The first women’s studies courses at the University of Connecticut were taught and designed in the 1971-1972 academic year by three women-identified professors. While the courses engaged a women’s studies perspective, they were listed in separate departments and not yet recognized as part of a formal university program. Thus, the official formation and funding of the Women’s Studies Program occurred after two years of persistent organizing, activism, and lobbying, all of which included calls for enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, negotiations with the administration, the federal affirmative action criteria, student demonstrations, community outreach, and a class action lawsuit.

After these various calls to action, the current Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program was established as the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Connecticut in 1974. The first formal program of its kind in the state, it was founded as a flexible interdisciplinary academic program devoted to the critical analysis of gender and the pursuit of knowledge about women.

In 2024, the program celebrated its 50th anniversary and joined the newly established Department of Social and Critical Inquiry, a hub for race, diaspora, empire, transnational, Indigenous, gender, and sexuality studies at UConn.

Components of “Our History” were identified from research conducted by Aimee Loiselle '19 Ph.D.