Women’s Studies developed as a discipline at the universities in all the five Nordic countries during the 1970s and 80s.

Following the strong second wave of feminist mobilization in this period, the pressure for the development of scientific teaching and research about women’s position in society was growing.

As late as the 1960s, university students in the social sciences did not receive any teaching about women’s position and gender relations in society as part of their studies.

The basis of this negligence was no doubt that ‘women’ or ‘the family’ were mostly seen as ‘natural’ phenomena without any interest for the (male dominated) universities.

The first Women’s Studies groups were formed by younger teachers together with students, often with a background in the feminist movement.

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