s basketball game against Michigan at the Assembly Hall.(A) |
| 2009 | In November, Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) goes on a 2-day strike, eventually winning concessions from the University on wages, benefits, grievance proceedures, and tuition waiver security. (A) |
| After student organization efforts, the University of Illinois campus finally gets a Women's Resource Center at 703 S. Wright Street, 2nd floor. | |
| 2010 | The Women's Studies Program becomes The Department of Women's Studies. |
Sources
A: University of Illinois Archives Timeline
B: Urbana-Champaign IndyMedia Center Women's History Timeline C: Mapping Gender historical research
