• Martha Banta, Professor, American Studies presenting her work on “American Girls and the New Woman.”

History


Since its founding, the Center for the Study of Women* has had a powerful impact on the study of gender, sexuality, and women’s issues across the campus and around the world.


Our Founding

On September 21, 1984, the Center for the Study of Women (CSW)* was officially authorized by the Board of Regents, becoming the first organized research unit (ORU) in the University of California system to develop and coordinate research on women and gender-related issues.



CSW|Streisand Center Today

Today, the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center works towards a world in which education and scholarship are tools for social justice feminism, improving the lives of people of all genders. Its current research projects include the Black Feminism Initiative, Coastal Resilience, Gender and Water, Feminist Anti-Carceral Studies, Sexual Violence and Intersectionality, and Trans Futures in Health and Scientific Knowledge.



Barbra Streisand Center

In 2021, the Barbra Streisand Center was established and made possible by the vision and generosity of artist and activist Barbra Streisand. The Streisand Center, housed at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW), will become the future Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA, a forward-thinking institute dedicated to finding solutions to the most vital social issues. Streisand’s transformative gift helps to expand our combined centers’ reach beyond UCLA and Los Angeles, fund faculty and students, and support research and programming that seek to address critical issues facing people of all genders.

*CSW became the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center in 2021.

View our full timeline


“CSW has been a ‘gem’ in our midst. Established to support and celebrate the research of academic women and for women, it has played a transformative role for feminist scholarship at UCLA. It has supported and continues to do so for many generations of feminist scholars. Particularly heartwarming is that it has been critical to the work of young scholars and graduate students.”



“I envision a center as a collectivity of bodies, minds, and spirits, sharing a commitment to the centrality of studies of women as an integral part of the academic goals of a great university and human society.”



“While it’s easy to reflect on the past, I can’t stop thinking about the future and what it holds for our children, our planet and our society.”