Formation 1977 (1977) Purpose Academic support Location United States | Type 501(c) Headquarters Baltimore, Maryland Region served North America | |
The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of Women’s Studies. It was founded in 1977. Women of color protested racism within the organization during its early years. Poet Audre Lorde gave the keynote address at NWSA's 1981 conference in Storrs, Connecticut, admonishing conference-goers that if "women in the academy truly want a dialogue about racism, it will require recognizing the needs and living contexts of other women." As former NWSA president Beverly Guy-Sheftall noted, "I wanted NWSA to be an inclusive, multiracial, multicultural organization where women of color and their feminisms would not be marginalized." Led by feminists like Guy-Sheftall, NWSA has worked to center intersectionality in its institutional practices and leadership structure with the support of a Ford Foundation grant.
The association includes scholars from the humanities and social sciences working in academic departments and women’s resource centers across a range of institutions in the United States and beyond: colleges, research institutions, government agencies, museums, corporations, and non-profits. NWSA publishes Feminist Formations.
In 2015, the NWSA membership voted to "back the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.