For generations, UT has been recognized for its role in social and political movements and academic innovation. Women’s impact extends beyond the Forty Acres to influencing conversations on equality, education and civil rights. Despite their lasting impact, women’s stories remain unrecognized in the University’s official history. The University must do more than simply celebrate women’s history, not just during Women’s History Month but as an integral part of its institutional identity.
Women at UT have been pioneers in education. From the first female instructor at UT, Jessie Andrews, who paved the way for future women in academia, to Lorene Lane Rogers, who became the first woman to serve as University president and one of the first women in the United States to lead a major university, their leadership has set a precedent for future generations of women in higher education.
Contributions extending beyond the classroom, women have played an elemental role in student activism.
When UT accepted its first Black undergraduates in the late 1950s, Black women were barred from living at the Kinsolving Dormitory. Challenging this act of segregation, student Sherryl Griffin Bozeman took part in a 1961 sit-in at Kinsolving and would go on to file a lawsuit against the University. This issue gained national attention when President Lyndon B. Johnson visited campus in 1963 and discovered that his daughter was living in a segregated dorm. Under increasing pressure, the University desegregated its residence halls — months before President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though UT’s gradual desegregation reflected the South’s resistance to racial integration, student activism was vital in bringing about change.
The fight for women’s rights at UT continued into the late 1960s. In the midst of the Women’s Rights Movement, students Victoria Foe, Barbara Hines and Judy Smith created the Birth Control Information Center in 1969. During a time when birth control access in Austin was only legally available to married women, the students provided reproductive health education and facilitated access to safe abortions.
“They checked out clinics across the border in Mexico, and a couple of them spoke Spanish, and they went and identified (a clinic) where they thought was medically good and could trust and would set fees. So abortion was illegal in Mexico, but there just wasn’t any regulation of it. So they were literally helping people go and get safe abortions,” said associate professor of history Laurie B. Green.
Their activism directly contributed to the beginnings of Roe v. Wade, as they later approached attorney Sarah Weddington, who brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Activism from students is still 100% happening,” said Miya Walker, neuroscience senior and co-executive director of the Feminist Action Project. “There are multiple student organizations (whose main operations are) just around distributing birth control, distributing condoms, distributing Plan Bs … and advocating to have people be able to access those on campus … I think people have felt the need to take an individual approach, especially like post SB 17. I feel like if anyone was interested in activism, (they) are taking an individual approach of … (creating) these spaces.”
Yet, despite their monumental impact, these stories are often reduced to footnotes in UT’s history. Professors should honor these student activism histories by implementing them into their curriculums. From desegregation and feminist activism to breaking barriers in academia, women at the University have been at the forefront of change.
Honoring this history allows us to recognize the lasting impact of activism on education, campus culture and University policies. It’s essential not only to acknowledge the progress made but also to confront the challenges that remain. The legacy of women at UT serves as a reminder that advocacy is just as important now as it was decades ago.
Vazquez is a journalism freshman from Monterrey, Mexico
