Women in World Area Studies (Project)

The Women in World Area Studies (WWAS) program was developed to integrate women’s history into regular world area studies high school curriculum, focusing on the Robbinsdale and St. Louis Park school districts. Towards this purpose, WWAS developed lessons and curricula on the history of women in world cultures. Marjorie Wall Bingham and Susan Hill Gross were directors and in charge of research, writing, and pilot teaching for WWAS. They discovered a significant amount of unexamined material on the history of women in world cultures. This discovery, combined with the successful pilot teaching of the initial curriculum units, helped the WWAS project secure significant additional foundation funding.

The program grew from a three year project originally funded by a grant from the Title IV-C of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) to a ten year program. It produced thirteen books (a series called Women in World area cultures), teachers guides, lesson plans, bibliographies, sound filmstrips, and videos on women in eight cultural areas commonly taught in Minnesota high school world history courses. Funders for the additional years of WWAS (1984-1987) included the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Northwest Area Foundation, the Japan Foundation, and the ISE Cultural Foundation of Tokyo.

Over 100,000 books from the WWAS series were purchased by school districts representing every state in the United States and by many schools in other countries. For example, the book on the history of women in Japan was purchased by a number of Japanese high schools.

WWAS ended in 1987.

From the guide to the Women in World Area Studies organizational records., 1974-1987., (Minnesota Historical Society)