Honoring Our Founder, Dr. Myra Dinnerstein
Professor Myra Dinnerstein passed away on July 15, 2026, at the age of 92, having lived a rich and meaningful life filled with love, connection, and world-building.
Dr. Dinnerstein was the Founding Director of the Women’s Studies department at the University of Arizona in 1975 and the Founding Director of its research institute, SIROW (the Southwest Institute for Research on Women) in 1979. Dinnerstein organized the UA Women's Studies Advisory Council (WOSAC), a community group to fund scholarship and projects; and spearheaded the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program. She helped to found the Association for Women Faculty, a group focused on pay equity, tenure and work overload related to women; chaired the University of Arizona’s Commission on the Status of Women for five years; co-chaired the Millennium Committee, a University-wide committee that recommended ways to improve the climate for women and people of color at the University; and organized the southwest region for the newly founded National Association of Women's Studies. Her leadership of efforts to redesign the curriculum to include materials by and about women and people of color became a national model and resulted in the co-authored book, Changing Our Minds; Feminist Transformations of Knowledge, in 1988. Dinnerstein’s book, Women Between Two Worlds: Midlife Reflections of Work and Family, was published in 1992. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2026. Dinnerstein’s visionary contributions are honored at the Women’s Plaza of Honor and with the Myra Dinnerstein International Travel Fund in Gender & Women's Studies. Learn more here: https://www.azwhf.org/inductees/myra-dinnerstein.
Patricia MacCorquodale recalled, "We cannot count the lives changed by taking women's studies courses, including those Myra taught, the transformative knowledge and theories that resulted from focusing on women’s experiences and voices, and the ways her mentoring and advocacy helped women faculty succeed and pushed the University to improve the campus climate."
Myra Dinnerstein was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, cousin, aunt, teacher, mentor, world-builder, and treasured friend whose love and vision shine in the world.