History

In the beginning of the 1980s, staff members at the Faculty of Arts started to document research and education in gender studies. This activity resulted in publications such as "Vrouw'n, Letter'n, Groning'n" by Riet Paasman and Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg (1983), in which staff members presented their research. That same decade the Working Group Women's Studies in the Arts (the WVL, Werkgroep Vrouwen Studies Letteren) was founded and also a publication series was started. Petra Broomans was a member of the editorial board and three volumes were published in 1992 and 1993. The first was about architecture, history and women's studies, guest editor was the late Margrith Wilke; the second was about Aletta Jacobs. The last volume, edited by Petra Broomans together with Jytte Kronig and Adriaan van der Hoeven, included articles on the Finnish modernist Edith Södergran (1892-1923). 

Around 1995, the working group was transformed into the Centre for Gender Studies at the Faculty of Arts under the supervision of professor Helen Wilcox, who served as the first chair of the Board. Anneke Mulder-Bakker succeeded her and remained chair until 2005. During this period, the minor programme (30 credits) was reduced and replaced by a special programme (20 credits). Since 2005, Petra Broomans was the Chair of the Board and taught several courses in the minor gender studies. After the drastic cutbacks in 2013, the special programme Gender Studies was discontinued. 

The Centre maintained its advisory function and provided international collaboration of the U4 framework. This included the development and organizing of Summer Schools in Gender Studies. Preparatory meetings took place in Groningen; the first Interdisciplinary Summer School in Gender Studies took place in 2016 in Göttingen and the second was organized in 2018 in Uppsala. In 2020, the third Summer School, organized by the Groningen team, was held online due to Covid-19. In 2024, the fourth Summer School was organized in Ghent.

In 2013, a colloquium was set up by PhD students in collaboration with the board of the CGS. The CGS and the colloquium merged in 2015. The name of the colloquium was changed to 'working group'. The working group organises events and workshops. The board is responsible for policy making and formal contacts. In 2016 a proposal for a university minor was formulated by Mathilde van Dijk (Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society) Kristin McGee, Rozemarijn van de Wal, Iris Busschers and Mineke Bos (Faculty of Arts). In 2019, the university minor was launched and in 2020 a new Board was installed, with Kristin McGee and Susanne Täuber as co-chairs. Since then, the university Minor Gender and Diversity in Science, Society and Culture is a successfully running programme attracting an increasing number of students. 

The current board (since 2024) chaired by Pilar Milagros is continuously strengthening ties with intra- and interfacultary groups like the Groningen Centre for Health and Humanities and the Centre of expertise for the Study of LGBTQIA+ Issues, and is creating joint events.

A word from Helen Wilcox:

"From 1991 to 2006 I was Professor of Post-Medieval English Literature, and American Literature, at the University of Groningen. Throughout that time, I taught courses on women’s writing and feminist criticism, including one entitled ‘Shakespeare’s Sisters’ to draw attention to English female-authored texts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, my own research field. I also contributed to interdisciplinary courses and research seminars on Women’s Studies, both within and beyond the faculty, and benefited greatly from discussions with like-minded students and colleagues working in history, modern languages and religious studies. From 1994 to 2002 I was chair of Women’s Studies, which metamorphosed during those years to become Gender Studies. I remember taking part in a public debate on the change of name for the Centre, during which I argued that although the new title was more appropriate, we should pause to lament the fact that – typically – just as we ‘women’ had managed to get our name in lights, some new terminology came along to render us invisible once again! During my time as chair, we initiated the post of Visiting Professor of Gender Studies, for which I remained on the advisory board until I left the university in 2006. I was also instrumental in bringing Germaine Greer to Groningen to deliver one of the annual Aletta Jacobs lectures on International Women’s Day – a most memorable occasion!"

After her time at the RUG, Helen Wilcox returned to the UK and became Professor of English Literature at Bangor University, Wales, where she is now Professor Emerita after having retired in 2020.