Southwest Institute for Research on Women

Organization centered in the Southwest U.S. to promote the study of women and women's issues.

From the description of Newsletters, 1979-1981. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122497403

The Southwest Institute for Research on Women, in collaboration with the Schlesinger Library on the History of American Women at Radcliffe College and the Ford Foundation, undertook a project conceived and conducted by Fran Buss to record the oral histories of low income and minority women from across the United States. The interviews took place from 1976 thru 1990, some being one-time only, while others were collected over a period of several years.

The interviews contain sensitive material emphasizing the diversity of low income and minority women. Buss developed friendships with many of the women, enabling her to ask delicate questions about their lives. The reflections and perspectives offer new insights into almost every aspect of family and social life in parts of the Southern, Western, Midwestern and Appalachian United States.

The women interviewed represent an assortment of age groups, some as young as their mid-twenties with others well into their seventies. Buss came to know these women through mutual friends and family members. She had first started recording the women's stories through a creative effort using poetry, and later pursued a graduate degree in history, to construct an analytical framework for the stories she was recording.

From the guide to the Oral Histories of Low Income and Minority Women, 1976-1992, (Archives and Special Collections, New Mexico State University Library)