The creation of Women's Studies courses is largely the product of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), which emerged in many industrialised nations of the Western world from the late 1960s until the 1980s.
The WLM challenged the validity of patriarchy and sought to unpick the culturally embedded assumptions and norms that restrict women's ability to be treated as 'equals.'
Academia thus served as a vehicle through which received knowledge would be challenged.
The first 'Women's Studies' course in the USA was held in 1969 at Cornell University and the first Women's Studies program was established in 1970 at San Diego State College.
Even before formalised departments and programs, many Women's Studies courses were advertised unofficially around campuses and taught by women faculty members, without pay, in addition to their ordinary responsibilities.
Women's Studies courses are now offered in over 700 institutions in the USA, and globally in more than 40 countries.
Nonetheless, from as early as the 1980s, leading proponents of academic feminism (as well as the WLM more broadly) were critcised for excluding the insights and experiences of non-white and working class women.
Subsequently, academic feminists have sought to incorporate Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality in order to understand the diverse experiences of women.
In the UK, many universities offer degrees relating to questions of gender, albeit under different names, including: