Special Collections and Archives: Through the Decades with GSU Women: 1990-1999

1990

GSU sponsors "The Historical Perspective" of Difficult Dialogues: Barriers and Gateways to Women's Communication Across Cultures, a March conference held at four metro Atlanta universities.

LaDonna Harris, Native American activist, estimates women are one-quarter of most tribal councils, and fill half the seats on many. The number of black women in elective office has increased from 131 in 1970 to 1950 in 1990.

Women in their twenties, calling themselves "the third wave," form on-and off-campus organizations through the 1990s to tackle their generation's particular concerns and vulnerabilities.

1992

Marjorie L. Girth becomes the second woman Dean (1992-96) of the Georgia State University College of Law.

The Educational Equity Roundtable is hosted by GSU's College of Education and the American Association of University Women of Georgia.

Women are now paid 71 cents for every dollar paid to men. The range is from 64 cents for working-class women to 77 cents for professional women with doctorates. Black women earn 65 cents, Latinas 54 cents.

Woman-owned businesses employ more workers in the United States than the Fortune 500 companies do worldwide.

Record number of women run for public office, and win. Twenty-four are elected to the House of Representatives and six to the Senate. They include the first Mexican-American woman and first Puerto Rican woman in the House, the first black woman Senator, and both Senators from California.

Women win all five of the gold medals won by Americans during the Winter Olympics.

1993

Take Our Daughters to Work Day, designed to build girls' self-esteem and open their eyes to a variety of career possibilities for women, debuts.

With the increased number of women members, the 103rd Congress passes into law thirty bills on women's issues during its first year, 33 during its second. The previous record for any year was five.

Women hold a record number of positions in state as well as federal government: 20.4% of state legislators (6 women in the Senate, 48 in the House of Representatives); 3 governors, 11 lieutenant governors, 8 attorneys general, 13 secretaries of state, 19 state treasurers.

1994

The Women's Studies Institute is formally approved by the Georgia Board of Regents on July 14th and Dr. Diane L. Fowlkes becomes its first director.

Beverly Harvard (M.S. 1980) is named Atlanta chief of police.

Congress adopts the Gender Equity in Education Act to train teachers, promote math and science learning by girls, counsel pregnant teens, and prevent sexual harassment.

1994-

1998

The National Science Foundation funds "Integrating Gender Education and Reform" (INGEAR), a collaborative project of GSU and four other Georgia institutions of higher education.  

1995

The Master of Arts in Women's Studies at GSU is approved by the Georgia Board of Regents on March 8th, International Women's Day.

The Georgia Women's Movement Project, a cooperative project of the Women's Studies Institute and the Special Collections Department of The University Library begins, initiating the Georgia Women's Movement Archives.

The U.N.'s Fourth World Conference on Women is held in Beijing during the summer. Vice-chair of the 44 member U.S. delegation is Veronica Biggins (M.Ed. '70).

The conference, In Their Own Right: Women's Solutions to Black/White Issues of Race, Class and Gender, 1895-1995 sponsored by Spelman College and Georgia State University and coordinated by Marymal Dryden and Judith Allen Ingram of the Division of Continuing Education is held.

1996

Nell H. Trotter, GSU's Dean of Women, 1935 to 1971, dies on Feb. 18th. Woman's Place, funded by Student Life and Enrollment Services, opens at GSU, where women are over 60% of enrollment. Janice C. Griffith (1996-present) is the third woman to become Dean of the GSU College of Law.

U.S. women win 19 gold, 10 silver, and 9 bronze medals in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the result of large numbers of girls and women active in sports since the passage of Title IX. GSU is the venue for Olympic badminton, and the exhibit "The Olympic Woman" sponsored by Avon, is in Alumni Hall. Many GSU faculty and staff women play integral parts in staging, broadcasting, and managing events and athletes.

Supreme Court rules that the male-only admissions policy of the state-supported Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment and must become co-educational.

1997

Charlene Hurt is appointed GSU's first female University Librarian.

Elaborating on Title IX, the Supreme Court rules that college athletics programs must actively involve roughly equal numbers of men and women to qualify for federal support. 

1998

Dr. Kathleen (Kay) D. Crouch, influential teacher and administrator for many years, dies on January 3rd. Dr. Diane L. Fowlkes retires and Dr. Linda A. Bell becomes the second director of the Women's Studies Institute.

GSU's Institutional Self-Study includes "Issues Dealing with Gender Equity," by Dr. Beth Farokhi and Dr. Molly Weinburgh.

Penny Brown Reynolds (B.S., 1991, and J.D. 1994), first African American and first law student to receive GSU's Outstanding Student Award and co-editor of Women and the Law: A Guide to Women's Rights in Georgia is named executive counsel for Governor-elect Roy Barnes.

1999

Five women (two Senators and three Representatives) serving in the Georgia Legislature are GSU alumni.

Dr. Beth Farokhi, GSU Department of Education, serves as the AAUW South Atlantic Regional Director.

GSU's new classroom building, under construction this summer, is named for alumna Helen M. Aderhold, past president of the Alumni Association (1991-1992) and trustee for the University Foundation since 1992. It is the first GSU building to be named for a woman.